---
title: "Private Terrace on the Street (140)"
created: 2026-07-01
updated: 2026-07-01
type: concept
status: compiled
namespace: pattern-language
pattern_number: 140
pattern_name: "Private Terrace on the Street"
source_repository: https://github.com/zenodotus280/apl-md
source_url: https://github.com/zenodotus280/apl-md/blob/master/Patterns/Private%20Terrace%20on%20the%20Street%20%28140%29.md
license_note: Non-commercial reuse with attribution; see namespace README and source LICENSE.md.
related_patterns:
  - "Common Areas at the Heart (129)"
  - "Sequence of Sitting Spaces (142)"
  - "Half-Hidden Garden (111)"
  - "Green Streets (51)"
  - "Pedestrian Street (100)"
  - "Terraced Slope (169)"
  - "Sitting Wall (243)"
  - "Garden Wall (173)"
  - "Half-Open Wall (193)"
  - "Outdoor Room (163)"
---

# Private Terrace on the Street (140)

> Source pattern from the abridged `apl-md` corpus. Use as a design reference and constraint seed; do not treat as commercial-clean training data.

### 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.

### Solution
>Let the common rooms open onto a wide terrace of 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.

### Related Patterns
... among the common areas and sitting spaces - [[Common Areas at the Heart (129)]], [[Sequence of Sitting Spaces (142)]] - 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 (111)]] and gives life to the street - [[Green Streets (51)]] or [[Pedestrian Street (100)]].

If possible, place the terrace in a position which is also congruent with natural contours - [[Terraced Slope (169)]]. The wall, if low enough, can be a [[Sitting Wall (243)]]; 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 (173)]], [[Half-Open Wall (193)]]. In any case, surround the terrace with enough things to give it at least the partial feeling of a room - [[Outdoor Room (163)]] ...

---

> [!cite]- Alexander, Christopher. _A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction_. Oxford University Press, 1977, p. 664.
> #APL/confidence/high
>
> #APL/Building-Patterns/Private-Rooms