(COURT)YARD HOUSE is a design for a contemporary, sustainable starter home as part of the Who's Next competition hosted by FreeGreen.com. The public judging period runs from March 2- March 16, 2010. Please show appreciation by going to the competition website and voting! Project is shown here: http://www.freegreen.com/whosnext/view/plan-general.aspx?id=385. Thanks!
View of the kitchen / dining and courtyard. The courtyard garden is the design feature of the house and becomes an integrated outdoor space for the family in an urban environment. Folding glass walls open on either side to expand the open living space and allow effective cross- and stack-ventilation for passive cooling. Garden walls provide an organic source of fruits and vegetables, improve air quality, and create a cooling microclimate.
Front perspective of the (COURT)YARD HOUSE shows the wood louvershading system that performs not only as sun shades for the windows butalso as a screen for shading the surface of the building and providinga cooling air cavity. The offset of the screen from the exterior wallalso provides shelter and shading below for the ground floor entry and windows.
Backside perspective shows the peripheral window placement strategy forthe office that provides diffused daylighting to reduce energy-usewhile mitigating computer screen glare. In addition, the operablewindows help ventilate the internal heat gains from the electronicequipment used in the IT director's home office and activities as atechnology enthusiast.
The starter house proposal is designed to the most constrained site scenario, the urban infill site. By creating a narrow and vertically-oriented house, a broader range of sites may be considered and denser, more sustainable neighborhoods may be developed. As part of an urban environment, it is important to consider site design like the use of permeable pavers.
View of the stairs and work areas. In a small house, space under the stairs becomes an efficient storage area with built-in shelving and also provides a sheltered desk for the family computer. The high-traffic location of the computer and its orientation towards the public areas through the courtyard glass maintains internet safety for children through easy surveillance.
A single shared bathroom upstairs with separated uses encourages efficient use of water resources.
The plans demonstrate the open and public space prioritized design. The family bathroom upstairs is shared and encourages efficient use of space and water by separating the shower, toilet, and sink components and allows simultaneous use of the bath. Flexibility of use is important for the living room / entertainment area with the use of modular furniture and also for the combined guest bedroom and exercise room upstairs.
The diagrams above demonstrate the sustainable building systems integrated in the design of the (COURT)YARD HOUSE, including locating windows for optimal ventilation from multiple wind directions. A solar array covers the roof area, and uses thin, black panels by First Solar. These panels are available for lease from SolarCity, allowing young families to benefit from energy savings immediately without a large up-front cost of purchasing and installing a solar energy system.
