A courtyard with a concrete pool sits at the centre of a house on Phillip Island in Australia, designed by Branch Studio Architects and illuminated by large skylights.
The site of the home, called Casa X, sits only a short distance from the beach and sea, views of which are blocked a tall run of trees.

Other homes next door have an open relationship to their sites without walls or fences, and the residents wanted to balance this with a greater sense of privacy.
This was achieved through the use of a courtyard typology.

"The formal vernacular of the local context is highly conservative," explained the practice. "Most houses in the area do not have perimeter fences, particularly those with direct connection to the foreshore and beach." "As a result the design of the house within its site and wider surrounds has been designed to become is own 'compound' or 'fence' of sorts, without the need of creating a secondary perimeter."

Casa X's courtyard is created by three interconnected pavilions.
There's master pavilion to the east a guest pavilion to the west and a pavilion for the kitchen, living and dining area to the south.

This U-shaped arrangement sits atop a base of wooden decking, which is raised due to flood risk in the area.
At the centre of the deck is a pool sunk into a concrete plinth.

In order to maximise privacy, the exterior walls of Casa X have been left blank, doubling as the home's boundary.
Light enters through both the windows ...