Tag:man_made=courtyard

A courtyard is an area that is usually fully enclosed by one or more buildings or walls. A courtyard is normally open to the sky but may be partially or completely covered.

Courtyards are sometimes found in the centre of very large buildings (e.g. apartments, hospital, and hotel) as a way to allow light to enter rooms on the inner faces of the building. They can range from a small paved area to a larger open space with multiple land uses. Courtyards can be completely pedestrianised or open to vehicular traffic - though this vehicular access is normally restricted.

Differentiation from place=square

A square is usually a large open area of public space. Although also normally bounded by buildings, at least in part, access is often provided by one or more streets or other open areas. A courtyard is normally smaller than this and is often completely enclosed by just one building, though it may be by several buildings and walls, with access normally through that building (either from internal corridors or from a building_passage). Courtyards may often be private, such as a courtyard in the centre of a residential building, or open to customers, such as a courtyard in a restaurant.

How to map

As a node : Place a node at the center of the courtyard, and add a man_made=courtyard tag together with name=*.

As an area : Draw the outline of the courtyard as an area and tag as above. Typically the outline includes all objects contained within the courtyard, including highways and smaller areas (e.g. landuse=grass or leisure=garden). If possible, also draw the objects that bound the courtyard, such as buildings or walls, and tag as appropriate.

As a relation : As always, for the area you can also use a multipolygon relation. Draw the outer edge of the courtyard (as above) and add it as the outer border to the multipolygon. You can use several parts to form a closed ring together, typically by reusing existing ways.

Particularly useful for larger courtyards, if the courtyard contains a paved surface which is open to pedestrians, this may be mapped and tagged with highway=pedestrian + area=yes. Exclude any features which are not part of the open pedestrian area (e.g. fountains, vegetated areas, parking).

For any parts of the courtyard that are covered, use the covered=yes tag to indicate this. If a courtyard is not located on the ground-level, use level=* to indicate what level the feature is on.

Note on status

This tag was proposed in March 2015 but has never entered voting and so has not been accepted. However, as of May 2021, there were over 16,000 uses of this tag, with the iD editor offering this tag as a preset but more recently making it nonsearchable. [1][2]

See also

• place=square
  
• highway=pedestrian + area=yes
  
• Proposed features/courtyard
• courtyard on wikipedia