Private Terrace on the Street
. . . among the common areas and sitting spaces—Common Areas at the Heart, Sequence of Sitting Spaces—there is a need for one, at least, which puts the people in the house in touch with the world of the street outside the house. This pattern helps to create the Half-Hidden Garden and gives life to the street—Green Streets or Pedestrian Street.
Problem:
The relationship of a house to a street is often confused: either the house opens entirely to the street and there is no privacy; or the house turns its back on the street, and communion with street life is lost.
Background & Research: Not Included on the site—Go read the book!
Solution:
Let the common rooms open onto a wide terrace or a porch which looks into the street. Raise the terrace slightly above street level and protect it with a low wall, which you can see over if you sit near it, but which prevents people on the street from looking into the common rooms.
Usage:
If possible, place the terrace in a position which is also congruent with natural contours—Terraced Slope. The wall, if low enough, can be a Sitting Wall; in other cases, where you want more privacy, you can build a full garden wall, with openings in it, almost like windows, which make the connection with the street—Garden Wall, Half-Open Wall. In any case, surround the terrace with enough things to give it at least the partial feeling of a room—Outdoor Room . . .
pg. 664