As a lover of old houses, it's nice to see this sort of thing discussed. A few minor quibbles:<p>The article (though fortunately not the poster/infographic) mentions the "Victorian" style. Victorian is an era during which multiple housing styles were popular -- Queen Anne, Stick, Shingle, etc.<p>The stylized drawings, especially in the infographic, really obscure the characteristics of some of the styles. The Italianate drawing, for example, barely resembles the real thing.<p>Finally, the article and sources fail to mention that few houses truly represent one specific style. Typically, only architect-designed homes (built by the rich-n-famous) or kit homes (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kit_houses_in_North_America" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kit_houses_in_North_America</a>) would really fit a specific style. Lots of homes of that era are best described as "vernacular" and combine elements of multiple styles. You then end up classifying it based on the predominant features. For example, I live in a home built in the 1890s that has a mix of Queen Anne, shingle, and stick elements. Though, my last home was a spot-on American Foursquare.<p>Nicely, the article references the McAlester book. It is the best resource I've found for classifying old houses. I have the older edition, authored by Virginia and Lee so I can't speak to the contents of the new edition. If you want some "old house porn" check out the Painted Lady series of books, too.
This is so neat!<p>I'm in what I can best describe as a single story "National gable + front wing" tract house from the 40s, and feel that the design is very pragmatic and boring. These types of houses are very common in the Bay Area suburbs, particularly in the East Bay. Those were built en masse during during the war and have a surprising degree of craftsmanship and material quality.<p>I muse about one day owning one of those ordinate Victorian houses, but at the same time dread all work and red tape that can come with them (Which goes against my idea of homeownership). A buddy of mine has one and says it would cost ~35k to replace the drafty windows because the city requires an approved type/style/installer (it's a historic home).
Never noticed that art nouveau apparently didn't make it to the US. Or is that because the chart only focuses on the single-family home? It's probably the most characteristic style of most cities from Brussels to Russia.<p>Examples: <a href="http://www.rhein-ruhr-region.de/info/wp-content/uploads/wetter-villa-boennhoff.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://www.rhein-ruhr-region.de/info/wp-content/uploads/wett...</a> or <a href="https://birgitrehse.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/planufer-1.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://birgitrehse.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/planufer-1.j...</a>
Their graphical representation of a McMansion is perhaps overly generous:<p>- some of the windows actually match (and are even symmetrically aligned)<p>- the garage takes up less that half of the house's front face<p>- the columns next to the door are neither too tall nor too skinny<p>McMansion on the lower left: <a href="http://99percentinvisible.org/app/uploads/2016/08/american-vernacular-houses-guide.png" rel="nofollow">http://99percentinvisible.org/app/uploads/2016/08/american-v...</a>
Somewhat unrelated, but I'm always surprised by the fact that most american homes have the front door open directly to the living room. In most European houses there's usually a hallway behind the front door. It acts as a thermal buffer and you have space for a coat rack and shoe cabinet.
A very interesting read. In what way does a "Craftsman Home" differ from what we internationally regard as a California Bungalow (or cal bung)?
Any builders/newly constructed home owners out here?<p>I am thinking of building a new house instead of buying a used one. This is most likely going to be my biggest investment ever. I am looking at lands in upstate New York/New Jersey region, basically a region with 3 months of frost weather. I am not really a big fan of wooden houses. I have read all sorts of material online how wood is cheap, suitable of expansion/contraction weather, and contractors are cheap who build wood frames. But part of me just wants a durable concrete house.<p>I was thinking of getting a slab or raised slab concrete foundation with concrete pillars (non cylindrical) protruding upwards that would make up entire foundations of the house. Instead of wooden frames I can go for steel frames (new kid on the block). Then for the rest of the stuff, I can use wood and combination of other materials.<p>It would be nice hear someone else' similar experience and/or suggestions.
I love side-by-side visualizations like this. I think it would be very neat to have this presented via a Chrome extension that provides design context for Trulia and Zillow listings. When I see a listing description like "this is a lovely Tudor-style home," I often wonder which elements showcase the named style.
When applying for insurance for our house built in the 1780's, my wife and I couldn't find a style/year combo that the online form would accept. We thought it was a Colonial, but maybe it is Georgian? The farmstead stabled the original Morgan horse sire, and is pictured on page 12 here: <a href="https://www.morganhorse.com/upload/photos/905TMH_Jan2015_JustinMorgan.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.morganhorse.com/upload/photos/905TMH_Jan2015_Jus...</a>
My first house is the only one like it in the area, (one of the reasons I selected it, as I hate cookie cutter homes) but I always wondered about its origins. The neighbors said it was built by an architect in the 70's, so it was really cool to realize he had blended postmodern with deconstructionist to form it. Awesome read!
The Craftsman is listed as originating in Southern California? This was news to me and is unsupported by anything that I have read. I always thought "The Craftsman" was a subset of "Arts and Crafts" with the "bungalow" variety being associated with california.
Let's discuss the UX of the article: how is the user supposed to zoom the image it to actually see the house designs on the chart? I have a 4k monitor, and it's not enough at all. The site's built-in UI doesn't allow zooming. Certainly, I can open the image in a new tab and zoom it using the browser's UI, but come on: this is too advanced for the layperson.