Is there one sim­ple yet impact­ful design choice that can make urban hous­ing more fam­i­ly-friend­ly and safe for chil­dren? Accord­ing to Alexan­dra Lange, the answer is yes: the court­yard apart­ment build­ing.

As not­ed by Jen­ny French of design firm French 2D, “In an urban set­ting, the bar­ri­er that the con­tem­po­rary par­ent has to let­ting their child out the door, think­ing about the car-dom­i­nat­ed city where they are unable to play in the street – the court­yard is a nat­ur­al alter­na­tive.”

Lange offers exam­ples from around the coun­try, show­ing how thought­ful­ly designed court­yard apart­ments offer a way for chil­dren and neigh­bors to safe­ly play and inter­act. “For Brun­son Ter­race, a 48-unit, 100% afford­able project which opened in San­ta Mon­i­ca in 2024, Los Ange­les archi­tects Brooks + Scarpa left its mod­est ground-lev­el court­yard to the kids, with bright climb­ing struc­tures sur­round­ed by organ­ic plant­i­ng beds. Exte­ri­or bridges, stairs and walk­ways pro­vide access to qui­eter seat­ing areas. They also make cir­cu­la­tion more fun and func­tion­al: laun­dry rooms are locat­ed adja­cent to the stairs, so care­givers can do chores with an ear out for their kids play­ing below.”

Court­yards don’t have to belong to the past. While text­book exam­ples in brick and stone are love­ly — and still home to thriv­ing com­mu­ni­ties — con­tem­po­rary archi­tects are mak­ing courts in all sorts of mate­ri­als, and for all types of hous­ing, from apart­ments to town­homes.

As Lange points out, “Court­yard hous­ing also offers a pow­er­ful salve for the hous­ing afford­abil­i­ty cri­sis. Most court­yard hous­ing is also ‘miss­ing mid­dle hous­ing’ — defined as mul­ti­fam­i­ly projects rang­ing from acces­so­ry dwelling units and duplex­es to mid-rise apart­ment build­ings — most of which could eas­i­ly be arranged around com­mon green space.”