Patio as a Constant in Language, Culture and Architecture: Meanings and Functions

Abstract

The patio has been the most important element of the structural composition of residential (house, palace) and religious (temple, monastery) buildings for more than five thousand years. The article offers a historical, philological, anthropological, ethnographic and conceptual analysis of the architectural concept of patio, courtyard. Various lexical units are used to name the courtyard, but the modern international term has been formed on the basis of the Spanish word patio (port. pátio), presumably in Modern times. The term patio is included both in the discourse of architecture, which provides an explanation of the surrounding space, studied and modified by humans, and in architectural discourse, i.e. a way of talking about architecture and construction in a particular situation. In these two types of discourse, the semantic potential of the word patio is realized in different ways representing both a term and a word of everyday speech, viewing its structural and systemic connections. In architecture, a symbol always acts as an expressive figurative component, constantly pointing at the ideas of space and time. The patio is also endowed with a certain symbolism: it represents an ambivalent fragment of space that has both external and internal features. The patio is enclosed inside the house or between the houses, but is located outside in relation to the interior of the building. The patio is known in the East and in the West, although it has different forms, functions and linguistic representation everywhere. In the Mediterranean countries, the patio dates back to the Archaic era (Megaron), it was improved in antiquity in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, defined Arab-Muslim architecture (Arab-Moorish style) and in the colonial era it was exported outside Europe to the New World. The patio has a symbolic and mystical character: finding itself in the open air, the patio opens the way to the celestial spheres.

Keywords

• patio
• architecture
• culture
• language
• discourse
• term
• concept