Courtyards: Intimate Outdoor Spaces presents a pictorial survey of an increasingly popular part of indoor/outdoor design-the courtyard. Today's architects and designers are creating beautifully private indoor/outdoor spaces amidst escalating urban development.

Doug Keister's striking, color photography illustrates a diverse selection. From ancient Rome and medieval Europe to modern-day New Orleans and San Diego, Courtyards explores the courtyard's history, development, landscaping, and modernization. Whether quaint and quiet or spacious and stimulating, Courtyards offers a taste of how these unique living spaces can be a canvas on which to paint a lasting impression, and on how they can set the mood and tone of any structure.

Courtyards will inspire you to create a space for entertaining, family meals, relaxation, and solitary reflection. It includes chapters such as The Greening of the Courtyard; Community Courtyards: Apartment, Bungalow and Cottage Courts and Public Buildings; Courtyards in Historic Residential Architecture; Water Elements; and Lighting.

Douglas Keister has photographed more than twenty-five critically acclaimed books. He also writes and illustrates magazine articles and contributes photographs and essays to dozens of magazines, newspapers, books, calendars, posters, and greeting cards worldwide. Some of his books include Classic Cottages, Stories in Stone: A Field Guide to Cemetery Symbolism and Iconography, Ready to Roll, Red Tile Style, Silver Palaces, and Victorian Glory. Keister lives in Chico, California, with his wife Sandy Schweitzer.