We all know a ranch home from our past. Odds are, you grew up in a single, or your grandparents lived within one their entire lives, or your best friend lived in a single round the corner.
This popular house design spread from coast to coast in the U.S. in great numbers during the 20th century. Look back to 1930s California, where the design originated in the work of several prosperous architects. Their clients bought an acre or two within 10, 20 or even 30 kilometers of metropolitan centers. Inexpensive property was plentiful at that moment. This opportunity for generous spaces set a framework for ranch-style layout, which borrowed characteristics of the preceding Prairie and Craftsman styles, together with Spanish colonial architecture.
The Prairie design proved a long, low and horizontal elevation, while Craftsman cued using exposed rafter tails in open eaves and other easy wooden details. More important, Spanish colonial structure in California encouraged the idea of rambling floor plans with wide porches extending from main roofs.
Throughout the country at the following three decades the proliferation of the car allowed many suburban tracts to be set out in 1/4- to 1-acre parcels. Consider that a quarter acre is a bit more than 10,000 square feet, and you can see the way the normal single-level 1,500-square-foot ranch home and 400-square-foot garage lazily and easily spread itself out using 8,100 square feet to spare.
Genesis Architecture, LLC.
Designs that created parallel to ranch design could be traced to the work of Frank Lloyd Wright. He created several styles, including Prairie design, and he also established the Usonian house design in the 1930s, promoting it as an ideal model for the American middle class.
Notice that the long and very low facade, or elevation,of the 1956 Usonian-inspired house. A mixture of stone and wood feels casual and inviting, and the home stretches from one side to the other openly. On the other hand, the apartment roof did not translate into the ranch style that developed in California.
Tom Meaney Architect, AIA
This newer California home was made in a Spanish colonial style. Notice the gable roof types together with parts extending widely to make ample porches. Different sections of the structure surround a courtyard, defining a important exterior relationship to the entire composition. The original ranch design recorded these components more but still had the same rambling form.
Because the design became so popular, there are several variations. As with this home, many have some Spanish details, such as tile roofs, but some seem pastoral and may have wood shingle roofs. Some could be considered traditional, while some can be contemporary or contemporary.
The most common thread is a lengthy and very low asymmetrical appearance with generous porches or entry covers and also a free-flowing form.
Carson Poetzl, Inc..
Certainly this home depends upon Spanish designnevertheless, describing it as a Spanish ranch probably suits it best. An asymmetrical elevation rambles in varying shapes and sizes in two instructions in this picture. Details are easy and minimal, although the connection to Spanish is evident, the translation has a massing freely aligned into the wandering configuration that is feature of the ranch style.
Curtis Lawson Homes
Not to be confused with minimalist conventional, this conventional ranch is different in the former due to its lower pitched roof; it’s a generous front or rear porch and a wider elevation. Exterior materials vary widely on the ranch fashion. Most original California examples used stucco wood siding of different kinds. More common into the Midwest and Texas is brick veneer, such as on this particular home.
Global Home Improvement
This recently remodeled ranch home feels traditional in makeup but achieves a rustic effect with its brick color and metallic roof. Notice the green lawn and plentiful vegetation surrounding this home. This type of setting attracted many 20th-century homeowners wishing to raise families. Large yards where they could let their children play and the chance to accomplish a sense of independence and privacy also made the motif alluring.
ROTHERS Design/Build
This remodeled ranch home exemplifies the versatility and potential variations of the design. No two components are identical, however all flow from one to another. The stone-veneer centre portion anchors front having a complementary stone chimney. The milder shingled extensions dance across the landscape, decreasing the garage doors in comparison to the diameter of the home’s elevation.
Tom Meaney Architect, AIA
Notice that the huge red brick chimney on this traditional-style ranch home. Large Granite fireplaces indicate another common element of the design. Particular for this particular one, a full-width front porch with bracketed article details adds to its personality. Two large bay windows contribute to the theme and spread easily beneath the broad porch.
Cramer Kreski Designs
The ranch-style house has turned into one of the most common forms to be remodeled, for several reasons. As mentioned before, most were sited on generous parcels, allowing lots of space for expansion. When most originals are quite small, with small bathrooms and kitchens, they are often located in first-tier suburbs. These locations are ideal for commuters with green thumbs.
Design Discoveries
The rustic board and batten siding, that is not uncommon on originals, on this particular remodeled ranch paradoxically looks painted white, in a contemporary style. Also common in ranch design, the prominent and/or gigantic chimney anchors the otherwise horizontal arrangement. Be aware that the garage looks secondary and slight into the front part of the home. Typical of the sprawling ranch has been minimized visual impact of the garage doors.
Webber + Studio, Architects
Though many ranch home designs are covered with a gable roof, they can also be seen with hip roofs, as for this case. This remodeled home was carefully detailed to keep up the low horizontal impression common to the design. Again, notice that the garage door does not control the view from the street. Many ranch houses of all types have large picture windows, such as those you see here. They are often placed in the front, positioned in a large living space, but are more frequently placed facing the garden.
RD Architecture, LLC
Ranch designs of the 1960s mirrored midcentury modernism by incorporating lengthy, blank facades and monolithic rooflines. The designer of the accession to this Houston-area example has left the initial scheme intact. These types are discovered throughout the U.S.
This beautifully comprehensive new contemporary home unites smoke-colored brick veneer, a light-colored Spanish tile roof, and cedar and ipe wood siding. Its details reach an intricate composition that resembles the linear Usonian home shown in the first photo.
Bosworth Hoedemaker
Roof types of ranch-style designs vary from gable and hip forms to combinations of the two, as you can see in this contemporary version. The steeper pitch of the upper gable roof allows a shed dormer to be placed comfortably in the scheme. Note the way the rustic atmosphere and substances are encapsulated into a certain sculptural form. The layout does not ramble but nevertheless spreads widely along its site.
Several facets of the new home transcend ranch-style attributes. A huge masonry chimney with exterior and interior functions anchors the layout. Porch overhangs extend out of the principal structure, eliminating the need for articles. The cross-gable roof form echoes its ancestors, while white clapboard siding and a standing-seam metallic roof convey a contemporary aesthetic. Watch a Tour of the endeavor
The ranch motif seems to still be cherished in many regions of the U.S. Probably as a result of large numbers constructed in the 20th century and the abundance of suburban spaces in distant regions of the country, the design will continue to draw a considerable following in the future.
More: Cliff May’s California ranch design | Read thousands of ranch-style homes