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) …
Alexander, Christopher. A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction. Oxford University Press, 1977, p. 664.