Courtyard Gardens and another Kolonihave

Today we visited two different suburban garden plans.  The first was a collection of attached houses for people who had lived abroad for many years and wanted to come back to Denmark.  It is a very esteemed community filled with many of Denmark's most successful citizen.  Each house has a similar layout, an L-shaped living space with a courtyard garden filling in the rest of the square.  The gardens were walled so that contributed to a sense of privacy.  The house was indeed focused on its courtyard with large windows from the living area looking upon the beautiful flowers and outdoor seating area.  The walls of the courtyard touched a larger area of grass that connected all of the houses.  The houses were literally in a squiggly shape (see picture of plan).  A sort of "clubhouse" was at the head of all the houses and acted as a meeting place and restaurant for all residents.  This garden style is an example of how people can have their own green space in the privacy of their own homes yet are still connected to the community overall via a green way albeit a simple one.

The next place we went was a different type of kolonihave than we saw yesterday.  Again, a kolonihave is a garden area that people who live in apartments can have so that they have access to a garden or green area.  This one was developed by a famous landscape architect C Th Sørensen.  We were lucky enough to speak to his daughter about her father's design process.  These kolonihave were circular pieces of land enclosed by shrubbery with green grass in the spaces between.  The shrubbery were not always perfect, nor high enough in every case to completely isolate the owner of the kolonihave from the rest of the development.  Also, owners must walk in the green grass to get to their spot.  I think that these factors led to a much more socially cooperative space instead of an isolated one. Plus, the owners could grow vegetables or whatever they want! There were many less restrictions.  The community also had a thatch roof center house where the owners could go to meet and enjoy each other's company.