Mods there should be a factual answer to this question, but if it starts to sound more like IMHO feel free to move it as appropriate.
My wife and I just purchased a house and can’t seem to agree on what style of house it is. It was listed as a Ranch-style home, but that doesn’t really fit from my perspective, other than being a single story. My wife thinks it’s more of a Craftsman-style house, but it sure doesn’t look like a craftsman to me.
It’s the byproduct of a modern house designer, I would say, who’s stolen concepts from multiple designs. The tall roof is reminiscent of French chateaus, but in this case stuck on a common bungalow, Ditto for the artsy-fartsy bay window and multiple peaks, all park for a house design trying hard to not look like the little boxes made of ticky-tack like the song. The fake rock base and entrance, also an option, to avoid having the house all siding and hence boring-looking. (The “rock” is usually cast coloured cement blocks mortared onto the plywood wall sheathing. The villa roofline was an option for my house in a new subdivision when we built it 10 years ago, the house next door has that roofline. We also have rock along the baseline (front only) and entrance.
It doesn’t have a traditional named and recognized architectural style. It’s an amalgam of various features that the developer’s architect put together in hopes it would appeal to a certain demographic of purchasers.
Most architectural style names are applied in retrospect, sometimes decades after the buildings were built. What we now call Art Deco, for example, was at the time mostly just referred to as “the modern style,” or at best Moderne. It wasn’t called Deco until the 1960s, and the name wasn’t broadly applied until after some 1980s museum exhibitions.
I agree with md2000 and Mr. Downtown that the house draws on several different styles and can’t be called one or the other.
The only thing I’d add is that those tall roofs aren’t just on chateaus in France. I’d say that this house is mostly a hybrid of neo-Norman and pseudo-French-farmhouse styles. But the siding (along with a few other details) doesn’t make sense with those styles, so yeah, this is an amalgam.
I definitely wouldn’t say the house is part of the craftsman tradition, but it’s a mishmash that’s not obviously from any one tradition. I’m not denigrating your new house, by the way. I hope you enjoy it!
No chimney and very asymmetric, so definitely not Cape Cod.
Given the mish-mash of stylings - steep gables, asymmetry, bay window - I’d characterise it as Neo-eclectic, the actual name for that sort of modern melange style.
I always assumed “ranch” simply meant “living spaces all on one level.” Whereas terms like “craftsman” or “midcentury modern” described architectural styles.
So I’d call that a ranch. If the house next door had a similar style but 2 stories above grade, I’d call that a “2-story”, rather than “colonial.” Not sure whether the style has any particular name. Just looks like a great many houses built in the last couple of decades of the 1900s, into the 2000s. The combination of elements make it hard to assign any ter such as “frame” or “brick” to it. My wife and I are pretty big fans of all things arts and crafts/craftsman. I would NEVER dream of calling your home craftsman.
None of this is intended to say anything unpleasant about your home. It looks very nice. I’d just call it a single story “house.” Enjoy it.
The flying butresses are a nice touch (meant only half sarcastically). My gut reaction is that it’s a pretty little house. At the same time I’ve been reading too much McMansion Hell, and although this isn’t big enough to be called a McMansion, it does borrow rather a LOT of details from one.
Re: multiple rooflines, that is something I’ve long noticed. I used to count the different roof planes on houses as I walked the dog. On an older peaked roof, there would be only 2 planes. A hipped roof would have 4. Maybe add a dormer or 2, but the total would still be in single digits. I think my late-50s split-level has 10.
Vastly different from much (most?) newer construction, which can have 20 or more. The OP’s house is not on the excessive end of this, but I count 8 roof planes from the front alone.
The higher the number is not inherently bad, but I tend to think it looks unnecessarily “busy.” I also tend to fear that the places where the various planes meet might be at greater risk for accumulating leaves and debris and developing leaks. I also tend to disfavor structures that are purely for looks. Such as a balcony no one would ever stand on. The OP’s home does not do this to any great degree, but it is quite common.
The OP’s relatively “generic” styled house is different from what I often see, where homes seem inspired by various remote places or even fantasy. Rather than just a “house”, here i the Chicago burbs one house might be an interpretation of a farmhouse, next door to a cape cod fantasy, next to a french chateau… I’m not saying that anyone should refrain from building a home in whatever style they wish, or that any “generic” style is “best.” Just observing that much modern architecture seems to involve some measure of “fantasy.” But I assume it always has. Maybe just used to be exercised primarily by the wealthiest…
“Ranch” is used to describe both a certain style of home but it is also used by real estate agents as a catch-all for “any single story home that isn’t one of these other types.” Your house fits into the latter grouping. Eventually, so many homes like yours will be in that group that either “ranch” develops the more inclusive meaning or we’ll find some new term to describe your home. Perhaps something like “contemporary rambler.”
Colorful I’ll give you, but fun? Fun is subjective. Post-modern buildings may aspire towards “fun”, but they mostly achieve “eye-rolling”. YMMV, of course
