artnerdarchitecture

[artnerdarchitecture]

Shotgun Form

No, guys, not the “BANG, BANG,” shotgun, the HOUSE shotgun! This house form hassome similarities found in folk houses in the West Indies, Africa, and Haiti, that because popular in New Orleans among the black communities freed after the Civil War. This form is most common in suburban ares due to it’s small, accommodating form. Other inspirations for these houses are the Craftsman (built from around 1905-1930) and the traditional southern hall-and-parlor form.

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I-Type or I-House Form

Two room wide, one room deep, and two stories tall, from the air this type of house looks like an I, which is exactly what the form is called! The I-house, also known as an I-type, originates from traditional folk British house forms. The I-houses were popular shortly before the railroads in America were established, and gained popularity once again after the tracks were laid down. The reason being that the establishment of the railroads meant that goods, people and building materials were more easily transported at a much faster rate than with a horse and buggy.

Location of chimneys is a good indicator as to the regional location in America. If chimneys are located toward the center of the house, this indicates an I-house in the northern states where winters are much colder and central chimneys were crucial to keeping warm. End chimney indicate an I-house’s presence in the southern states, where winters were less harsh than that of the north.

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Italianate (1840-1885) Style and Cross Gabled Form

A. Towered subtype with an L-plan

B. Brackets on the gable’s cornice

C. Paired window with rounded tops and hooded crowns and a keystone

D. Cornice returns

E. Partial porch

F. Paired doors

G. Decorated chimneys

H. Stamped tin tile roof

Guys, this house is a gorgeous Italianate home with a cross gabled L-plan form. What that means is that two gabled roof forms are stuck together to look like the letter L.

Anyways, the Italianate style was a romantic style popular from 1840 to 1885 to built to resemble villas from the Italian Renaissance. Awesome, right? And the best part is, this is ANOTHER rare style found in the south!! The reason it was so rarely built away down south in Dixie was due to the Reconstruction after the Civil War and the 1870s depression that lead to little, if any, new building projects in the defeated south until after this faded out of fashion and popularity.

Also interesting fact: this style ALSO came from jolly old England! Cool, right? Another cool fact was that, like Gothic Revival, these houses were meant for rural rather than suburban areas.

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Federal/Adam Style(1790-1820)

A. Elliptical fanlight with sidelights

B. Flat lintels above windows

C. Parapetted Gable

D. Unadorned cornice

E. Double ended chimneys

My architecture nerds, this is house known interchangeably as a Federal or Adam house. This style came into popularity shortly after its predecessor style, known as Georgian, in 1780 and died out around 1820. In fact, the Georgian and Federal styles are quite similar. One of the ways to distinguish the styles is to look at the door, or rather, what is around the door. Instead of a rectangular transom light just above the door, one of the most common transom in the Adam style was an elliptical fanlight, which is a rounded, fan-shaped window.

One thing to note about this house is that this house, while very much large and in charge, also looks rather simple and not as flashy as previous houses posted, doesn’t it? The cornice, the space just under the edge of the roof, is as unadorned and fancy as the decorative lintels above the windows. The fact that this Federal style house is clad in brick rather than clapboard siding and the chimneys are on the end rather than the center of the house are typical of a southern variation of Federal.

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Hall-and-Parlor Form

This house here is a form known as the hall-and-parlor form. The reason being that the main block of this house is comprised of two rooms on the main floor: the hall and parlor. The halls we know today are thin, long passageways from one end of the building to the other. The hall in this home is not a long passage, but a room. It is, however, smaller than the parlor room, where guests were traditionally entertained, and considered the entry room to the home.

Something else you guys should note is that these houses were meant for poorer families that all slept together in one room, like the stereotypical log houses that had one room.

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Greek Revival Style (1825-1860) and Front Gable Form

A. Front gable form

B. Two(2)-story square pilasters

C. Wide trim on gable

D. High-pitched, wide cornice

E. Simple with abbreviated transom

F. Faint traces of patterns above windows and door transom

For this classy number, I’m providing two examples: the style of Greek Revival, and the front gable form.

The style of Greek Revival was popular during the Pre-Civil War era from 1825 to 1860. Usually characterized by huge, some sweet columns, these houses are meant to look like a Greek temple. This style is more commonly found in the northern states, but there a re fair few scattered here and there in the South. As with the Gothic Revival I previously showed you guys, this here is a rare, surviving gem in Tennessee.

The front gable style refers to how the two planes of the roof are pitched and where the main door is located on the house. Here, the door faces out from the short width, or front, of the house. This shape of building is one of the oldest rectilinear plans in the history of architecture.

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Gothic Revival Style (1840-1880)

A. Centered gable structure

B. Smaller cross gables/gabled dormers

C. Shaped window typical of Gothic style

D. (Behind the tree) one-story bay window

E. Tin stamped roof tiles

F. Decorative vergeboards (boards on the verge of the gable structure) also called gingerbread

The glorious structure you see on your screen is a side gabled Gothic Revival. This style was popular from 1840 to 1880 in mostly the northern and northeastern states, and this beauty here is one of the few of these gems found in the southern states of North America. The Gothic Revival movement began in England and came to America as a specifically rural style since the structures fit in with the natural landscape.

Looking at the immediate landscape around this beaut, I have to agree wholeheartedly.

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Craftsman Style (1905-1930)

A. Pier/Column base

B. Tapered ‘heavy’ piers that support the porch roof

C. Low pitched, hipped roof

D. Triangular knee brace under gables

E. Partial-width porch

F. Window glazing

This, my nerdy architects, is what is known as a Craftsman House. Popularly built from 1905-1930, this style of house was, and is, a typical house you will find in the suburbs. Originally designed in the southern parts of California, this style made it’s way into architecture style books and became all the rage in that era. These houses are typically one- or one-and-a-half stories tall and sometimes called bungalows or a “Bungaloid” style.