The Artist Studios project is located on the campus of the Volland Foundation, an arts residency program located in the Flint Hills of Kansas. The Artist Studios are among several of the planned projects that will expand the capacity, reach, and breadth of the foundations’ programming: specifically, the project provides a variety of studio conditions to accommodate the diverse and changing group of artists-in-residence. The project is two separate buildings containing two studios each. The scale has been shifted between the two buildings to provide variation in the studio offering, even as the building concept remains consistent.

We chose the simple barn-like gabled form as a starting point for the Artist Studios project because of the non-designed quality. This shape is a ubiquitous form that we felt could go unnoticed in the rural context and could also be a neutral platform for the making of art. However, in contradiction to this first point, we give the primary façade, the long edge of the barn, an almost classical frontality using a broad porch, extended roof eave, and monumental entrance niche. Within the niche the three entrances give direct access to each of the three rooms, from which the floor plan is arranged symmetrically. Finally, the two buildings are arranged in a close L configuration with the porches opening into one another to define an exterior space that is the domain of the artists working here.