The best home designs respond well to their site. We do not know what your site is like.

I admit to be partial, but consider engaging a local competent residential architect to design the house with you to meet your needs and fits your site.

Interior walls built of 3 1/2" studs with 1/2" gypsum board on each side, and exterior walls built of 5 1/2" studs with 1/2" gypsum board on one side and 1/2" sheathing on the other side will have a great impact on your layout.

Agree that the site is an important factor, as well as the orientation of the house. Natural light is critical to well-being, so it would be good to know which direction is south. It would be helpful to everyone here if you gave much more detailed information about the site and orientation.

There is nothing wrong with a U-shaped house per se, and courtyards are found throughout the world. They are often used where there are privacy issues on the site, but don't know if that is the case for your land. Without getting into the weeds of your layout, my first reaction is that the courtyard is too long and narrow. I would widen it, maybe to 30 feet or so from the 20 you show, and also shorten the wings so that the open space is closer to a square.

But most important, as Mark suggested, your smartest move will be to engage a local, licensed architect to design this for you and not rely on the internet. If this really is your "forever" home, it will be money well spent.

Depending on your climate, your "walled-in" courtyard will get quite hot. Any breeze will be blocked. They can also be a bit claustrophobic.

How big is the property?

Any backyard?

I wouldn't want my main living space to face the street/front.

No garage?

You have more space devote to sleeping compared to living space.

You have prime corners take up by a guest suite and a master bathroom.

Love the private guest room. Would be even better with a courtyard view. Is the courtyard going to be the main entrance for family? A mud room will only be helpful if the kids use it everyday.

I think this os the fun start you bring to an architect/designer and sat what you love about it and why. They then design a home specific to your lot, needs and some wants.

I swoon over courtyard and atrium homes. There can be concerns with keeping plants alive, water drainage, and keeping yard debris picked up.

My parents had an H-shaped winter home, and because it was a close community in AZ, the front and back courtyards had walls across the non-house end. Loved it. It would not work here in the Great Lakes region in quite the same way, but I play with the plan in my head at night when I can’t sleep.

I think you are missing an opportunity here. A U is perfect for when your neighbors are too close. A tight U like this is for that, and when there isn’t much of a view. A wider U takes advantage of view, air flow, and feels more spacious.

The interior layout follows the same idea. A wider U allows for more light, view, sky. As you move through the house, you can walk a little further along the courtyard windows before having to turn at a wall, so it feels bigger.

Notice that a lot of this has to do with what is outside. You need to know what is outside to design a unique house. Where are the views, what is the slope of the land, which direction would the house face, what is the access.

It might turn out that an H or L might suit the lot better. You may protest ”An L is not a courtyard” but it can live like one.

In the very traditional 1950s neighborhood where I grew up, mostly long ranch houses, a new house went in in the 1960s that generated a lot of commentary. It was square, no windows on the front, few on the sides, and an interior courtyard with a pool. And no lawn! Gasp! Ground cover! Anyway, they did have issues with the pool, and no back yard to speak of, and it was, frankly, a little dark inside.

@chispa Thank you for the response! Yes- airflow is one of my main concerns, esp with having 1 or 2 trees and plants there. Our climate is hot and humid (Louisiana, zone 9a).

We are in the process of finding our land. We are looking for 5-10 acres, so ideally we won't be too close to the street, will have a lot of land behind the house for a backyard, could have a detached garage (my husband has a love hate relationship with garages... probably bc of me and my estate sale haha)

One of my challenges with playing around with the prime corners is the hallway space. I don't mind the guest bedroom having a corner but i know it's a no-no to have a bathroom on one. Only thing with rearranging the master- so much space goes to a hallway haha.

It has become more of a puzzle for my husband and I until we get to the stage of visiting an architect. We are more on the side of getting a 'simpler' home but idk. We keep coming back to this so we may stick with it.

@auntthelma The foyer would be the main entrance but entertaining the idea of a detached garage on the left side, so i guess a mudroom would also help as a drop zone/ secondary entrance

@bpath We are looking for land so a wider U is appealing but that's where my concerns of practically comes in. Would that mean 2 ac units, 2 hot water heaters because everything is so spaced out? Guh.

The land we have visited so far is raw (trees, and sometimes wetlands sadly haha). There's rarely anything i would want to build around besides the occasional oak tree! A pond normally comes with building on land here for the soil etc but it's not as appealing with toddlers rn. I think the views will come down to what we create. I would love the kitchen to face the east to get beautiful morning light with my cup of coffee *sigh*.

I have been entertaining the thought of an L shaped home to minimize concerns with air flow and the home feeling so spaced out. Haven't worked it out in my head but i may start to doodle!

@bpath

you're right. L-shaped may be better. It would allow a wider courtyard and better airflow. with a detached garage / kitchen it could still have thag U shape feel too! Hmmm

Since I'm just sharing my thoughts, this is the inspo just not as many trees, but the vibe is what I love. it was really my trip to Italy summers ago that altered my brain chemistry haha *photos from pinterest*

We had a courtyard home in Texas - DFW area. I loved the courtyard but it was hot (it was G shaped though so very much enclosed). We did have 2 water heaters to serve the wings when we bought it. We switched to 1 tankless system but that meant the farthest run bedrooms had to wait awhile for hot water which is a waste IMO. Courtyard homes are best with super flat land and with the unstable soil in TX that meant extensive slab lifting for us. All in all, I loved the house plan and it was fun to cross through the courtyard to get to the other sides. But because it was so hot we rarely sat out in it….Once I get to my sketch pad I can give you a rough idea of it.

5-10 acres in a hot/humid climate ... the plan you drew would not be a good idea at all.

Our lot is 2/3 acre reverse pie, so we had to make compromises on the layout of the large one-story house we wanted to build. I would not have built the same house if I had 5+ acres to work with

I despise the heat. Add in humidity, and I would never set foot outside. But I recognize that some people can deal with it - the same I way we deal with brutal winters. Still, the idea of a paved courtyard with no airflow sounds ghastly to me.

There were some popular atrium homes especially in California mid-century. I like looking at those! I wonder how they have fared over time?

Buy the land, then start the design of the house to respond to the site you own.

@AnnKH Haha my husband and I are both from Louisiana so it's all we know. I love winter (granted our winters are probably nothing for you) but my husband turns into a CHILD with the cold. High 60s in the south is too cold for him haha.

I'm still considering options for better airflow, a U is looking less appealing. Maybe an L. Or even a rectangle with detached garage and kitchen to give that U feel.

An 'L' shape will not go on your property.

@partim thank you! her books look amazing and will be a great book to have around the house as decor after!

Mark is right to buy the land first, then design the house. But I don't understand his comment above, since you don't have any property yet.

I would definitely follow partim's advise about what to read.

@RappArchitecture Thanks for your reply! Of course! We are actively looking for land with our realtor and are waiting to visit with any builders or architects after! This is more for fun and just sharing thoughts of a floor plan that lives in my head as an unsolved puzzle!

Already ordered a few books! With any home my priority is feeling cozy and lived in, not just big. My in-laws just built a beautiful home (around 8,000 sqft) and it is breathtaking, but to me it lacks that... 'cozy Sunday dinner' feel if that makes sense. Her books seem like a great read with insight of why that happens.

One thing we loved doing before we built was touring homes and seeing how their floor plans felt. We then took the realtor fliers and took parts we liked from the floor plans and shared them with our design team. It helped us see the homes in person to identify certain key things. We wanted a covered back deck, windows all along the back, open main floor, our bedroom top of stairs and kids farther back, a usable backyard we could easily get to from more than one floor, a suite that had no interactions with us etc.

I have always wanted an upstairs laundry room, but it does not fit in my space. As it turned out, not only is our year round home round home a beach house, my kids were competitive swimmers, and I am a very muddy gardener…so a ground floor mudroom with laundry, opening into a bath with a shower, was ideal.
But , if you are designing from scratch, is a second set of laundry machines that big an expense? I would say relative to many other things, no.