Light Well House
A family home organized around a top-lit central courtyard that acts as a thermal buffer and social heart.
Year
2022
Location
Fox Chapel, PA
Program
Residential
Area
3,300 sq ft
Status
Studio Project
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Description
The brief called for a single-family home in a wooded hillside suburb of Pittsburgh. The clients — a family with three children — wanted a home that felt open and connected across generations while providing clear zones of quiet and privacy. The solution is a single-story plan organized around a central glazed courtyard.
The courtyard — the ‘light well’ — serves simultaneously as a passive solar collector in winter, a ventilation chimney in summer, and the social heart of the house. All rooms face into it; none face outward without also addressing the courtyard.
The building sits low in the landscape, its green roof merging with the hillside so that the house appears to have always been there.
Credits
Course
Housing Studio
Instructor
CMU School of Architecture
Energy Strategy
Passive Solar / Natural Ventilation
Semester
Spring 2022
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