Wild at Heart: 6 Courtyard Homes That Celebrate Nature in Plan and Section
Architects: Want to have your project featured? Showcase your work by uploading projects to Architizer and sign up for our inspirational newsletters.
Courtyards have been part of architecture for thousands of years, offering a simple way to connect buildings with nature. These open-air spaces collect light, guide air through interiors and give homes a calm, private center.
In warmer regions, courtyards also help regulate temperature, providing shade during the day and releasing heat at night. Their design encourages a slower rhythm of living, where people can move between sunlight and shadow, inside and outside, without barriers.
Whether enclosed by walls, framed in glass or shaped directly from the terrain, courtyards turn architecture into a living environment. Across Portugal, Mexico and Costa Rica, these six homes show how this timeless idea continues to evolve today.
Casa Oeiras
By OODA Architecture, Oeiras, Portugal
Casa CM sits in the coastal town of Oeiras, shaped by the sloping terrain and framed by centuries-old pine trees. The house follows a U-shaped plan arranged around a sunken courtyard that organizes circulation and fills the interior with reflected light. At its center, a shallow water feature mirrors the surrounding greenery, amplifying the quiet character of the half-buried structure. The courtyard links social and private areas, creating both separation and continuity through glass openings and sheltered walkways. Concrete defines the roof and structural crown, while warm timber interiors soften the geometry, extending the natural tones of the landscape indoors.
LuMa
By AtelierM, Buenos Aires, Argentina
At the center of LuMa stands a century-old oak tree, around which the entire house is composed. Located on a narrow urban plot, the design revolves around a circular courtyard that preserves the tree and defines the rhythm of the home. The courtyard organizes the circulation through a spiral route that wraps around the trunk, connecting the floors while framing the tree from multiple perspectives. Natural light filters through the canopy, shifting with the seasons to shade interiors in summer and open them to the sun in winter. This living core transforms the house into a vertical garden, where architecture, movement and nature converge in a continuous dialogue of light and growth.
Sinfonía Verde
By Studio Saxe, Puntarenas Province, Costa Rica
Set deep within Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula, Sinfonía Verde is an off-grid retreat designed as a circular pavilion around a central courtyard open to the sky. The home sits lightly within a natural clearing, raised on stilts to preserve the forest floor and allow wildlife to pass below. At its core, the courtyard acts as a moment of calm amid the dense rainforest, bringing filtered light and fresh air to the living spaces. The surrounding rooms and terraces face the forest, while the open center frames the canopy above, creating a balance between exposure and shelter.
Quinto Sol House
By Estudio Cristina Grappin, Punta Mita, Mexico
Quinto Sol House stretches across a lush Pacific cliffside in Nayarit, its pavilions arranged around a central courtyard that anchors the experience of the home. The courtyard serves as a quiet threshold between the private and social areas, connecting bedrooms above with the open living and dining spaces below. Planted with native species, it filters light and air through the interiors while framing fragments of ocean and sky. The courtyard’s sheltered calm contrasts with the vastness of the surrounding landscape, giving the house a rhythm of retreat and exposure. Through its earthy materials and layered openness, the space captures the essence of coastal living, creating a dialogue between architecture, climate and nature.
Pedroso I House
By Raulino Silva Arquitecto, Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal
Set on a steep, wooded site in northern Portugal, this residence unfolds across two levels that follow the natural slope. The lower floor, partially buried in the terrain, opens to a granite courtyard that brings daylight deep into the interior and connects to the indoor pool. A sculptural helical staircase rises from this patio to a terrace above, creating a vertical connection between the house’s quiet lower spaces and the tree-lined upper level. The courtyard’s raw stone surfaces and filtered light create a calm, grounding atmosphere, while native vegetation softens the edges, linking the architecture to the surrounding forest and reinforcing a sense of continuity between the built and natural landscape.
Casa Lohr
By Veinte Diezz Arquitectos, Mérida, Mexico
Jury and Popular Choice Winner, Residential Renovations and Additions, 12th Annual A+Awards
Located in Mérida’s historic center, this restored colonial residence unfolds around a tranquil courtyard that becomes the project’s focal point. Framed by a partially ruined wall left in place, the patio connects the living areas to a pool and terrace, using the passage of time as a design element. Layers of history remain visible through textures of stone, burnished cement and exposed brick, giving the courtyard an atmosphere of quiet reverence. Sparse planting softens the masonry and introduces movement, while filtered light accentuates the aged surfaces. The space serves as both a visual anchor and a contemplative retreat, linking the restored interior with the natural rhythms of the Yucatán climate.
Architects: Want to have your project featured? Showcase your work by uploading projects to Architizer and sign up for our inspirational newsletters.
The post Wild at Heart: 6 Courtyard Homes That Celebrate Nature in Plan and Section appeared first on Journal.
