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Roots of Style: Shingle Style Is Back — Here Is How to Spot It

What do so a lot of us find so alluring about a timber shingle? It could be that it’s among the simplest finish materials. Wood is a reachable and renewable source that adjusts to many climates and can be shaped and applied in numerous ways. With age it softens in color, even when painted, and crinkles, highlighting its natural relationship with us.

From the late 19th century, architects and their customers desired a departure from existing fanciful and elaborate Victorian designs. English and American Queen Anne structure had run a favorite course. That style was initially executed with brick exteriors in England, reinterpreted by Americans in timber and afterwards elaborated with extravagant fretwork.

Shingle style eliminated the ornament; the Queen Anne silhouette was staged and gently wrapped together with the conducive and versatile material, unifying the freely shaped spaces into a comprehensible whole.

Hart Associates Architects, Inc..

Shingle design originated in New England, crossing paths with and borrowing traits from colonial resurrection and Romanesque architecture. As a result of this, combinations on the theme are broad. Its defining characteristics are the clear shingle-clad walls and roofs, but in addition, there are a few other characteristic elements applied in infinite combinations.

Peaceful configurations. Original Shingle structure had a comparatively brief period of fame; it had been built mostly between 1880 and 1900. At the time its primary patrons were wealthier people who hired prominent architects to design large, rambling, coastal homes in fashionable Eastern summertime enclaves. Less formal interiors were designed with more open floor plans, departing from previous Victorian themes and foreshadowing this substantial 20th-century taste.

Promoted through design books, through magazines and from trendy followers, the trend modestly reached other areas of the country.

Taylor Lombardo Architects

Characteristics of Shingle-Style Homes

Restrained Information. Compare this San Francisco case to other neighborhood Queen Anne homes, and you can see how modern this could have emerged in its time. Notice the controlled detailing and the way the shingle texture awakens the house. Also notable, this house has Romanesque shaped arches for its own entrances.

The design faded from popularity in a rapidly changing 20th century. Plenty cases of it lived and were pampered, even though a few landmark originals were lost to neglect, decay and indifference.

The 1975 documentary Grey Gardens, in which a Shingle-style mansion sets the stage for a disturbing look into the troubled lives of a pair of Jackie Onassis’ relatives, casts a somber tone over the theme.

Evens Architects

Enormous first-floor porches. Fast-forward 25 years into the start of the 21st century and see this fresh California interpretation. “Shingle resurrection” best describes this once-again favorite theme. Compared to its ancestors and not evident in this picture, this house sits on a tight urban beachfront nonetheless suits its location well. Large first-floor porches along with the tower element hugging the principal body of the house are common to the design.

Ron Brenner Architects

Powerful rooflines. Roof contours of the Shingle style change dramatically from one case to another but always dominate the impression of the house. Gable, hip, gambrel and shed roofs and dormers can all be located on Shingle-style homes; in several instances they could even be combined on a single house.

The cross legged shape, such as this one, is one of the simpler designs. Notice the curved ascendance on the porch roof as well as the shed-roofed section near the garage. These details give this house a unique individuality.

Ekman Design Studio

Palladian windows. Within this new house, the Palladian window theme is set into two important places on its altitude, establishing focal points for its complex arrangement of its elements. Classical details weren’t always found in the design, but when included they were similar to those located in colonial revivals of the exact same era.

Meet your home’s classical ancestors

JORDAN ROSENBERG ARCHITECTS & ASSOCIATES

Gambrel roofs. As stated, gambrel roofs can be seen in this style. They were inspired by colonial revivals as well as the Dutch colonial variations, which were normally much simpler designs and lacked shingle cladding.

Wright Design

Dormer contours. Notice that many examples here have shed or gable dormers, while this one has trendy dormers. In Shingle style the variations on such elements are wide and lend into the flexibility of the theme.

VanBrouck & Associates, Inc..

Modern tower. The scale of this house is much more modest than that of its East Coast ancestors, however much detail has been replicated to achieve the flavor of the originals. See the tower in the corner of the design behind the garage doors. This element can be located on several originals and is popular in modern-day revivals.

Steven Laurin & Company

Rambling forms. This new Rhode Island house rests in the Shingle design’s native setting with ease. Original designs highlighted open floor plans and are still well suited to modern life, perhaps lending to the current popularity of this style.

Steven Mueller Architects, LLC

Stone details. Though many originals were mostly shingle clad, some joint shingles with stone. This modern version exemplifies the compatibility of these 2 materials.

Witt Construction

A romantic scale. Evident in this small house is the simplicity of distributing the theme to a romantic scale.

Michael McKinley and Associates, LLC

A detailed gable. Here the architects made the overhang of the gable end declared, which is a detail seen in several original examples of the design. It is a distinguishing characteristic on this specific house.

Siemasko + Verbridge

Variations on Shingle Style

Medieval form. The Queen Anne form is apparent in this newly assembled shingle-style house. Notice the way the shingles curve into certain window collections as well as the way the top-floor windows possess a forehead above them.

Also authentic to originals are double-hung windows with divided lights around the top half just. The porch posts are wrapped in shingle, which has been among many options of the design. Some had straightforward classical columns, while some had enormous stone- or shingle-clad piers at their porches.

Does your house have a medieval tradition?

Candlelight Homes

Vernacular renditions. Though this suburban Utah house is a loose interpretation of the design, the Shingle inspiration is clear.

TEA2 Architects

Streamlined versions. This new and clean-lined newer house holds on to some of the signature specifics of the design yet departs in a modern aesthetic.

Nancekivell home planning & design

Contemporary twists. In some modern examples, the timber shingle roof has been replaced with more durable and longer-lasting asphalt shingles. The architect of the modern example shown here has produced a exceptional statement by contrasting the darker body of the house using the dusty reddish roof.

More photographs: Shingle may be among the most popular revival styles in recent history. Search for exterior photos on , and you’ll find that many of the very popular are of the shingle resurrection.

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