Gestalten Architects on Lunchbox Architect

GESTALTEN is a Swiss-Australian architecture studio. Its Lunchbox project, Sunken Courtyard House, is an unusual new home in Elsternwick, Melbourne.

On a tiny site of just 10 by 15 metres, and with planning controls that limited it to a single storey above ground in a low-lying neighbourhood, the two-storey house places one level below the ground. The idea draws on the sunken courtyard, a below-ground form of construction first developed in China and closely related to ancient cave dwellings of some four thousand years ago.

See Sunken Courtyard House on Lunchbox below.

Sunken Courtyard House Partially Submerged to Fit Into Low-Lying Neighborhood

To make the most of a tiny site -- 10 x 15 meters -- amongst low lying neighbors this double story home was partially submerged.