Project Description
Ten Broek Farm is a thoroughbred horse ranch located near Ellensburg in the central part of Washington State. When the owners decided to build a new home on this property, their primary concern was that the structure harmonize with the expansive landscape and be sympathetic with the rural characteristics of the land. The structure was carefully located with a close proximity to a pond and surrounding pastures in mind.
The concept for this house was to make it seem as though the guest cottage was the original farmhouse, and that the rest of the house had grown over time. Stylistically, the house blends into the landscape by sticking with simple gabled forms and elements, while making the most of the 360-degree pastoral views connecting the occupants back to the land around them. The farm house vernacular is expressed by the use of the wraparound veranda and low pitched roofs. This is further reinforced with the use of large scale rough sawn timbers in keeping with a vernacular western ranch aesthetic. In order to differentiate it from the main house, the guest cottage has a different expression. It is a two-story structure with a simpler form; it has tighter eaves and a shingled roof; and the clapboard siding is painted white. The main house has wider eaves, stained western red cedar siding and a standing-seam metal roof.
The understated farm aesthetic continues on the interior which has a spacious
open floor plan, with a careful selection of warm materials and furnishings. Large windows reinforce the connection back to the exterior where the pasture fences come close to the house so that the horses can be seen from within. A careful alignment of openings from the living room through the master suite ends with a view out to the porch. The guest cottage also makes the most of the surrounding landscape. The main living space is also open, and it uses similar refined yet rustic materials throughout.