Project: Homestead Residence
Architects: Kem Studio
Location: Prairie Village, Kansas, United States
Photo Credits: Bob Greenspan
Text by Kem Studio
Located in Prairie Village, Kansas, the Homestead Residence anchors a corner lot and provides a reinterpreted homage to the Mid-Century Modern archetype that once occupied this lot.
The corner lot presented the opportunity to separate the garage and main house volumes, allowing each to relate their street and connect the neighborhood fabric. A low slung hipped roof with deep overhangs joins the masses, creating an interstitial space that becomes a covered outdoor living room as the core of family life and gateway to the private back yard.
The approach to the residence greets one with a masonry facade, perforated in sections, running the long axis of the house. A shift off-axis provides an orientation to the main stair that is pulled out from the interior footprint, flowing linearly under the roof overhang. The stair acts as a transition between inside and outside, first and second level living. The broken and bent bar planning cradles the private backyard and pool casita, connected through the outdoor living room. A restrained material palette of light buff brick, white stucco, and exposed concrete is accented by stained cedar for an approachable feeling in an otherwise traditional neighborhood.
