Problem
Outdoor spaces which are merely “left over” between buildings will, in general, not be used.
Solution
Make all outdoor spaces which surround and lie between your buildings positive. Give each one some degree of enclosure; surround each space with wings of buildings, trees, hedges, fences, arcades, and trellised walks, until it becomes an entity with a positive quality and does not spill out indefinitely around corners.
Related Patterns
… in making South Facing Outdoors (105) you must both choose the place to build, and also choose the place for the outdoors. You cannot shape the one without the other. This pattern gives you the geometric character of the outdoors; the next one Wings of Light (107) - gives you the complementary shape of the indoors.
Place Wings of Light (107) to form the spaces. Use open trellised walks, walls, and trees to close off spaces which are too exposed - Tree Places (171), Garden Wall (173) Trellised Walk (174); but make sure that every space is always open to some larger space, so that it is not too enclosed - Hierarchy of Open Space (114). Use Building Fronts (122) to help create the shape of space. Complete the positive character of the outdoors by making places all around the edge of buildings, and so make the outdoors as much a focus of attention as the buildings - Building Edge (160). Apply this pattern to Courtyards Which Live (115), Roof Garden (118), Path Shape (121), Outdoor Room (163), Garden Growing Wild (172) …
Alexander, Christopher. A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction. Oxford University Press, 1977, p. 517.