Semi-courtyard

Iceland

Where does privacy end and shared life begin?

Three homes share a courtyard, but the space between private and public is not a single line. Drawing on the Chinese courtyard house, this project explores a gradual transition: from thick walls to slender supports, enclosed rooms to shared space, and the scale of a person to the surrounding mountains.

Courtyard-house model on a plinth, showing its broad roof and varied enclosure beneath — A common roof / The house as a whole
A broad roof gathers the three homes into one form, with openings and varied edges beneath it.

Close-up of the courtyard-house model with two figures beneath the roof beside wall panels and an open edge — Beneath the roof / At the scale of a person
The close view brings the question of privacy to the inhabited edge: a sheltered place between enclosure and openness.

01 / A shared centre

One courtyard. Three ways of inhabiting it.

The traditional courtyard house is the starting point for a study of private and open space. By splitting, juxtaposing, and slicing these spatial conditions, the proposal creates intermediate territories around a common courtyard. The three homes remain distinct while participating in the same centre.

Exploded axonometric studies, roof diagram, and section showing the courtyard house as a set of interrelated spatial layers — 01 / Reworking the courtyard
The axonometric studies separate the building into layers. Read the enclosed rooms, spaces between them, and roof together: the courtyard is organised through their relationships.

02 / Degrees of privacy

Privacy has thickness.

Thick walls suggest enclosure; thinner walls and slender columns allow greater openness. As the walls thin from the exterior toward the interior, a continuous outer edge gives way to more varied spatial relationships. Privacy becomes a gradient expressed through the building itself.

First-floor plan with thick perimeter walls, curved internal partitions, and rooms surrounding the courtyard — First floor / Enclosure and openings
The dark wall profiles make the transition visible: substantial outer walls contrast with thinner partitions and openings toward the shared centre.

Second-floor plan showing rooms and lighter spatial divisions arranged around the central courtyard — Second floor / Living around the void
The upper plan continues the relationship between individual rooms and the common courtyard. Read it alongside the first floor to trace how enclosure changes between levels.

Deep rectangular opening in a thick concrete wall, with people on either side of the threshold — At the wall / A boundary with depth
A deep opening makes the thickness of the boundary tangible. The wall provides enclosure while the opening establishes a connection through it.

View from an interior room through a glazed threshold into the shared courtyard, with people occupying its edges — At the courtyard / A shared edge
The courtyard brings three residential units into a shared setting. Its surrounding thresholds make room for both withdrawal and encounter.

03 / Across scales

A room, a courtyard, a mountain.

The same inquiry extends across scales. At the scale of the landscape, the roof responds to the contours of the mountains. At the scale of the household, the courtyard gives three homes a common space. At the scale of the body, the thickness of a wall shapes the passage between solitude and shared life.

Courtyard house placed in an open Icelandic landscape beneath a long mountain ridge — The landscape / Finding a scale of belonging
The low roof profile is conceived in relation to the mountain contours, grounding the courtyard house within its larger setting.

Physical model of the courtyard house on a plinth, showing the broad roof and varied enclosure beneath — The house / A common roof, varied edges
The model gathers the project into one form: a roof gives coherence to the house while the spaces beneath it offer different degrees of enclosure.

Private / In-between / Shared

Room to be alone. Space to be together.

Semi-Courtyard proposes a spectrum of spaces between retreat and encounter. The shared life of the house is supported by these intermediate places, rather than a single boundary between private and public.

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Location: Iceland
Studio: Harvard GSD Design Discovery 22
Instructor: Thomas Kuei
Collaboration: Individual Work

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