Using the building blocks of the typical American tract house we asked not only what types of spaces they could contain, but what types of spaces could they create; a change not so much in architectural configuration, but a change in lifestyle. We wanted to return to utilitarian simplicity and a model of living large in a smaller home.

We had three basic principles in mind with the design of these prototype houses. They are: 1. everybody should have a fruit tree – sweet fragrance, an idea of abundance, and a small token of a good life in one package; 2. houses should be about quiet, protected places - places that can be marked by the track of the sun and dimensioned with shadow; and 3. houses need to breathe - in this day and this climate, a house needs to embrace the out and make it part of the in.

Prototype A The courtyard plan we have borrowed is from a history much older and more profound than the faux craftsman details that pass for cultural continuity in these communities. This courtyard will be the voice of the house and the spatial turn of the phrase in this experiment.