Prairie Style Roof Design

The spirit of prairie style home plans remains alive in these designs.

Prairie style roof design.

Prairie home designs are characterized by strong horizontal lines and earthy materials which echo the broad plains. Their most defining characteristic is their emphasis on the horizontal rather than the vertical. It may consist of a flat roof on top but the main design element is the multi pitch sloped in what is essentially a hip roof on top of another hip frame. Prairie style homes feature a low pitched roof usually hipped with a wide overhang and have boxed shapes with a horizontal emphasis.

What types of roof does prairie style house typically have. Simple yet richly stained wood preferably quarter sawn oak and earth tones are hallmarks of a prairie style interior. The bottom of the slope is steep and nearly vertical before the top slope angles into the ridge. The gambrel design is basically the same as the mansard except the former has two slopes instead of four.

The prairie house plan is a uniquely american architectural style. The roofs on this style house usually has deep eaves and symmetrical window patterns. One of the few architectural styles that was not imported from europe the prairie school of architecture originated in the midwest and was catapulted to prominence by its most famous master frank lloyd wright. Near the top is a very steep pitch and near the upper walls of the home are a lower pitch though still fairly steep.

The prairie house style focuses on horizontal lines and low pitched roof lines. They spread out over their lots featuring flat or shallow hipped roof lines rows of windows overhanging eaves and bands of stone wood or brick across the surface. While ranch style developed in the 1930s in california from the convergence of spanish colonial and craftsman architecture among others the prairie aesthetic contributed to the proliferation of ranch architecture in the form of the broad hip roof like what we see in this example. This new prairie style home in california features hip roofs casement windows tight to the underside of the roof overhang and trim to emphasize the horizontal.

Prairie home plans have broad gently sloping sheltering roofs with prominent low chimneys. Frank lloyd wright is the most popular architect of this school of design but there was an entire group that specialized in the style. The prairie style began in chicago in the early 20th century. Wright began experimenting with the elements that would eventually define this style as early as 1894.

You ll be most familiar with this dual sloped style as used in a barn and the design is often referred to as a barn roof.