SOME COURTYARD(S)

Individual Work

April - June 2022

Instructor: Clause Benjamin Freyinger Los Angeles, CA

There is the term of courtyard, a typical prototype of collective living housing typology. An open area exposed to the sunlight and fresh air with living units surrounded. This open space is shared inside the community, potentially a public sphere.

The project is seeking for an innovated courtyard-inspired co-living housing typology as it is moving away from a courtyard-centralised attempt to one can be described as more decentralised with accesses to multiple spaces and hierarchy of privacy

Each courtyard is a semi-private space with solid threshold and two spiral staircases described as vertical hallways which have replaced the conventional hallway/ corridor. The vertical hallway connects the courtyard and the most private space, the bedroom and bathroom directly. Two most private spaces are bounded with a shared living room and kitchen, together, they become one living unit.

The two Valdradas live for each other, their eyes interlocked; but there is no love between them. Oh, there actually is love between them, as they share in some courtyard(s).

Typology Circulation

The project moves away from the conventional courtyard-centralised position. Car parking is no longer placed in the courtyard but at the ground floor as the courtyard has been lifted away from the sunken ground level.

The car circulation is separated from the pedestrian walking area at the sunken ground level. The pedestrian walkway is constructed to connect each courtyard and communal program space, and aiming to create a large compound community. The vertical hallway is the only direct access into a private living unit from a courtyard.