Architect's Toolbox: Roofs that Connect Earth and Sky
A roof's design can connect us to the land or lift us above it all. Which style is for you?
Houzz Contributor. My name is Bud Dietrich and I am an architect located in the Tampa Bay area of Florida. I am licensed to practice architecture in Illinois, Florida, New Jersey & Wisconsin and I am a certificate holder from the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB). Since 1996 I have worked from my home office and provide full architectural services exclusively to the single family residential market. My passion is to transform my clients' houses into their homes. I strive to have the "new" home accommodate my clients' lives without fighting them at every junction. I look to add curb appeal to encourage a beautiful streetscape. And I design any addition to look and feel like it has always been there.
Our projects have won numerous design awards as well as having...
Houzz Contributor. My name is Bud Dietrich and I am an architect located... More »
There are so many important functions for a roof. Though its primary purposes may be to shed water and protect us from the elements, a well thought-out roof does so much more. It can tether us to the landscape or let us soar up and away. And the best roofs can do both at the same time.
Roofs can also act as platforms and foils for chimneys and cupolas and weather vanes and all that other stuff we may have up there. And roofs can become terraces, lifting us above it all.
From the classic inverted "V" of a gable roof to the flat slab, roofs come in a variety of shapes and forms. The gable roof of the farmhouse relays a different story than the ground-hugging hip roof of the prairie style. And the seemingly non-existent roof of a modernist house tells us a different story all together.
Roofs can also act as platforms and foils for chimneys and cupolas and weather vanes and all that other stuff we may have up there. And roofs can become terraces, lifting us above it all.
From the classic inverted "V" of a gable roof to the flat slab, roofs come in a variety of shapes and forms. The gable roof of the farmhouse relays a different story than the ground-hugging hip roof of the prairie style. And the seemingly non-existent roof of a modernist house tells us a different story all together.
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| Some roofs both hug the land and reach for the sky. This roof aspires to what's above while, like a tent, it is tethered to the broad prairie. The absence of a shadow at the gable ends emphasizes the simple geometry of the roof shape. And the thin slit-like shed dormer is like an eye half open, not quite awake nor asleep. See more of this house |
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by Birdseye Design
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| Some roofs step out and up, reaching higher as they lift us. The roof, starting as a simple gable, follows the geometry of the form below. The roof extends here, gets subtracted there. All the while it pulls us into the clearing and rewards us with a bit of sky. |
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| A simple roof shape can be powerful against all that sky. A minimum of detail in a monochromatic palette keeps us focused on the important stuff, just a simple yet powerful shape that reads all the more clearly against that crisp blue sky. |
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| A roof can be a platform for a cupola that illuminates the night sky. Whether cupola or chimneys or something else, these elements on the roof continue all that vertical movement, pushing our eye ever upward. Even the ubiquitous and often undersized weather vane can achieve the same effect. |
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| Even a humble roof can bridge earth and sky. A simple roof form with simple windows and doors keeps the home cozy and humble while the two brick chimneys make sure we don't forget the sky above us. |
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Sometimes we hide the roof. Here the wall takes over and dominates, like in a Dutch streetscape. Even then, the wall reveals the shape of the roof behind it to continue that upward movement.
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| Sometimes we let the roof take over. We extend the roof beyond the walls and let the sun create deep shadows. And we emphasize the inverted "V" by making it a motif. |
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| The flat, modernist roof keeps us anchored. Our spatial experience is all horizontal or Euclidean. It's as if the sky no longer matters. |
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Sometimes, though, that flat roof takes flight. Not always content with just the earth, the flat, modernist roof bends and slopes and finds its way back to the sky. It starts to carry us aloft like the wings of a jet plane.
Tell us: What's the roof like on your home? Does it lift you upwards? Does it tether you to the earth? If you could, would you change it?
Next: More devices in the architect's toolbox
Browse inspiring home designs
Tell us: What's the roof like on your home? Does it lift you upwards? Does it tether you to the earth? If you could, would you change it?
Next: More devices in the architect's toolbox
Browse inspiring home designs
Comments
scarbowcow I'm enchanted by a ca. 1900 house in my neighborhood (I live in an area that was once Germany and is now Poland). It's a strange shape, sort of a plus sign, with one of the horizontal 'arms' higher than the other (can't tell if it was added later or not). The arms form two patios, one large and one small, in the angles of the 'plus' on the south side of the house, which looks onto a huge garden (can't see around the north side). The thing that caught my heart and imagination first was the roof. It is steeply peaked (they used to have heavy snows here; practical) and comes down almost so you think you can reach up and touch it when you are standing outside, though on closer inspection, it doesn't come down THAT far. The upper story is entirely under that angled roof, and its eaves shadow the lower floor. As soon as I saw that house, when I was passing on a tram, I felt a sense of shelter and safety. It just says 'home' to me. The house has been for sale for two years, and I never pass it without feeling a tug at my heart for those sheltering eaves. The house had been divided into three or four separate residences, and I imagine it would cost a fortune to restore it to one home (if, indeed, the higher horizontal 'arm' is original to the house and not added as a separate residence). Still, that roof just draws me home whenever I see it. I'm surprised that a roof, of all things, can have such an affect on my feelings about a house.
18 months ago · Like
Bud Dietrich, AIA That's a really nice story scarbowcow. Hope you can post a photo of the building as it sounds really inspiring. Thanks very much for sharing.
18 months ago · Like
Shannon Holman Nicely written. I wonder if you can tell me the name for my favorite kind of roof, used often by Samuel Mockbee—not the Butterfly roof itself, but a motif he used on the Butterfly/Harris house but on other building as as well, the long braces that run on a diagonal from roof to sidewall. Is that just called a really big knee brace?
11 months ago · Like
Bud Dietrich, AIA Hi Shannon - I don't know what else you'd call them other than braces or struts. It's a detail that's really needed on a butterfly roof as these roofs are very prone to uplift.
11 months ago · Like
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Ideabook updated on April 25, 2012.
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