House to Housing
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A courtyard-based housing framework that transforms single-family dwelling into a shared system of layered privacy and collective living.
Concept
The work reconsiders the typical Los Angeles R-1 housing model, which isolates dwellings within discrete property lines. Instead, it proposes a collective dwelling system structured around semi-private courtyards that allow neighbors to coexist with varying degrees of permeability. Rather than designing a singular house, the project designs a field condition—a spatial logic that enables multiple domestic identities within shared ground.
Spatial & System Strategy
Three unit types (600 SF, 900 SF, 1200 SF) are arranged in clusters, each anchored by a shared void that operates as a soft communal zone—part circulation, part garden, part threshold. By fragmenting and shifting the courtyard instead of centralizing it, the design creates layered views, staggered entries, and subtle moments of encounter. Circulation wraps around these voids rather than separating them, encouraging movement that weaves rather than divides.
Circulation & Courtyard Space
Rather than treating circulation as a connector between units, the project uses movement paths as generators of shared spatial experience. Each courtyard is positioned not as a center but as a sequence of interlocking voids, creating a gradient of exposure—from collective garden fronts to intimate recessed patios. Circulation loops around these courtyards in irregular arcs, allowing residents to encounter communal space obliquely rather than directly, producing moments of soft overlap rather than formal gathering.
Through sectional stepping, staggered entries, and offset visual corridors, the design choreographs a subtle choreography of approach and withdrawal, turning everyday movement into a spatial negotiation between privacy and proximity.
Outcomes
The project proposes density not as an accumulation of units, but as a calibration of shared and private thresholds. By transforming the courtyard into a distributed network rather than a singular void, the design reframes housing as a system of relationships rather than isolated properties. It suggests that future low-rise housing in Los Angeles could be both intimate and collective, using spatial design to foster subtle community without sacrificing privacy.
