In contrast to a conventional residence, the Courtyard House is programmed as an inhabited landscape contained within a modernist slab: a single level compressed between a floor and roof plane. This single plinth cuts into the ground allowing the structure to hover over the lake’s edge, yet minimizes digging. The glass wrapper is setback from the roof’s edge to create a walk-around covered terrace framed by two walls of native stone. The house extends the horizontal landscape inside with two transparent courtyards.

Entered along the covered terrace, the house’s six spaces flow in a continuous loop bracketed by two elements of functional poché, a series of separate bathroom and storages cores that flock and disperse to allow the rooms to be experienced as a single loft or as a series of individual rooms. Inside, the rooms are conceived as a continuous sequence of event spaces. Each room is equipped for the varying performances of daily living, framed by the outside. Maximizing usable space while minimizing poché, each storage core contains all of the requirements of daily living, WC, shower, storage, etc; allowing each room to be experienced collectively when open or privately when closed. Because no room is compartmentalized and isolated as in a conventional home, every room can be a living space during the day and a sleeping space at night. Continuous perimeter circulation inside parallels the covered roof terrace outside.

© 2012 NOA

PROJECT: Private residence

TYPE: Commission

SIZE: 400 m² (4,306 ft²)

CLIENT: Confidential

COLLABORATORS: NA

LOCATION: Deep Creek Lake, MD

STATUS: Ongoing

VALUE: NA

KEY PERSON: Andrew Heid.

TEAM: Marta Rodrigues