Homes Featuring Courtyards｜Custom-built homes by architecture firms9Picks｜A Residence with an Interior Sky

The courtyard house is a dwelling type that reconciles privacy and openness by turning away from the exterior while drawing rich natural elements inward. A courtyard enclosed by the building becomes a private outdoor space that can be used with confidence and also functions as the core for daylighting and natural ventilation. Even on sites in dense urban areas or along busy streets, introducing a courtyard creates an environment where occupants can enjoy greenery and light without concern for external views. The architectural practice designs the courtyard’s size and position, its relationship to the building, and the planting scheme integrally, informed by the site geometry and surrounding context. Please explore examples of residences that possess a quiet, generous interior sky.

This house in Toda City, Saitama Prefecture responds to an environment of surrounding factories, warehouses, and heavy traffic by adopting a closed composition toward the street. An internal courtyard brings in daylight and natural ventilation while maintaining separation from the exterior, creating a calm residential environment. By engaging with its context, the dwelling produces a rich, inward‑focused living realm.

On rebuilding a house that had been lived in for many years, we began the design by carefully inheriting the time and memories the family had accumulated. Valuing the materials and artisans’ craftsmanship that have sustained Japanese residential culture—roof tiles, tatami, plasterwork, shōji and fusuma—we have created a living environment that responds to contemporary lifestyles. The comfortable sense of scale provided by traditional Japanese proportions and the warmth of natural materials produce spaces that are gently accommodating to the body. This is a home oriented toward future living, where nostalgia and newness coexist calmly.

This is a residence for a young married couple and their two cats. In response to a newly reconfigured streetscape undergoing land readjustment, the composition is closed to the outside while opening inward. A U-shaped plan contains a courtyard with a "kakuremino" tree placed at its center, creating a gentle buffer from the street. A deck on the second floor provides separation from the surrounding environment while ensuring adequate daylighting. The interior is organized in a Japanese-modern style, prioritizing calmness and refinement rather than antiquarian qualities. It is a home whose character deepens with time.

This residence, sited adjacent to a park in the city center, articulates a distinctive spatial composition through a triangular floor plan. It gently screens external sightlines while maintaining an open spatial character. An integrated rental space reconciles the need for privacy with a calibrated openness to the public realm. Internally, the program is compact and efficiently arranged, with streamlined circulation that connects the spaces without wasted movement.

This residence is organized in a ring plan centered on a large central courtyard. The courtyard, enclosed by two-storey-high walls, screens views from the outside while channeling light and breeze deep into the interior. The living-dining area is nestled between a lush outer garden and a courtyard with a deck, creating a luxurious space where the changing seasons can be experienced up close. A corridor that circulates around the courtyard enriches everyday circulation with varied vistas and establishes a comfortable rhythm to daily life. The design also includes a bath court and a rooftop deck, achieving an open, nature-connected way of living throughout the home.

This is a two-generation house built along Yūzō Street in Chigasaki. It was planned with the theme of integrating nature and family connections into daily life while providing security and structural robustness. At the center of the residence a courtyard-house configuration is adopted, enclosing a central courtyard. Trees transplanted from the existing garden and a wood deck gently connect the parent household and the child household. Openings placed throughout admit light, breeze, and greenery, achieving an appropriate sense of distance between households while enabling rich communication. The dwelling harmonizes functionality and comfort.

Despite its location in a densely built residential area, this is an open courtyard house that opens widely onto an internal courtyard. The living and dining areas are planned to integrate with the courtyard, creating a comfortable living environment that admits daylight and natural ventilation without concern for surrounding sightlines. Attention has also been paid to life with a pet cat: design measures that allow the cat freedom of movement are incorporated throughout, including a small window connecting the living room and a dedicated cat space. The result is a gentle, richly realized home where family and cat can comfortably live while remaining aware of one another.

This house was conceived from a site condition with an approximate 1.2 m level change and the owner's passion for cars and motorcycles. The approach from street level gently guides you toward the courtyard while offering views of the garage; beyond it, the living spaces unfold in a striking composition. The courtyard, positioned between the garage and the living/dining/kitchen (LDK), blurs the boundary between interior and exterior and expands the stage for daily life. The interior is unified in achromatic tones except for the texture of wood, providing a backdrop that accentuates the presence of cherished belongings. It is a residence filled with abundant living spaces in which both inside and outside are fully and deliberately inhabited.

This is a residence that values each person's place while the family shares time together. The everyday is treated as a landscape through light, sightlines, and the textures of materials, and the interior is made continuous with semi-outdoor and outdoor spaces centered on an enclosed lawned garden. Children study at the dining table and can move to the adjacent open study with bookshelves, the hobby space above the living room, or private rooms. A double-sided glazed wood-burning stove serves as the focal point, and, depending on the season, the garden louvers can be opened to use the space integrally with the forecourt in front of the garage.