Projets > Garden courtyard dwelling

Garden courtyard dwelling

Background

The sale of a small cottage would allow my client to finance a low budget dwelling to be built on retained garden land. Severe site constraints were in play: restricted access, a plot shape that was both long and narrow and a location sensitive to issues of boundary shading and privacy.

Brief

The project was for a low cost, 3 bedroom dwelling, with minimal environmental impact.

Solutions

Driven by these constraints, the typical single house form evolved into three, with courtyards and links between. This plan gives all rooms views into gardens, courtyards or onto fields, all with good daylight and ventilation.

For privacy, the buildings sit at right angles to the site, presenting an irregular elevation of blind gables that greatly reduce overshadowing and overlooking of neighbour’s gardens.

Materials: Outside, grey stained boarding and aluminium-clad timber doors and windows; inside, oak structural frames, clay boards and plaster with natural paints.