Patios

This research explores the patio as a spatial concept, examining its void, boundaries, and potential. Defined as an outdoor space enclosed by walls, the patio serves both as a threshold and a core, enclosed yet open to the sky. It borrows its boundaries from surrounding architecture, existing in the space between the built and the unbuilt.

Both structured and ambiguous, the patio can be seen as a rupture, interrupting continuity while simultaneously creating wholeness. What defines a patio? How do we understand its limits and interpret its void? Across civilisations, its meaning and function have evolved, giving rise to new typologies.

This study questions whether the patio is confined by its limits or if it, in turn, defines what lies beyond. Is it merely a service space, or does its void possess architectural potential? In a time of rapid urbanisation, this work asks: What kind of city can we create if we give more space to the void?