Location
Walled garden site
Year
2024
Client
Hannah and Felix Voss
Scope
Architecture, interiors
Duration
18 months
Site
Walled plot in an old garden quarter
A walled court that turns the house inward, toward light, shade and one olive tree.
An architecture of refuge. A walled court organises the house around light, shade and a single olive tree.
The plan wraps a single courtyard, so that each room borrows its light from the same quiet centre. Thick walls hold the coolness of the night through the day, while a shaded loggia gives the family an outdoor room for most of the year.
Aa
The court with its single tree and still water
01
Stone steps up to the loggia
02
A quiet room opening to the court
03
From brief to building.
The question we were asked, how we answered it, and what changed once people moved in.
01
The challenge
A narrow walled plot overlooked on three sides, summers that regularly pass 38 °C, and a family of five who wanted privacy without ever feeling closed in.
02
Our approach
The house turns inward around a single court. Thick masonry walls store the coolness of the night, a shaded loggia becomes the main room for half the year, and every space borrows its light from the same quiet centre around one old olive tree.
03
The outcome
The living spaces stay comfortable through August without mechanical cooling. Neighbours see a calm stone wall; the family lives in a garden.
Courtyard and one olive tree
Inside versus outside on a summer afternoon
Months from first sketch to handover
A house around a void.
The section shows the whole strategy: heavy walls to the street, a shaded loggia, and a court that pulls light and air deep into the plan.
White walls around the gravel court
Stone, earth and shade.
A palette chosen for thermal mass and for the way it holds the colour of late afternoon.
“Every decision had a reason, and the reason was always how we would live in the room.”
Hannah Voss, client
Architecture
ARCHEA
Interior design
Lea Fischer
Structure
Atelier Statik
Landscape
Garden Office Pils
Builder
Voss & Partner Builders
Photography
Studio Lumen
Next project
The Coastal Pavilion
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