Ranch-style house
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ranch-style houses are also called American Ranch or California Ranch. First built in the 1930s, the ranch style house was extremely popular in the United States during the 1950s to 1970s, as new suburbs were built for baby boomer families. Their popularity waned in the late 20th century as neo-eclectic house styles became popular.
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[edit] Features
Not all Ranch homes have all these features. These are considered the key elements of the original Ranch home style.
- Single story
- Long, low roofline
- Asymmetrical rectangular, L-shaped, or U-shaped design
- Simple floor plans
- Open floor plans
- Attached garage
- Sliding glass doors opening onto a patio
- Large windows
- Vaulted ceilings with exposed beams
- Windows often decorated with shutters
- Exteriors of stucco, brick and wood
- Large overhanging eaves
- Cross-gabled, side-gabled or hip roof.
- Simple and or rustic interior and exterior trim
[edit] History and Development
The 20th century Ranch House style has it’s roots in North American Spanish colonial architecture of the 17th to 19th century. These buildings used single story floor plans and native materials in a simple style to meet the needs of their inhabitants. Walls were often built of adobe brick and covered with plaster, or more simply used board and batten wood siding. Roofs were low and simple and usually had wide eaves to help shade the windows from the Southwestern heat. Buildings often had interior courtyards which were surrounded by an U shaped floor plan. Large front porches were also common. These low slung, thick walled, rustic working ranches were common in the Southwestern states.
[edit] Early Modern Period
Several American architects of the early 20th century were instrumental in taking the Spanish colonial ranch homes and fusing them with Modern Architecture to create the California Ranch House Style. Cliff May of San Diego and William Wurster of San Francisco are two of the more common names associated with this innovation. Cliff May’s book, “Western Ranch Houses” stress three basic concepts about ranch houses that serve as foundational philosophical underpinnings. First, is livability, second, flexibility and third is an unpretentious character. All three elements were addressed by combining modern building practices with the rustic Spanish Colonial rancherias.
[edit] Livability
Livability was addressed by the addition of open floor plans instead of the small and divided up rooms of previous house styles. In a modern ranch house each of the major rooms was intended to flow into the next. Large windows were added to bring in outside light and nature. Garages were attached to the home instead of the separate building they had been in previous house styles such as the Bungalow, this acknowledged the importance of the automobile in modern life by integrating the vehicle into the home. Sliding glass doors opened to patios, usually covered, in the back of the home, a direct fusion of the Spanish Colonial Rancherias and Modernism. As land was inexpensive and plentiful in this time period the Ranch Houses were long and rambling over their large lots.
[edit] Flexibility
Flexibility was addressed by the open floor plans that allowed rooms to be rearranged and serve multiple purposes. Ranch Houses often included separate living and family rooms and formal dining rooms that all could be redressed for other purposes as needed. In addition the simple trim and style could be made to work with a number of interior decorating schemes, from American Colonial to ultramodern to contemporary casual. The integrated patio served as an extension of the living space, allowing a functional relationship with the outdoors.
[edit] Unpretentious character
Unpretentious character was addressed by the simple, lean, lines of the houses themselves. Ranch Houses, with their low roof lines and simple rustic trim, were intended to maintain a casual feel and not dominate their neighborhoods.
[edit] Era of popularity
By the 1950’s the California Ranch House, by now often called simply the ranch house or even “rambler house”, had become the predominant choice for detached, single family housing in the United States. The seemingly endless ability of the style to accommodate the individual needs of the owner/occupant, combined with the very modern inclusion of the latest in building developments and simplicity of the design satisfied the needs of the time. Ranch houses were built throughout America and were often given regional facelifts to suit regional tastes. The “Colonial Ranch” of the midwest and east coast is one such noted variant, adding American Colonial features to the facade of the California Ranch House. Ranch homes of the 1940’s and 50’s are typically more deliberately rustic in nature than those of the 60’s and 70’s, with features such as dovecotes, swiss board edging on trim, and generally western and even fantasy trim styling. In the 60’s the Ranch house echoed the national trend towards sleekness in design, with the homes becoming even simpler in trim and ornamentation.
[edit] Loss of Popularity
American tastes in architecture began to change in the late 1960’s, a move away from Googie and Modernism and Ranch Homes towards more formal and traditional styles. By the late 1970’s the ranch house was no longer the home of choice and had been eclipsed by the Neo-Eclectic styles of the late 20th century. These Neo-Eclectic homes typically continue many of the informal and casual lifestyle interior features of the Ranch House, such as open floor plans, attached garages, and built in patios, though their exterior styling typically owes more to Northern Europe or Italy than Colonial New World Rancherias. Additionally the increase in land prices has meant a corresponding increase in the number of two story homes being built, and a shrinking of the size of the average lot, both trends which inhibit the traditional ranch house style. Occasionally today ranch style houses are still built, mainly in the western states.
[edit] Variations
Two Story Versions
The raised ranch is a variation where a furnished basement is mostly or completely above ground foundation serves as an additional floor. The common result is a two story version of a Ranch-style house. It may be built into a hill to some degree, such that the full size of the house is not evident from the curb.
"Commerical Versions"
The ranch house style was adapted for commerical use during the time of the styles popularity. As the concept of a "drive in" shopping center was being created and popularized the ranch style was a perfect style to fit into the large tracts of ranch homes being built. Commerical ranch buildings, such as supermarkets and strip malls, typically follow the residential style with simple rustic trim, stucco or board and batten siding, exposed brick and shake roofs, and large windows.
[edit] Criticisms
Ranch style houses often are criticized for lacking a style. Some feel that the style is sterile and utilitarian. The sheer commonness of the style often makes them a target of disdain, they became ordinary by their numbers. The counter argument to this criticism is that the objector is simply uneducated in the style the ranch house represents, which is simplicity and lack of ornamention. Furthermore, one can counterargue that the ranch house very much is a legitimate style that has a long historical basis.
[edit] Cultural Criticism
The ranch house phenomena was very much centered in the blue collar lower income and white collar middle income socioeconomic groups. Almost from the very start of the ranch house era the style was criticized by the established architectural elite. Thus a clear cultural divide can be seen in the criticisms of the ranch house, the “masses” embracing the design for decades and the “established architectural community” deriding it. The early ranch house tracts were mocked for their treeless nature, and “soulless” was a common adjective to describe such housing, along with the term “ranchburger”. The counter argument to this criticism is that the arguments against the house on an architectural style basis or a “soulless” basis reflect a class divide and differing cultural visions of house styles and home life. Another counter argument is that ranch house neighborhoods, which now are at least 30 and often 60 years old, are no longer treeless tracts and have developed "character" and generally not decayed as many previous house style neighborhoods did after their popularity waned. (see Hess)
[edit] Environmental Criticisms
Since the 1970s green movements began, the ranch house has often attacked for being wasteful of resources. The large lots of the ranch houses have been attacked as wasteful to water in order to maintain their turf, and for creating "suburban sprawl." The long and rambling nature of the homes for a single family is seen as a waste of building materials. The suburban nature of the homes, with their encouragement of car culture by having attached garages, is criticized as destroying community and encouraging alienation and isolation. The counter argument to this criticism is that this argument is really focused on the very nature of modern housing and cities, ought cities and modern life to be dependent on personal automobiles for transit or other methods and ought modern living to be centralized or not. The ranch house merely is one style of housing that has been built in the last hundred years in America that is responding to a decentralization of living, an increase of suburbia that predates the ranch house, and the desire for greater anonymity of modern living. Further counter arguments are that individuals ought to have the right to choose the mode of housing they prefer and that satisfies their needs and wants without "moral" judgements on that housing choice.
[edit] See also
[edit] Further reading
- Allen, B. L. (February 1996). "The Ranch-style House in America: A Cultural and Environmental Discourse". Journal of Architectural Education 49 (3): 156-165.
- Bricker, David (1983). "Built For Sale: Cliff May and the Low Cost California Ranch House". M.A. thesis. University of California, Santa Barbara.
- Bricker, David. "Ranch Houses Are Not All the Same" (PDF). National Parks Service Cultural Resources.
- Clouser, Roger A. (1984). "The Ranch House in America". Ph.D. dissertation. University of Kansas.
- Hess, Alan (2005). The Ranch House. New York: Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 0810943468.
- Hunter, Christine (1999). Ranches, Rowhouses, and Railroad Flats-- American Homes: How They Shape Our Landscape and Neighborhoods. New York: W.W.Norton. ISBN 0393731863.
- May, Cliff (1958). Western Ranch Houses. Santa Monica: Hennessey & Ingalls.
- McCoy, Esther and Evelyn Hitchcock (1983). "The Ranch House", in Moore, Charles W. et al.: Home Sweet Home. Rizzoli, 84-89.
- Peterson, Gary G. (1989). "Home Off the Range: The Origins and Evolution of Ranch Style Architecture in the United States". Design Methods and Theories 23 (3): 1040-59.
