ポーラスターデザイン一級建築士事務所
Homes Featuring Courtyards｜Custom Home Examples by Architectural Offices24Picks
Author: Qurasuki Editorial Department
In a home with a courtyard, the courtyard enclosed by the building brings light, breeze, and greenery indoors while serving as the central landscape of the residence. Framing courtyard views from living and dining rooms or arranging multiple rooms facing the courtyard generates visual connectivity throughout the house. Though external, the courtyard is moderately shielded from surroundings, serving as a place to feel nature close at hand while doubling as an extension of interior living spaces. Rich transformations unfold inside the building as light and plantings shift across times and seasons. We introduce custom-built examples by architectural firms to explore how courtyard homes are expressed architecturally in real residences.
This three-story split-level house brings light and air to every floor while incorporating views of Bandai Pond. The first floor includes private rooms conceived as individual “huts” for each of the three children, while the second floor contains a kitchen and dining area, along with two living rooms that can also accommodate guests. The third floor features a yoga studio with views and an indoor balcony, while the rooftop can be used for barbecues. In addition, a terrace surrounds an old crape myrtle tree that has long been cherished on the site, creating a composition from which the tree can be viewed from various parts of the house.
A single-storey timber house on a corner lot in Habikino City, Osaka Prefecture. The plan was revised to eliminate a second floor, utilizing the gable roof pitch to create sloped ceilings and an open spatial quality. The LDK is arranged in a staggered sequence around a courtyard, providing extended sightlines and diverse living zones. Private rooms are dispersed to maintain appropriate distances between family members. The interior is finished in a restrained black palette for a calm, hotel-like atmosphere.
Set on a corner lot surrounded by fields, this home brings the surrounding natural environment into everyday life. Walls with “openings” are set within a U-shaped outer shell, gently filtering outside views while admitting light and wind. A three-dimensional courtyard emerges between the shell and the building, enriching and expanding the living space. The fields and woods are framed through the wall openings and brought indoors like large paintings depicting the changing seasons. Through the courtyard and the openings, the home offers an intimate awareness of nature.
An urban courtyard house that achieves approximately 35 tsubo of living space on a 25-tsubo site. By skillfully integrating a courtyard, an open-grid balcony, and a rooftop, it creates a generous sense of openness within a limited site. As a three-story timber structure employing certified fire-rated window sashes, the design pursues a fenestration strategy to secure light, ventilation, and privacy even in an environment surrounded by neighboring houses. A built-in garage for two vehicles and a motorcycle parking area, together with varied level differences and ceiling configurations, lend depth to the residence. Furthermore, equipped with high seismic performance and a seismic-damping structure, it provides a home suited for secure urban living.
At first glance, Shift Block’s exterior does not read as a timber structure; the design makes the second floor appear slightly tilted and perched above the ground floor. A tatami-floored Japanese-style room is oriented toward a private garden enclosed by walls. A diagonal staircase mediates vertical circulation, so that movement between levels alters sightlines and the perception of space, offering a spatially dynamic, three‑dimensional living experience.
Nestled in a lush, quiet residential neighborhood, this home embraces a private courtyard. Upon entering, the courtyard and LDK unfold before you. The first floor features a kitchen overlooking the garden, a double-height dining area, a living room with a built-in sofa set one step below, and the wet areas. The second floor includes a piano and library space, along with private rooms. Inorganic ceramic siding panels are used for the exterior, while the interior is finished with cypress ceiling boards and shikkui plaster. It is a gentle and sophisticated home that supports a natural way of living.
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.
Situated on the edge of a new town, the site sits between a recent housing area and rich natural landscape with an old settlement. The house is a court-house organized around a small courtyard, with rooms linked in sequence and opening onto a large south-facing verandah. Opening the entrance reveals a continuous sequence connecting the entry, courtyard, Japanese room, verandah and garden.
This residence began as a project rooted in the client’s memories of the land where they spent their formative adolescence. Seeking good cross-ventilation and daylighting, the site’s corner position and its frontage on a school route presented the challenge that a simple south-facing orientation would not provide a calm setting. Taking into account site coverage limitations and utilizing the corner-lot regulatory relief, the plan is configured to enclose a courtyard in order to make maximum use of the lot. The living room is arranged to the south while bedrooms and workspaces are placed to the north, yet light and breezes circulate via the courtyard, generating a gentle sense of unity. The courtyard is directly accessible from the living room and the entry, functioning as a semi-outdoor space where occupants can spend time without concern for being overlooked from the street.
This house was rebuilt when the children became independent. Priority was given to a functional circulation, comfortable natural ventilation that does not rely on air conditioning, a thermally comfortable winter environment, and the authentic texture of natural materials. The site faces a southwest road with a managed woodland to the north; it takes in stable light and breezes from both south and north, and while using appropriate partitions to secure privacy and heating/cooling efficiency, the design emphasizes a sense of unity for the family.
This residence is intended as the couple’s final home, for a pair who relocated from Tokyo to an area near the wife’s parents’ home. Centered on a courtyard that preserves privacy while allowing a direct sense of nature, performance aspects such as daylighting, natural ventilation, seismic resistance, and thermal insulation were carefully planned. The courtyard connects to the living, dining, and kitchen (LDK) and to the animals’ spaces, richly embracing the passage of the seasons and family time. It is a home like a 'nest', wrapped in safety and comfort, accommodating life with a parrot and an owl and attentive to future home-based work.
Located along the main arterial road that leads to Kurashiki’s Bikan Historical Quarter, this residence carefully reconciles its relationship with the streetscape and the need for privacy. The predominantly single‑storey volume uses a horizontal slit to visually lift the roof, producing a light expression while presenting a composed, closed presence to the exterior. The approach leads along a courtyard to the entrance, and the living spaces are arranged around it as if to embrace it. Living largely contained on a single level, together with the courtyard that screens views from the outside, creates a quiet and rich place to inhabit within the historic streetscape.
A courtyard house that incorporates the surrounding scenery by distributing courtyards throughout.
Situated on a corner lot fronting roads on three sides, this residence is designed for elderly occupants. A broad roof and enclosing walls shield the living spaces from external noise, while a daylighting strategy employing a courtyard, terraces and stepped roof planes creates an interior that is simultaneously sheltered and spacious. Clerestory windows and glass block panels admit soft natural light, preserve privacy from the street and ensure a bright, comfortable indoor environment. Sloped ceilings connect the corridor and rooms in a gentle sequence, allowing light and directed sightlines to pass through, resulting in a home that combines a sense of security with spatial richness.
This courtyard house achieves both tranquility and a sense of openness despite being located in a residential neighborhood. Mortar-finished walls enclosing the site gently screen views from outside while guiding natural light into the interior. The walls continue seamlessly from the courtyard into the house, creating rich patterns of light and shadow as they receive the changing light throughout the day. The living-dining-kitchen area opens broadly onto the courtyard, creating a configuration in which the interior and exterior are softly connected. Even in a densely built-up residential area, the house provides a tranquil place where the view extends upward toward the sky.
A residence situated on a corner lot in an older housing district that places light and greenery at the center of daily life. The composition encloses a large courtyard with two house-shaped volumes, screening views from the exterior while admitting abundant natural light into the interior. Large windows opening generously to the courtyard and a skylight over the stairwell void deliver soft light throughout the house. In the unified spaces that gently connect areas other than the private rooms, variations in material textures introduce rich expression. A home that nurtures family connections while being enveloped by light and greenery.
A residence punctuated with a variety of interior and exterior nooks and gardens of different scales. While occupants can choose comfortable spots according to season or mood, the spatial arrangement is designed to allow a gentle awareness of family presence. Connection to nature through sightlines, sound, and scent, together with a calibrated sense of proximity that permits drawing near or stepping back, creates the richness of this house. Precisely because contemporary mobility has made the locations of daily life more flexible, the project pursues an environment in which one can live authentically while remaining aware of family and the surrounding landscape. The generous spaces make the home fitting of the affectionate nickname “Zou no Ie” ("Elephant House") given by the daughter.
Built on an urban corner site, this home was planned as a courtyard house that gently connects the interior and exterior around a central courtyard. Large openings, a void, and continuous tiled flooring heighten the sense of openness, while fittings made with washi-paper mesh and white wall surfaces that softly receive light delicately adjust the home’s distance from nature. The generous first floor, where the family gathers, and the second floor, enveloped in tranquil light, are linked by gradations of light, creating a rich living environment in which nature can be felt close at hand despite its urban setting.
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 is a two-family house in a quiet residential neighborhood. Three concrete boxes containing utility rooms such as the bathrooms are arranged with intervals between them on the north side, while a large box with parking for two cars is placed along the road on the west side. A structural frame made of steel-plate ribs is extended over the gaps between them, reaching the maximum building coverage ratio. By carefully designing the staggered arrangement, voids, and spaces between beams, the house allows the parents and children to live independently while remaining aware of one another and maintaining a comfortable distance from the neighborhood.
This residence, located in a residential area of Gakuenmae in Nara City, is designed for a couple and their three children. The courtyard, living room, and kitchen are arranged in a triangular configuration to create a generous, open space that becomes the center of family life. A small raised tatami platform adjacent to the living room serves as a play area, a space for learning, and a place to relax, accompanying the family as it grows. Designed to accommodate future change while naturally bringing family members closer together, the home fosters warm, supportive connections.
This is a rebuilding project in an area where, due to the elevated railway, a row of "north–south inverted" houses—gardens to the north and buildings pushed to the south—once stood. The previous residence required lighting even during the day and was cold in winter, so a bright, warm living environment was a strong requirement. Within a site of just under 30 tsubo, private spaces are efficiently consolidated while public spaces are afforded generous room. Because neighboring houses are close, soft daylight is introduced through clerestory windows, rooflights, and vertical slatted screens. The kitchen was custom-made by the owner and, though compact, functions efficiently, making daily cooking enjoyable.
A stoic residence housing a gallery, located in Nagakute City, Aichi Prefecture. The plan uses a courtyard placed at the center of the building as a focal point, allowing daily life to unfold beautifully. The entire ground‑floor slab is finished in steel‑trowelled concrete, and the exterior walls are unified with a mortar steel‑trowel render treated with a water‑repellent coating — simple wet‑applied materials that retain the traces of craftsmen’s handwork. The pared‑back, simple and tranquil spaces, stripped of superfluous ornament, present the occupant’s daily life and art in a modern manner.
Responding to a site enclosed by residences on all sides, this dwelling brings light and greenery into a U‑shaped courtyard at its heart. Employing an east‑facing garden strategy to capture morning light from the east while securing daylighting from the south, the design achieves a sense of openness that belies its total floor area of 26 tsubo (approximately 86 m²). A deck level with the living room provides a pleasant, outward extension of the living space. Trees such as Japanese maple (Acer palmatum) and olive animate the seasons, completing a home in which the family can peacefully spend the years together.
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