Every Friday the WSJ has a section on architecture, interior design, and occasionally landscape design. Today's section is about a resurgence in what they call "ranch" homes, even in the Hamptons. Just in case anyone is interested.
The “Ranch” is back, as a mindset, but where do you put one…cost of lots today makes lots smaller and smaller….”Ranches” are a becoming a rural endeavor.
The houses mentioned seem to be an update of the Palm Springs mid-century modern look. I have seen smaller versions shoe-horned in smallish lots in places like Coconut Grove, Florida, but there you have a lot of creative landscape architects than can isolate the house on the lot with highly screening jungle plants that stay green year round.
Where are the hip roofs? Where are the garage doors? Why is there so much natural light? Where is the brick watertable and vertical wood siding?
Aren't these are just high-end homes without a second story? One of them has a clerestory. One of them has a basement - where is the slab on grade? How could you eliminate the classic ranch-style eaves that shade the window openings almost too effectively?
I'm left with too many rhetorical questions and confusion as to why they would call this a ranch house reinvention. It's just a one-story house, right?
They seem to be based on the Palm Springs mid-century modern look. These new ones are often characterized by very high ceilings in some of the rooms, the house being designed around a courtyard with a pool, and more glass area and smaller overhanging eaves than the typical Palm Springs house. Anyway, they are not Brutalist concrete boxes with glass shards embedded in the walls. There is that.
I am self educating myself in home design, and ranch homes is one that was on my list of styles to learn while going thru college. Residential design education is something that I really have always wanted to learn.
The modern Ranch style evolved in the post-WWII era, when land was plentiful and demand was high. On large suburban lots there was no need to conserve space by building up, so Ranch home plans expanded outwards on a single story, causing them to be known as Ramblers in some regions. The classic Ranch floor plan features a combined living and dining area and a separate kitchen, with a hallway leading to the bedrooms on the other side of the home. Ranch designs may be rectangular, L-shaped, or U-shaped in plan.
The asymmetrical Ranch house plan is generally built with a low-pitched side gable or hipped roof and a large attached garage. The entry may be protected by a small portico or recessed porch. Large picture windows are common. Ranch style homes have few decorative elements, save for shutters and porch roof supports. No-nonsense siding or brick typically clad the exterior. Though typically a single story, Ranch home variations include the split-level and split-foyer designs, which share most other characteristics of Ranch style.
Wide, rambling shallow footprint with attached garage
High-end ranch homes
Every Friday the WSJ has a section on architecture, interior design, and occasionally landscape design. Today's section is about a resurgence in what they call "ranch" homes, even in the Hamptons. Just in case anyone is interested.
i admire your esprit.
carry on, paywall content mule, carry on!
The “Ranch” is back, as a mindset, but where do you put one…cost of lots today makes lots smaller and smaller….”Ranches” are a becoming a rural endeavor.
Here's the article: http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-ranch-house-reinvented-1437062184
More trendy silliness for the rich.
Everything in the Hamptons is high end, even the low end.
The houses mentioned seem to be an update of the Palm Springs mid-century modern look. I have seen smaller versions shoe-horned in smallish lots in places like Coconut Grove, Florida, but there you have a lot of creative landscape architects than can isolate the house on the lot with highly screening jungle plants that stay green year round.
Where are the hip roofs? Where are the garage doors? Why is there so much natural light? Where is the brick watertable and vertical wood siding?
Aren't these are just high-end homes without a second story? One of them has a clerestory. One of them has a basement - where is the slab on grade? How could you eliminate the classic ranch-style eaves that shade the window openings almost too effectively?
I'm left with too many rhetorical questions and confusion as to why they would call this a ranch house reinvention. It's just a one-story house, right?
so "the modern farmhouse"...? heh.
I have seen ranch houses and I have lived in ranch houses and those sir are not ranch houses.
Read in the tone of Lloyd Bentsen
They seem to be based on the Palm Springs mid-century modern look. These new ones are often characterized by very high ceilings in some of the rooms, the house being designed around a courtyard with a pool, and more glass area and smaller overhanging eaves than the typical Palm Springs house. Anyway, they are not Brutalist concrete boxes with glass shards embedded in the walls. There is that.
I am self educating myself in home design, and ranch homes is one that was on my list of styles to learn while going thru college. Residential design education is something that I really have always wanted to learn.
The modern Ranch style evolved in the post-WWII era, when land was plentiful and demand was high. On large suburban lots there was no need to conserve space by building up, so Ranch home plans expanded outwards on a single story, causing them to be known as Ramblers in some regions. The classic Ranch floor plan features a combined living and dining area and a separate kitchen, with a hallway leading to the bedrooms on the other side of the home. Ranch designs may be rectangular, L-shaped, or U-shaped in plan.
The asymmetrical Ranch house plan is generally built with a low-pitched side gable or hipped roof and a large attached garage. The entry may be protected by a small portico or recessed porch. Large picture windows are common. Ranch style homes have few decorative elements, save for shutters and porch roof supports. No-nonsense siding or brick typically clad the exterior. Though typically a single story, Ranch home variations include the split-level and split-foyer designs, which share most other characteristics of Ranch style.
Wide, rambling shallow footprint with attached garage
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