'The Hidden World of Inner Yards' at the Helsinki City Museum

An exhibit at the Helsinki City Museum. The English portion of the text below reads:

'The facades of stone houses hide the inner yards behind them. The yard is a half-public, half-private world of its own that offers occupants an extension of the cramped home: a space to hang up washing to dry, and a place for children to play. The use of the yard is limited by practical considerations such as waste disposal and transport, but also by the occupants' need for community and leisure.

'The yard is the caretaker's realm. He usually lives in the same house, takes care of the building and keeps a keen eye on the children. For the children, the yard is above all a safe place to play. Occasionally some interesting - or even dangerous - characters may wander into the yard.

'As the number of cars increases, the inner yards are asphalted over and the occupants can no longer use them as before. Caretakers disappear, the houses are serviced by maintenance organisations, and neighbours no longer know one another, as they don't spend time together in the yard.'

Swedish Courtyards

Two of these seen at Skansen, in Stockholm. The one below has some descriptive text. 

Orminge, Stockholm

It's here. I don't know much about it, though Jakob said an acquaintance of his who lived/lives there said it was a much better place to live in than it is to look at. Car-free living.

Enskede, Stockholm (2)

I visited Enskede recently in the company of my former PhD student Ann Maudsley and her partner Jakob Weinert, and my current PhD student/colleague Victoria Kolankiewicz. We took in quite a few internal reserves there, perhaps not all those on the plan but a significant sample. They were well-used (it was a Saturday, the weather fairly mild) and very varied in form and style. This one is a playground, obviously popular with at least a small coterie of local children. The low fences of the surrounding properties is very interesting too. (* I promise to one day figure out a way to rotate the images which are presently sideways)

Jakob explained the above sign indicates that the space is owned and operated by local government.

Kvitterkroken is the name of the path that runs through this space and may also be the name of the space, it's hard to be sure.

Sorry this one's a bit blurry but blurry like nostalgia, right? 

Road frontage for some houses with rear public open space. You can see why these residents would concentrate more on what's going on behind their houses - ! 

Note this little glasshouse is a kind of historical museum of the internal reserve space it's placed in, with historical photographs on display.