Natalia Volkova Jul 28, 2014:

It is gas heating, in fact.

Natalia Volkova Jul 28, 2014:

To Alexander. By the way, if there is a gas pipeline, the houses surely are supplied by a heating system. It`s an individual heating appliance (for each house) which is called АГВ in Russian. That means a water heating boiler which is fired with a gas-jet (This type of heating is much cheaper than electric heating.)

Alexander Somin Jul 28, 2014:

Regarding the picture Dear Dylan, on the Picture with the link there is a different type of a yard, not what I have described here earlier. On the picture, it is a rather suburban (Baku-style) yard near a private one-family house, not a typical yard, which are common in big cities, which I have described. And this picture yard looks not at all as quite old one. In Russian, the both things are called with the same word dvor, independent of its size and type. The author of the original article actually meant, that there is now such conveniences as running water or a WC inside such houses with a yard as shown on the picture. They have also no heating system, only an oven or a hearth. I think there must be a natural gas pipeline, as in Baku there is lot of oil in the earth and sea, so there must be also natural gas and a pipeline with connection in these houses for water heating, food preparation and winter heating. The author means this scares conveniences.

Evgeny Artemov (X) Jul 28, 2014:

Ignore "system" It's a typically Russian big word gone stale with overuse (quite like in AEnglish, I presume). You have a string of one-member/mononuclear sentences (four, in all). Keep the same system: "On the face of it, unsightly old one- and two-storey houses. Small closes. No special amenities or comfort. One can say, slums."

Dylan Edwards (asker) Jul 28, 2014:

I've just found a picture of the street in question:
http://bakudaily.az/xeber-residents-of-sovetskaya-street-do-...

It doesn't look like much of a system. It's just sort of grown like that.

I'd prefer to say something short and simple, "built around (shared) yards" or something like that.

Evgeny Artemov (X) Jul 28, 2014:

NOT a "system" The Misha is right here. Neither is it "courtyards: -- it's a development pattern where spaces beween blocks were called "дворы" (but were not courtyards proper". I'd check how these spaces are called in English inner cities up North.

Natalia Volkova Jul 28, 2014:

I personally think it is individual, private houses that are described here. Pay attention, please: it is said in the text that they almost have no modern conveniences. Speaking about multistorey multifamily (usually municipal) houses all of then have modern conveniences.

Natalia Volkova Jul 28, 2014:

I agree with Misha. And by the way, this "system" (if we still stick to the original terminology) is also a characteristic of typical Russian old towns and cities with a pupulation less than a million of citizens.

If we compare the situation that was in the past (some 30 years ago) with that nowadays, the difference is in the fact that nowadays small one-storey private houses in the old-Russian style are being actively replaced by large pretentious "modern" 2-3 storey private houses built on really tiny plots of land.

Some courtyards became extremely small, because a lot of plots of land were devided into 2 parts, with a new large separate house built on each part of it.

"Small houses of one or two storeys huddled together like swallows' nests". How familiar this picture is!
We have almost the same! At least, it is a basic tendency here.

(I don`t mean countryside, of course: there is a lot of land there! I mean towns and old Russian cities (not Moscow, of course).

Dylan Edwards (asker) Jul 28, 2014:

Thank you for the explanation.

Alexander Somin Jul 28, 2014:

It's a planning system of [square] yards surrounded by houses |_|_|,
something like this. It was used for mass construction of dwelling premises. The houses are usually NOT one-family houses, they are houses with apartments, as an apartment block. These houses are divided or there is an arc in one of the buildings to get inside the yard. Inside such a yard may be trees, small gardens and children play-grounds together with garbage collection booths, banks for sitting, domino playing tables etc. for a kind of social life. There may also be a communal water tap, if there is no running water. A whole rather large city district may be build in this way. They are arranged in bigger city quarters. In such yards social life with neighbors takes place, soccer is played, kids are playing, moms with prams are walking, older kids are kissing in dark corners. So, they are socially important places, especially in the cities like Baku, in the Caucasus, where there is a tradition of long standing. There, these yards are old and comprise an organic part of the city and of the city life.

The Misha Jul 28, 2014:

Why don't you simply call them interior courtyards This annoying Russian habit of making everything a "system" may work in Russian but it only creates unnecessary confusion in English. System? What system? What it is is that every house mentioned has a courtyard. That's it. Nothing particularly systemic about it.

Dylan Edwards (asker) Jul 28, 2014:

Or could they be shared courtyards? -

He believes that in the conditions of the city of Baku, where the price of two-room apartments (except cheaper houses with a yard system) varies from 40 to 500 thousand manat …
http://contact.az/docs/2014/Economics&Finance/051300078469en...

Dylan Edwards (asker) Jul 28, 2014:

I've seen it described as the "courtyard system" here:

Old Baku was built on the courtyard system - small houses of one or two storeys huddled together like swallows' nests.
http://regionplus.az/en/articles/view/2368

- but I don't know what this means in terms of layout. Were they definitely inner courtyards?