Micro Courtyardhouse
Micro Courtyardhouse
Atelier Kaiser Shen
YEAR
2018
LOCATION
Ludwigsburg, Germany
At first glance, the Micro Courtyardhouse seems out of place. Perched between four sets of stoplights, it stands upon a busy traffic island in Ludwigsburg, a city near Stuttgart.
The Micro Courtyardhouse offers a new solution to dealing with living in minimal space. The ongoing densification of cities poses the enormous challenge of fitting more people into less space while maintaining high quality of living.
Conventional small house designs are open and thus tend to struggle in providing privacy in densely populated areas. Therefore, a fundamentally different design was created, that provides an open and green, yet also highly private living space suitable for densely populated areas.
At merely 7.3 square meters, the Micro Courtyardhouse contains all of the required utilities. The bathroom, cupboards, and kitchen are arranged along the main wall, which also features a foldable table and bed.
Opposite to this side, a long glass door spanning the entire length of the house loosely separates the living space from the tranquil garden. In summer, the glass door can be slid open, effectively merging the house and the courtyard.
The exterior design is inspired by traditional Chinese courtyardhouses. A single tree stands beside a fountain, creating an asymmetric arrangement.
The fountain not only serves aesthetic purposes, but also as an effective acoustic feature against noise.
The cozy atmosphere of the inner wooden wall contrasts the dark corrugated iron sheets of the external facade.
The juxtaposition between inside and outside, open and closed, noise and quiet, privacy and public, enriches the architecture.
It thus becomes clear that the Micro Courtyardhouse is an ideal solution to utilizing minimal space, even the most unusual ones.
Despite being situated in a tight and hectic space, one can still escape from the busy world and gaze into the open skies.
