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RG-CS-01 · REV A

Tropical Courtyard

CONCEPT STUDY 01 / 03

NOT CLIENT WORK
LOCATION
Tanjung Bungah · Penang Island
STUDY TYPE
Residential Concept
SHEET REF
RG-CS-01 · REV A
STATUS
CONCEPT — NOT CLIENT WORK
Narrow side-yard tropical courtyard with stepping stone route, layered shade planting and built-in timber bench
PLATE 01FIG. 01 — Courtyard looking south, evening condition
EXISTING → PROPOSEDFIG. B1 · COMPARISON
Narrow side-yard tropical courtyard with stepping stone route, layered shade planting and built-in timber bench
FIG. B1 — drag or use arrow keys to compare · concept study — not client workIllustrated condition reference

Slide between the existing yard reference and the proposed concept. The before view is an illustrated condition study, not a site photograph.

THE GOAL

Turn a narrow landed-home side yard into a shaded outdoor retreat.

THE BRIEF2 PARAGRAPHS

A two-metre side yard, paved, hot by midday and ignored for years — the family crossed it quickly and never lingered. The brief asked for somewhere to sit outside with morning coffee, without losing the service route to the back of the house.

The concept keeps the route but gives it character: a stepping-stone path set in a gravel drainage strip, planting that layers upward in the narrow planters, and a built-in timber bench that turns dead space into a destination.

DESIGN INTENT3 POINTS
  1. 01

    Narrow spaces fail when everything happens at one level, so the design works vertically — ground cover, mid-storey foliage and a slender tree for dappled shade.

  2. 02

    The gravel strip is not decoration; it drains the yard during Penang's heaviest downpours and doubles as a clean edge against the wall.

  3. 03

    Evening light was treated as a material — a simple lighting line along the bench makes the courtyard usable after work, when the heat has gone.

MATERIAL DIRECTIONSCHEDULE
  • BUSH-HAMMERED STONEstepping set
  • RIVER GRAVEL20mm washed
  • CHENGAL-TONE TIMBERbench & edging
  • WARM CONCRETErendered wall
  • BLACK GRANITElighting line
CONCEPT ELEMENTS
  • Stepping stone route
  • Layered tropical planting
  • Gravel drainage strip
  • Built-in timber bench
  • Soft evening light
PLANTING DIRECTION5 SPECIES
  • Heliconia 'Sexy Pink'Mid-storey accent
  • Bird's nest fernShade underplanting
  • Pandan wangiFragrant edge
  • Pincushion mossGround cover
  • Macaranga tanariusSlender shade canopy
PLANTING PLANSHEET P-01
A1 — ENTRYB2 — STONE ROUTEC2 — GRAVEL STRIPB3 — BENCH ZONEC3 — PLANTING
INDICATIVE LAYOUT — NOT TO SCALE5 NOTES
PLATES3 FIGURES
CONTINUE THE SETSHEET 01 OF 03

NEXT STEP

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