>>2006268Can't think of one, I think you are confused.
There is the concept of city block or a superblock, in Spain it's called superilla.
Barcalona's are probably most iconic. You can find this type of development also in Prague, or even in London, but they are just town houses that surround green areas, usually private gardens or courtyards, but sometimes they are communal.
Soviets had the concept of residential massive (massiv, masyv), but these could just be loosely arranged commie blocks, panelaks. Surrounded by roads, these complexes' inner areas are semi-public, which creates an interesting phenomenon. The people living there don't perceive them as their communal property, so they do not care for it, and the area feels and becomes less safe.
The closed courtyard concept can probably be attributed to the Haussmann building, where Haussmann during renovation of Paris introduced a requirement for the buildings in a block to have single uniform facade.
Finally in 1920s in Los Angeles the courtyard housing was developed, spread through the US, and, with the rise of the automobile around the WW2 time, disappeared. Here in Europe we still have plenty of them, including new developments, but more commonly they are gated communities or inner parking spaces.
In 1980s Christian de Portzamparc developed the open block concept, where the buildings are non-continuous and create an open courtyard. You can find it for example in Paris Rive Gauche.
