fumbling said:
I had one set of neighbors at the TIC apartment that talked on their balcony in a normal conversational voice, not a booming voice, and their normal voices reverberated in the courtyard like a loud TV at night ... I closed every window and could still hear the "TV talk show" from the courtyard. I had to order the white noisemaking sound machines but of course those don't really work, it's one noise substituting for another ... I imagine in a motorcourt design the sound would reverberate the same way and it takes only one noisy neighbor to impact all the others in the courtyard even with windows completely closed.
I believe I like in a motorcourt layout detached home. There is no such noise reverberating phenomenon. It's very quite. With the windows open it's a little noisier, but not bad at all. When I lived in an apartment I'd hear my neighbors outside even with the windows closed (no courtyard layout) and I'd hear them through the floors and walls.
I think when you think of an apartment courtyard you are thinking of one with no openings. A motorcourt is just as open as a regular road. The only difference is that it's a narrow road.
