At the heart of the development is a communal courtyard, designed by award-winning landscape architect Alan Gardner.

The still largely working-class population lives, very much as it always has, in low rows of tenements, often arranged around communal courtyards.

As you move deeper into the complex, the buildings frame a series of communal courtyards sheltered by the canopies of enormous oak trees.

Relatives my mother hadn't seen for more than 40 years crowded in the communal courtyard, crying and cheering.

But few can match Mea Shearim, one of the oldest neighborhoods of rigorously Orthodox Jews, a poor area of narrow lanes, communal courtyards and cheek-by-jowl houses.

In this new layout, small groups of houses are laid out around communal courtyards in interconnected cul-de-sacs.

All of these large villages were built up from apartment-style room blocks, laid out to define communal courtyards or plazas.

There were two large apartment blocks, and several smaller buildings, with two communal courtyards.

The splendour of the restored building is complemented by beautifully landscaped grounds which include communal courtyards, designed to encourage wildlife and biodiversity, while creating a tranquil environment for its residents.

Numerous rounded buildings were found along with evidence of communal courtyards.