Pale limewash + natural oak
Limewash
Natural oak
Court paving
Charcoal
Off-white lime plaster, oak floors and joinery, terracotta paving inside the court. Gallery-white with a warm floor.
04 — Daylight & orientation
The sun does the drawing.
Courtyard House is illustrated at 43.7° N — a mid-latitude site — on 21 June, near the summer solstice. The entrance faces south and the courtyard sits at the centre, so the sun writes across the gravel from breakfast to early evening: at 08:00 it stands low in the east; at solar noon it climbs to 70° due south; by 17:00 it settles in the west-northwest.
The daylight control, the shadows on the model, the plan compass and the diagram opposite are all driven by one solar calculation — nothing is painted on. The plan stays deliberately shallow: no room is deeper than 3.2 metres from a window, and every principal room borrows light across the planted court.
- Latitude43.7° N
- Date21 June · declination +23.4°
- TimeSolar, 08:00 – 17:00
- Noon altitude70.0° · due south
- EntranceSouth facade
- Deepest room3.2 m from glass
05 — Materials
Two finishes, one house.
The architecture never changes — only its skin. Scheme A wraps the volume in pale limewash over natural oak; Scheme B dresses the same walls in a warmer terracotta render. Switching a scheme re-colours every view live, without moving a single wall.
Warmer terracotta treatment
Terracotta render
Warm white
Deep oak
Clay paving
The same volume in clay-toned render, deep-oak floors and darker court paving. Warmer, more earthen, equally quiet.
06 — Plan & section
Cut at +1.45 m.
The section control is real: it drives a clipping plane through the building geometry — not a fade, not an overlay. Sweep it from +0.20 m to +3.20 m and watch the drawing change: at low cuts the doors read as gaps, above +2.20 m the window heads open up, and the wall poché thickens and thins as the plane passes through 240 mm external walls and 120 mm partitions.
The plan below is generated from the same wall rectangles that build the 3-D model, drawn as solid poché at the default cut of +1.45 m. Rooms, door swings and furniture are the model’s own.
- External walls240 mm
- Partitions120 mm
- Ceiling3.00 m
- RoofFlat · 220 mm · 300 mm eave
07 — Specification
Compact by design.
Every dimension below is measured from the model’s parametric geometry — the room schedule is cut from the same wall rectangles that build the house above.
| Project | Courtyard House — single-storey dwelling around a planted court |
|---|---|
| Practice | Alder Practice (fictional) |
| Site | 14.6 × 13.6 m · 198.6 m² |
| Footprint | 10.80 × 10.00 m · 108.0 m² |
| Internal floor area | — |
| Courtyard | 3.60 × 3.20 m · 11.5 m² open to sky |
| External walls | 240 mm, limewash / terracotta render |
| Partitions | 120 mm |
| Ceiling height | 3.00 m clear |
| Roof | Flat slab, 220 mm, 300 mm eave, open court |
| Orientation | Entrance south · 43.7° N · 21 June |
| Daylight | Solar time 08:00–17:00 · noon altitude 70° |
| Structure | Illustrative — masonry-bearing walls, timber roof |
| Room | Clear size | Area |
|---|---|---|
| Internal total (excl. courtyard) | — | |
08 — Project sheet
Take the drawing set with you.
The sheet captures the model exactly as you leave it — current view, section height, daylight hour and material scheme — alongside a generated plan and the full room schedule. One click, one PNG, A4 landscape.
Currently capturing: plan view · scheme A · 10:30 · section +1.45 m