Courtyard houses

Courtyard houses: light, privacy & open sky

Discover homes organized around courtyards, from sheltered garden rooms to openings that bring daylight into a compact plan.

372 designs in this collection · How we select and source

Start with these designs.

Grey-walled hall opening toward a leafy courtyard through full-height glazing beside an open stair.

House in Yoga

Keiji Ashizawa Design · Tokyo, Japan

A courtyard, tree and vertical lattice give the Tokyo home an outdoor reference within its enclosure.

Tiled room with a long low bench against a grey wall, full-height garden glazing and strong patches of sunlight.

F Residence

GOSIZE / Go Fujita · Nishinomiya, Japan

Compare the garden-facing openings with the more protected edges of this house in Nishinomiya.

Long dark, mottled facade with a recessed ground-level opening and planted roof edge along a narrow street.

Stealth House

APOLLO Architects & Associates · Minato, Tokyo, Japan

Read the screened exterior alongside the inner spaces to understand its changing degrees of openness.

Circular roof opening above a planted courtyard surrounded by glazed rooms.

Casa Âmago In Portugal Champions Simplicity And Harmony

Bruno Dias Arquitectura · Ansião, Portugal

A planted patio beneath a circular roof opening becomes the shared center of the plan.

Shaded terrace with two chairs overlooking a long pool and olive trees.

Balzar Arquitectos’ Olive Grove Oasis Quietly Celebrates Its Sublime Setting

Balzar Arquitectos · Quesa, Spain

An entrance patio and two side patios balance olive-grove views with the neighboring houses.

Sheltered pale courtyard with a recessed doorway and a tree beyond the wall.

In Saudi Arabia, MESURA’s Stunning Villa AM Merges Arabian Culture With Vernacular Architecture

MESURA · Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

An L-shaped arrangement uses its garden to connect family and guest spaces.

Aerial view of a low angular house above a town, vineyards and distant mountains.

Among Valleys And Vineyards Lies Peter Pichler’s Angular Villa Kastelaz Hof

Peter Pichler Architecture · Termeno, Italy

Three wings make a protected courtyard within a much broader panorama.

Photograph credits and the published project account are on each design page.

Reading the collection

A courtyard gives a house another edge: rooms can open to the sky without facing directly onto a street or neighboring property. The examples here use that possibility in different ways. Some gather family life around one planted center; others use several small patios to separate views, routes and quieter rooms.

Start with the edited selection, then compare the position of each courtyard with the rooms around it. An open-air space is not automatically private, bright or comfortable throughout the year. Its orientation, height, openings and connection to daily routines all matter.

The wider selection follows the catalogue’s courtyard classification. Project sources and credited photographs remain available on each design page. Exact products and finishes appear only where separate evidence supports them.