How to design terraced houses with garden or patio: the technical guide

The complete guide to designing terraced houses with garden or patio including DWG drawings and 3D BIM models produced with a software for architects and engineers

This last insight dedicated to a townhouse study will specifically focus on how to design a terraced houses with garden or patio by creating two different examples produced with an architectural BIM design software.

Together with the examples, we will also provide you with renderings and DWG CAD resources that you can even download and use as reference for your projects.

Start off by downloading the below fully functional trial version of the software used to generate them.

terraced houses render – produced with Edificius

Terraced houses “A” project – render produced with Edificius

Download the 3D BIM model (.edf file) of the terraced houses with garden or patio “A” project

Download the IFC model of the terraced houses with garden or patio “A” project

Download the 3D BIM model (.edf file) of the terraced houses with garden or patio “L” project

Download the IFCmodel of the terraced houses with garden or patio “L” project

Click here to download Edificius the architectural BIM design software

Terraced house (or townhouse) definition

Terraced houses are single-family adjacent buildings, built side by side to identical dwellings.

Terraced house dwellings are usually on two levels and are equipped with two gardens. The construction depth (between 8 and 12 mt)  is generally bigger respect to the facade width  (between 5 and 7 mt).

Openings are located on both opposing sides. The complex characteristics are identified according to how individual lodgings are aggregated, often being identical to each other or with few variations.

The dwellings can be aligned to form long rectangular or adjacent buildings, thus creating extremely articulated and variable settlement types.

Terraced houses project “A” – render produced with Edificius

Terraced houses “L” project – render produced with Edificius

Terraced houses pros and cons

 Pros

• Due to the site limited dimensions and the shared installation systems usage (such as the heating system) construction and maintenance costs are much lower than those of a classic detached single-family homes;
• Due to the house and surrounding area small dimensions, maintenance is simple and less expensive;
• In townhouses with only two external walls, heating costs are much lower.

Terraced houses “L” project – floor plan produced with Edificius

Cons

• Townhouses have a much smaller garden compared to single-family houses and villas;
• There is not that freedom of organization typical of villas since the townhouse floor plan has more limits even when built on multiple levels.
• Townhouse are usually long and narrow, thus resulting more difficulty to furnish;
• Unless you have the apartment facing outward (the first one and last one of the row) there will be only two exterior walls with windows, consequently the house will be not very bright.

Terraced houses “A” project – floor plan produced with Edificius

Townhouses with patio or garden. The housing evolution over the centuries

After the single-unit lodgings phase, typical of the first human settlements, more complex dwellings were developed. They consisted of different rooms grouped around an internal free space of different size, which wasn’t covered, and that had different functions, representing the intimate area of the outdoor living room protected from external intrusion.
These are the court or patio houses, in all possible variations as compared to the classical plan. This type of building will find its maximum expression during the classical Greek and Roman times (domus).
Subsequently several urban domus unitary grouping, or aggregation of similar and repeated building types, brought to the accomplishment of insulae surrounded by roads, usually with right angles crossings. More groups of insulae came to constitute entire residential complexes, where the common characterizing element was the internal garden confining.
In the following centuries these types of housing have evolved in cities becoming more compact and agglomerated.
A certain type of court houses planning is also common in multi-family and multi-storey urban housing throughout Europe. Although, due to widespread building speculation, it will often be degraded to a simple courtyard without any relationship with the volumes all around.

terraced houses “L” project – elevation view produced with Edificius

terraced house “A” project – elevation view produced with Edificius

In the modern conception, the L, T, U-shaped linear configurations have become coordinated configurations, which can be combined to create complexes of patio houses with rooms of various sizes and configurations.

In this way multiple solutions can be reached as a response to the needs of an urban community.

Characteristics of terraced houses with patio or garden

Townhouses with patios or with garden belong to a category of single-family house types that has recently been revalued, especially as an alternative to detached single-family houses, due to the possibility of creating complexes with higher density, in full respect of privacy.

They are, for instance,  inward facing homes  with limited access to the external road.

Terraced house “L” project – A-A cross-section created with Edificius

Terraced house “A” project – B-B cross-section created with Edificius

The settlement is usually made up of two-storey single-family houses grouped together in rows, each with a private garden at the back: a characteristic that is found in many rationalist neighborhoods.
Accommodations, usually not too big, are standardized and sized for optimal functioning in relation to the family unit needs.

Terraced houses with garden or patio modelled in BIM

Here is an example of possible internal partition (regarding only ground floor on the video) of a townhouse with garden or patio and a sidewalk design.

Projects, 3D BIM models, drawing models and video are design using Edificius software.

Download the 3D BIM model (.edf file) of the terraced houses with garden or patio “A” project

Download the IFC model of the terraced houses with garden or patio “A” project

Download the DWG drawings of the terraced houses with garden or patio “A” project

Download the 3D BIM model (.edf file) of the terraced houses with garden or patio “L” project

Download the IFC model of the terraced houses with garden or patio “L” project

Download the DWG drawings of the terraced houses with garden or patio “L” project