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The following text and images are courtesy Ripple
Design, for their Courtyard House project in Los Angeles,
California. Click on images for larger views.
What does it mean, in a big city, to be home? With this courtyard
house, designer Thomas Robertson integrates these two seemingly
contradictory experiences. The urban experience is filtered
into the house while an intimate
sense of privacy is preserved. Proceeding through the house,
the courtyard reveals itself as a kind of plaza on a micro-urban
scale ideal for relaxing or entertaining. Utilizing passive
strategies of climatic control not only offers financial
benefits to the client and a reduced ecological footprint
to the community, it also folds in a premium quality of life
for its inhabitants. Just one example of this is the courtyard
doors. When opened, the outside becomes the inside of
the house. Various combinations
of these doors opened and closed can regulate comfort via
breezes and heat gain as well as diverse social interactions.
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The control, the fine-tuning
of these low-technology mechanical parts can be likened to
a sailboat as opposed to a speedboat. It is in the infinite
choices made, the lightness of touch, the coordination of
efforts, the quality of craft that steer its course. This
is in sharp contrast to the flip of a switch or a foot to
a pedal. It is living as a participatory experience which
defines it. |
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Still, that is not to say all
decisions are made by the occupants alone, that the building
has designed itself. Far from it. Designing this type of home
requires careful attention to detail and a great dedication
to thoroughly thinking things through. The way in which the
house is nestled into the hillside; the thickening of specific
walls and ceilings; the exploitation
of dense or reflective materials; all these utilize thermal
mass to modulate heat gain and eliminate the need for air
conditioning systems. |
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Technological systems do play
a significant role in the house. Where systems are utilized,
they are highly efficient. Solar cells heat water and create
electrical energy. In fact, this house creates all of its
own power, feeding its surpluses back into the city grid.
The emphasis here is that the choice to reduce the ecological
footprint can start in the home. Deciding to use local craftsmen
and materials means fewer resources are necessary or wasted.
Many of the materials are sustainably forested,
long-lasting and break down easily in landfills. The ultimate
choice is to improve the quality of life in order to reduce
the perceived need - especially in a city like Los Angeles
- to wander so frequently from home.
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Click
on images below for larger views.
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