The Joy of Designing an Off-Grid Tropical Courtyard House
As someone passionate about design and architecture, I’ve always dreamed of building my own home and living off-grid.
My journey to designing a sleek and modern tropical courtyard house began many years ago while travelling through Ghana. I was struck by the loss of traditional housing forms in that country’s metropolitan centres, which led to a desire to create a modern self-built home that could pay homage to these conventional forms of housing. Through my extensive travels, I had come to appreciate the simplicity and beauty of traditional living and sought to bring that spirit into the home I would build for myself.
I had settled on designing a central garden surrounded by connected living quarters. This type of design I now know as a compound house, reflected many of the communal structures I saw on my travels through West Africa. Many years passed, and I refined the concept into a courtyard house, which reminded me of my time growing up in the Caribbean as a boy.
But What is a Courtyard House?
The standard Ghanaian courtyard house has numerous private dwellings arranged around a square. Each home belongs to a different relative, with other properties developed behind…
