Courtyard House

The Project

The brief asked for a family home that felt private from the street yet open toward its garden. Rather than centre the design on the building alone, we planned the courtyard first.

The Site

A rectangular infill plot with a mature tree close to its centre. Retaining it meant the building would need to be planned around a fixed point rather than the reverse.

The Building

Two low volumes are set apart and linked by glazed circulation, leaving the tree and courtyard between them as the heart of the plan.

The Landscape

Groundcover planting and stepping-stone paving extend the courtyard into a garden that reads as a continuous surface, not a border around the house.

The Integration

Roof drainage, courtyard grading and paving levels were resolved together early, so water moves away from the building without visible falls or drains breaking the paving pattern.

The Finished Environment

Every principal room now looks onto the courtyard. The tree that could have been an obstacle became the reason the plan works.