Courtyard House

Located on a sloping, heavily wooded site facing onto a public street, the Courtyard House is enclosed within a brick courtyard wall set into a clearing on the hillside. The entire site is left with natural trees and vegetation with the exception of the driveway and the precise rectangle of the manicured courtyard garden. Service elements of the house are enclosed within the brick facade turning a nearly closed wall to the street. Light is brought down form the narrow end of the site into this tree and wall surrounded house with high, south facing clerestory windows in the manner of an industrial shop building. To maximize light and space within the this small home designed for a retired couple there are few partitions. Primary spaces are divided only by a high interior glass wall and spaces within the house are defined with cabinetry and other free-standing elements. The project is an effort to take a small house with simple, but often contradictory requirements and make something elemental and special of the essential elements such as the enclosing wall, courtyard garden, entry sequence, light monitors, fireplace, rain troughs, bath, and cabinetry.