Seoul-based practice Augmented Reality Architects has surrounded W House with a a slim border of courtyard spaces that create a green buffer between the home and the city.
Augmented Reality Architects designed the house in Seoul, South Korea, so that it gives the owners an extremely high level of privacy.
"The family's request was very specific: privacy," explained the architecture studio. "The request went as far as to sacrifice basic requirements for a house, such as ventilation and ample sunlight."

The house has a plain, concrete exterior with few windows. The outer courtyards, as well as one at the home's centre, create pockets of space that allow light and air into the house, while keeping the interior shielded from views in. "As the architect, we had to come up with an idea to give enough privacy, yet still provide the basics," added the studio.

W House is roughly split into three elements: a basement level provides top-lit parking and studio spaces, while above a concrete-clad wing houses living spaces and a white-rendered wing houses bedrooms, bathrooms and dressing rooms.
Access is via a deep, thin cut in the facade, with a staircase leading up to the living space creating a further level of separation from the outside.

The two wings meet around the central courtyard space, connected both by an internal and external path, and the home's perimeter shrinks away from the site boundary to create room for strips of green space.

"W...