THE TYPICAL RESIDENTIAL SITE ....4

BACK YARD 

The function of the backyard, on the typical residential site, is to accommodate a number of activities including (1) outdoor living and entertaining, (2) recreation, and (3) utilitarian activities, such as gardening and storage. To support these activities, backyards normally contain such elements as lawn furniture, barbeque grills, sandboxes, swing sets, swimming pools, cords of firewood, air conditioners, metal storage sheds, and so on.

1. Lack of Separation. As a result, there is little sense of identity or privacy. The activity that goes on in one’s backyard becomes the visual business of surrounding neighbors. This tends to discourage use of the backyard for people who enjoy privacy. With time, these same backyards generally become more enclosed by fences and plant materials to create some separation from neighboring sites.

2. Walled/Fenced Backyards. In the western part of the United States, backyards are apt to be totally enclosed by walls or fences. Sometimes alleyways are located behind these backyards for access to garages located at the back end of the property.
3. Dissimilar Visual Character. There is generally a common character to the front yards of homes in a given neighborhood owing to similar size of the homes, similar setbacks, and similar lot sizes.  When the backyards are open to each other, the overall result is visually chaotic .

4. Undersized Outdoor Living Areas. The outdoor living and entertaining space, if it exists at all, is often established by a terrace. 

5. Lack of Privacy. Terraces are usually intended for relaxation and entertainment. However, they are often uncomfortable to use because they commonly lack any sense of enclosure for privacy .

6. Harsh Microclimates. Another reason for the discomfort of many exterior living and entertaining spaces is that they are not located or designed with climate in mind. When located on the north side of the house, outdoor terraces are apt to be cool and damp much of the time, as well as exposed to cold winter wind.
7. Lack of Appealing Character. Like front entry walks, many exterior terraces are devoid of any personality or character. They are cold, impersonal spaces that are uninviting to use for any length of time.

8. Weak Relation to House Interior. Another problem of some exterior terraces is that they have a weak relationship to the interior of the house. Elevation changes and distance tend to isolate rather than to coordinate the indoors with the outdoors.
9. Unsightly Storage Sheds. Many families possess a collection of maintenance and recreational equipment such as lawn furniture, barbeque grills, lawn mowers, garden tools, wheelbarrows, children’s toys, bicycles, skis, and so on. Even a typical 20 25 two-car garage has little extra space to store such things.
10. Vegetable Gardens. A vegetable garden is often stuck in one of the back corners of the yard. It is placed some distance from the nearest water source yet still close enough to the house to be seen as a brown patch of bare earth in the nongrowing season.

The backyard doesn’t have to be only an engineered organization of sitting, recreation, and gardening spaces. It can fulfill these needs while also being an attractive environment to experience.