The light court is an architectural element that was indispensable in eras without artificial lighting, providing daylight to deeper spaces within large buildings. Typical of late 19th-century residential blocks, department stores, and public administrative buildings, light courts were often designed across multiple floors and spanned with glass roofs. Today, glazed light courts are experiencing a renaissance as climatic buffer zones and social gathering spaces. In sustainable building design, the light court simultaneously serves as a thermal storage element and a natural ventilation device using the chimney principle. Prominent examples such as the Reichstag building in Berlin or various museum buildings demonstrate how the light court can become the central, identity-defining spatial element of a building.