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Patio houses like these rub shoulders on small lots, but still retain detached privacy

In fact, as this project proves, they can offer far more privacy - both from the street and from neighboring houses - than the typical single-family house built at densities of from four units per acre up.

These 2,083 sq. ft. houses, for example, are built on lots of just 6,000 sq. ft. - at a net density of roughly four and one half per acre. But because each is enclosed by a wall, every square foot of the lot is usable.

The project is Garden Terrace, a 23 unit community being developed by Bahl Homes in Mountain View, Calif. The high cost of the five acre site (it was the last remaining R-1 land in the area) plus current high development costs posed an increasingly prevalent problem: how to make higher density palatable when you're selling expensive ($70,950 to $82,950) houses and your market is accustomed to the privacy of larger detached homes.

That the zero lot line concept can solve that problem is evident from the plans and photos on these pages. It lets you recapture the front yard for privacy, and it allows every room in the house to look out on - or open onto - private outdoor living space.

AWARD OF MERIT

Award of Merit winner in the merchant-built category of the 1974 Homes for Better Living awards program, sponsored by the American Institute of Architects in cooperation with House & Home and American Home magazines. Custom home winners appeared in May, multifamily winners in June; and remodeling winners in August.

Descriptions next to drawings and photo

Rear patio and pool

(Above and below) create a mini-vista for the master bedroom (photo, right), family room and one secondary bedroom.

Site plan (left) and photo above show the slightly curved sidewalks and staggered fencing that help minimize the stark, walled-in look that is the biggest problem with patio-house design. They also give a private feeling to the project's public street. Floor plan shows how zero-lot-line concept opens entire interior living area to the outdoors.

Vaulted ceilings, like the one seen in the photo at right, simulate a two-story look and provide a greater feeling of spaciousness for the single-level plan. This view is from the living room looking through the dining room to the enclosed side patio.