Honorable Mention: Long House on the Prairie

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Abundant windows and concrete floors enable passive heating and cooling
Abundant windows and concrete floors enable passive heating and cooling
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Careful sitting allows for natural ventilation.
Careful sitting allows for natural ventilation.

Jon O’Neal’s 2,600-square-foot prairie home, designed by locally famous Lawrence, Kansas, architect Dan Rockhill, is a playful take on Nordic and Native American longhouses. The house is a testament to sound design with a flexible, open floorplan and banks of 12-foot-high windows taking in the southern sun. Kansas limestone sheaths the exterior; a swath of native fescue grass on the roof provides insulation and tucks the house visually into the landscape. Efficient windows, radiant floor heat, extra insulation and an elaborate cross-ventilation system round out the home’s green features.

Read the original Long House on the Prairie article.

  • Published on Apr 10, 2009
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