The Courtyard House

The client’s brief was to demolish an existing single-storey storage garage and construct a new two bedroom house in an awkward space between rear terraced gardens and a row of 16 garages in West London. To respect the tight planning constraints of the site the concept by De Rosee Sa was to create three external courtyard spaces around the original form of the garage that would help bring light deep into home. It was not possible to place windows in the boundary walls, so skylights were positioned above each family space.

The first courtyard was sunk down to create a new basement level, which contains the second bedroom.  Above, on the ground floor, the courtyard separates the private bedrooms from the family spaces in the new house. The second courtyard separates the kitchen and the living room, bringing light and air into the middle of the house. During the summer, the client has the ability to open up the series of crittall doors to create one large family space.

The final courtyard separates the house from the front driveway, creating a storage unit for bikes, bins and housing for the ASHP. The boundary acts as a point of departure from West London, as you step through the cedar-clad threshold into the private residence.

The material palette was kept simple to allow the different spaces to flow into each other, using off white walls, cedar battens and oak parquet flooring. The spaces were then framed by the black crittall style windows and doors.