Ten years ago we built a small tea house in a walled garden in Kyoto. It was eighteen square metres, and it changed the way we draw houses at home.
In Danish houses privacy usually comes from distance: a lawn, a hedge, a long drive. In Kyoto we learned that privacy can come from a turn in a path, a low wall, or a screen of paper that lets light through but not a view.
Closed to the street, open to the sky
The Courtyard House in Odense is the clearest result. It shows the street a door and one window, and keeps all its openness for a courtyard and a single pear tree.
