04
Courtyard House
A colonnade, a channel of water, one olive tree.
The plan is the oldest one there is: rooms wrapped around a void. Everything faces inward, and the outer wall is almost blank.
The courtyard is a square colonnade of deep concrete piers. Their depth is the point — at midday they cast almost nothing, and by late afternoon the shadows have crossed the entire floor. The house tells the time.
A single narrow water channel runs the length of the court. It is fifteen centimetres wide and does nothing but hold the sky and cool the air moving across it.
Technical information
- Site area
- 900 m²
- Gross floor area
- 360 m²
- Courtyard
- 14 × 14 m
- Structure
- Board-formed concrete
- Water channel
- 15 cm wide, 12 m long
- Completion
- 2024
The courtyard in late afternoon