Courtyard Residence

Designed to accommodate the special needs and limited mobility of two of the family’s three children, this home transcends physical accessibility to create an environment that will enrich and invigorate the girls’ lives from childhood through maturity. This was accomplished by creating an array of views and spatial experiences animated by the constant movement of natural light.

The single-story, five-bedroom home is organized as a series of clusters arrayed along a 125’ circulation spine. Gaps between the clusters create three courtyards granting living spaces direct access to the exterior, while roof monitors with clerestory windows bring additional light in from above. As a result, sunlight enters nearly every space from dawn to dusk, creating an ever-changing play of shadow and reflection. Similarly, views into the courtyards offer year-round interest, as varying light and weather interact with carefully designed landscapes.

The separation of functional clusters along the circulation spine provides each with privacy and acoustic isolation, and the girls’ suite in particular, where care and monitoring run 24 hours a day. Its width allows wheelchairs to roll side-by-side, and is conceived as a space to be experienced, rather than traversed.

The exterior spaces offer a variety of sensory experiences as well: a low concrete wall radiates warmth to the adjacent sitting area, a fountain with shallow basins allows soaking of hands and feet, a courtyard with a duckboard leads to a small lawn with a flowering tree, and a patio with an outdoor fireplace gives way to rolling grass-covered berms.