Brown Residence

This is Kansas, Big Prairie, Big Sky; With a touch of water fifty feet below. This site consists of six other family structures, each constructed at different times to satisfy the requirements of various generations of the same family. Children, grandchildren, friends and relatives within one space, this was the program. The space must be defined as all that can be associated with the senses possessed by each and every person. Both within and without the living family unit.The design utilizes the sites in such a way as to give views in two directions toward the lake, across cottonwood and elm trees and green then gold Kansas wheat, and an ever changing sky of blue and orange. Designed around a tortured mulberry tree, that had not borne fruit, both levels have grade entrances. The materials inside as well as outside are warm-tone board formed concrete, rough sawn cedar siding and bronze glass. Natural light controlled by orientation or a system of shed forms. Warmed by interior cedar and fir columns, beams and decking, brings the space into the balance with other materials.