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Lawrence, Kansas
Rockhill + Associates
Like the little house on the prairie, Rockhill + Associates’ Kansas Longhouse sits comfortably in a field of grass
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Photo © Dan Rockhill |
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By Charles Linn, FAIA
A few years ago, one of Dan Rockhill’s clients gave him an 8-acre lot with frontage on a busy county road west of Lawrence, Kansas, in lieu of payment for some design and construction work. Rockhill explains, “We were cash poor, so we decided to build a spec house on it and sell it. When we started, we were enamored with the notion of literally coming down and cutting the prairie, moving it aside, putting a house on the exposed ground, and replanting the prairie back on top.” The idea developed by Rockhill and his colleague David Sain works: The Kansas Longhouse’s low-slope green roof has been so successfully colonized by the native prairie grasses that on approach it is nearly invisible. Visitors walking up the long driveway toward it ought to be warned before they embark, “Just keep going, it’s back there.” The structure’s major axis runs roughly east–west. It is placed parallel to and at the base of a short, sharp slope. Its south-facing wall of windows—which extends the entire length of the house itself—overlooks wide fields of brome grass, soybeans, and a distant tree-covered ridge. Orienting the building toward this view also allows the cooling south breezes to flow across the short axis of the house in summer, when the windows are shielded by shallow light shelves. In winter, sunshine warms the house’s concrete floor, and the slope behind the building shields it from the brutal north winds of Kansas. The plan, organized on a pure, 12-by-12-foot structural grid, could not be much more straightforward. The garage is separated from the house by a breezeway. One enters through the open living, dining, and kitchen area; beyond this, spaces become increasingly more private as the master bedroom at the far end of the house is approached.
The residence’s primary circulation path runs along the south window-wall, leading past two bathrooms, two bedroom/study spaces, and on to the master bedroom. Vanities for each bathroom are stationed in the corridor so users can enjoy the view, although they can be made private by pulling closed pocket doors on each side. A second corridor runs along the inside of the north wall of the house, allowing access to utility rooms, a tornado shelter, and the other end of the bedroom/study spaces. When windows are open on both sides of the house here (and elsewhere), and the doors at each end of these rooms are pivoted open, cool, refreshing breezes can freely circulate throughout the entire house.
Want the full story? Read the entire article in our October 2006 issue.
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