---
title: "Outdoor Room (163)"
created: 2026-07-01
updated: 2026-07-01
type: concept
status: compiled
namespace: pattern-language
pattern_number: 163
pattern_name: "Outdoor Room"
source_repository: https://github.com/zenodotus280/apl-md
source_url: https://github.com/zenodotus280/apl-md/blob/master/Patterns/Outdoor%20Room%20%28163%29.md
license_note: Non-commercial reuse with attribution; see namespace README and source LICENSE.md.
related_patterns:
  - "Common Areas at the Heart (129)"
  - "Farmhouse Kitchen (139)"
  - "Sequence of Sitting Spaces (142)"
  - "Public Outdoor Room (69)"
  - "Half-Hidden Garden (111)"
  - "Private Terrace on the Street (140)"
  - "Sunny Place (161)"
  - "Column Place (226)"
  - "Garden Wall (173)"
  - "Sitting Wall (243)"
  - "Trellised Walk (174)"
  - "Canvas Roofs (244)"
  - "Connection to the Earth (168)"
  - "The Shape of Indoor Space (191)"
  - "Structure Follows Social Spaces (205)"
---

# Outdoor Room (163)

> Source pattern from the abridged `apl-md` corpus. Use as a design reference and constraint seed; do not treat as commercial-clean training data.

### Problem
>A garden is the place for lying in the grass, swinging, croquet, growing flowers, throwing a ball for the dog. But there is another way of being outdoors: and its needs are not met by the garden at all.

### Solution
>Build a place outdoors which has so much enclosure round it, that it takes on the feeling of a room, even though it is open to the sky. To do this, define it at the corners with columns, perhaps roof it partially with a trellis or a sliding canvas roof, and create “walls” around it, with fences, sitting walls, screens, hedges, or the exterior walls of the building itself.

### Related Patterns
... every building has rooms where people stay and live and talk together - [[Common Areas at the Heart (129)]], [[Farmhouse Kitchen (139)]], [[Sequence of Sitting Spaces (142)]]. Whenever possible, these rooms need to be embellished by a further "room" outdoors. This kind of outdoor room also helps to form a part of any [[Public Outdoor Room (69)]], [[Half-Hidden Garden (111)]], [[Private Terrace on the Street (140)]], or [[Sunny Place (161)]].

This outdoor room is formed, most often, by free standing columns - [[Column Place (226)]], walls - [[Garden Wall (173)]], low [[Sitting Wall (243)]], perhaps a trellis overhead - [[Trellised Walk (174)]], or a translucent canvas awning - [[Canvas Roofs (244)]], and a ground surface which helps to provide [[Connection to the Earth (168)]]. Like any other room, for its construction start with [[The Shape of Indoor Space (191)]] and [[Structure Follows Social Spaces (205)]] ...

---

> [!cite]- Alexander, Christopher. _A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction_. Oxford University Press, 1977, p. 764.
> #APL/confidence/high
>
> #APL/Building-Patterns/Liminal-Space