31 August

The cloister is a beautiful architectural invention, seen mostly in old monasteries and also universities, and some schools. (Hogwarts had a cloister.) It’s like an internal verandah, a space between inside and outside, but plays with that because the outside of a cloister is still the inside of the building, a courtyard. Few modern homes internalise their outside space in this way, they tend to have back and/or front yards, if they have a yard at all. But this model allows for complete privacy while still retaining outside space, even in a busy city.