After years of living in the city, our client purchased 19 acres of land in Southern Wisconsin with the goal of spending their time surrounded by the peaceful native prairie that they had rehabilitated themselves. The single-story home coexists alongside the restored prairie. The interior experience mirrors the feeling of the exterior of this modern farmhouse, extending into the natural prairie landscape, providing a grounded experience in the natural light underneath its vaulted ceilings.
The project was envisioned as a new modern farmhouse, a building typology centered around utility and the outdoors. Three gabled shapes, reminiscent of vernacular farm buildings, are nestled on top of the rolling prairie where each volume contains one of the primary living spaces.
You know the outside is the most important art. So when you look through a window, that's what I see. I had some really great pieces of art but it's really the outside and the nature. That's why you're here.”
Each volume is stepped away from the next to allow for a view up and down the prairie while increasing privacy from nearby properties. This arrangement also serves as a passive cooling strategy that minimizes exposure to the hot summer sun.
Prairie views and the client's collection of artwork remain the focal points of the project as the design of the home serves as its podium.
A limited palette on the interior and exterior unifies the residence through long-lasting materials that reference the local vernacular. The minimal interior uses wide-plank maple floors and white walls with custom white oak millwork placed in key locations. This uncluttered aesthetic serves as the infrastructure for peaceful living. Prairie views and the client's collection of artwork remain the focal points of the project as the design of the home serves as its podium. Black standing seam metal wraps around the exterior of each volume leaving the gabled ends Alaskan yellow cedar shingles that will slowly weather to a deep silver. Corten steel canopies and window surrounds also weather to a warm dark red. These series of architectural details will slowly transform and connect to the prairie as it also ages and grows.
The central volume serves as the main living area, a place that uses the outdoors as its backdrop. The kitchen and living area anchor the edges of the space that extends into the rest of the rooms. Moving through the house, light and space blend each room into one while using intentionally placed elements to create a visual separation. The large kitchen island provides a distinction between the living and kitchen spaces while the stair uses a maple louvered railing to allow light to permeate through it, connecting the main level to the basement courtyard carved into the site.
This isn't just a home for the client, it's their new way of life.
Connecting the three volumes with a flat roof in between not only breaks the house into its major functions but it also provides relief so it doesn't dominate the landscape around it. Each of these gabled shapes are intentionally set to a humanistic scale. Approaching them offers the landscape to seemingly flow through them, further solidifying the idea that this home is a piece of its site. The project also contains a barn that houses beehives where the client produces their own honey. This isn't just a home for the client, it's their new way of life.
Flat roof connections between the gable roof volumes allow the interiors to flow into each other.
Custom milled 24"-26" Alaskan yellow cedar shingles that reinforce the scale of the project.
Black standing seam metal siding wraps each volume.
We have developed a project that weaves together humans, nature, and their built environment, relying on materials to accept the life around them to evolve with its context. An integration of space, light, and experience builds a life for who you want to be and how you want to live.
