Sources: Architectural Designs; Wikipedia; NC Modernist Houses
Below is a listing of several of the most popular architectural home styles in North Carolina.
A-Frame
An A-frame house is an architectural house style featuring steeply-angled sides (roofline) that usually begin at or near the foundation line, and meet at the top in the shape of the letter A. An A-frame ceiling can be open to the top rafters.
Although the triangle shape of the A-frame has been present throughout history, it surged in popularity around the world from roughly the mid-1950s through the 1970s. It was during the post–World War II era that the A-frame acquired its most defining characteristics.
American Foursquare
The American Foursquare incorporates elements of the Prairie and the Craftsman styles. The hallmarks of the style include a basically square, boxy design, two-and-one-half stories high, usually with four large, boxy rooms to a floor, a center dormer, and a large front porch with wide stairs. The boxy shape provides a maximum amount of interior room space, to use a small city lot to best advantage. Other common features include a hipped roof, arched entries between common rooms, built-in cabinetry, and Craftsman-style woodwork.
Bungalow
A bungalow is a type of building originally developed in the Bengal region in South Asia, but now found throughout the world. The meaning of the word bungalow varies internationally. Common features of many bungalows include verandas and being low-rise. In North America and United Kingdom, a bungalow today is a house, normally detached, that may contain a small loft. It is either single-story or has a second story built into a sloping roof, usually with dormer windows (one-and-a-half stories).
Bungalow home plans share a common style with Craftsman, Rustic and Cottage home designs. A great porch for your rocker, typically one level and over-hanging eaves are some of the classic features.
Cape Cod
The Cape Cod originated in the early 18th century as early settlers used half-timbered English houses with a hall and parlor as a model, and adapted it to New England’s stormy weather and natural resources. Cape house plans are generally one to one-and-a-half story dormered homes featuring steep roofs with side gables and a small overhang. They are typically covered in clapboard or shingles and are symmetrical in appearance with a central door, multi-paned, double-hung windows, shutters, a formal, center-hall floor plan, hardwood floors and little exterior ornamentation. Some cottage house plans share Cape-inspired elements.
Charleston
A Charleston house is well-suited to long, narrow lots which were laid out in early Charleston. This house has its narrow side (often two- or three-bays wide) with a gable end along the street and a longer side (often five-bays) running perpendicular to the street.
Although the form can be found across historic Charleston in a variety of styles (e.g., Federal, Greek Revival, and Victorian), the consistent feature is interior layout. A front door on the long side of the house, halfway along the side perpendicular to the street, opens onto a short central hall and staircase. There is one room on each side of the hall, that is, one toward the street and one toward the rear of the house.
Colonial
Colonial revival house plans are typically two to three story home designs with symmetrical facades and gable roofs. Pillars and columns are common, often expressed in temple-like entrances with porticos topped by pediments. Multi-pane, double-hung windows with shutters, dormers, and paneled doors with sidelights topped with rectangular transoms or fanlights help dress up the exteriors which are generally wood or brick. Additional common features include center entry-hall floor plan, fireplaces, and simple, classical detailing.
Colonial Georgian
Mostly box shaped, a Georgian colonial house usually has a formally defined living room, dining room and sometimes a family room. The bedrooms are typically on the second floor.
Georgian home plans are characterized by their proportion and balance. They typically have square symmetrical shapes with paneled doors centered in the front facade. Paired chimneys are common features that add to the symmetry. The most common building materials used are brick or stone with red, tan, or white being frequently used colors.
Contemporary
The common characteristic of this style includes simple, clean lines with large windows devoid of decorative trim. The exteriors are a mixture of siding, stucco, stone, brick and wood. The roof can be flat or shallow pitched, often with great overhangs. Many ranch house plans are made with this contemporary aesthetic.
Craftsman
A backlash against the elaborate Victorian style of the turn of the 20th century, the Craftsman house displays the honesty and simplicity of a truly American house. Its main features are a low-pitched, gabled roof (often hipped) with a wide overhang and exposed roof rafters. Its porches are either full or partial width, with tapered columns or pedestals that extend to the ground level. A combination of natural materials are used, such as wood and stone, and often a combination of more than one type.
Deck House
Deck House Company was founded in 1959 by William Berkes and Robert Brownell who worked as young men for Carl Koch building prefab Techbuilt houses. In 1995, Deck House merged with Acorn Structures, founded in 1947.
Deck House introduced natural woods and stones such as mahogany and slate. Deck Houses feature post and beam construction, tongue and groove vaulted ceilings, and sliding glass doors leading out to a deck.
Dutch Colonial
Developed from around 1630 with the arrival of Dutch colonists to New Amsterdam and the Hudson River Valley in what is now New York and in Bergen in what is now New Jersey. Initially the settlers built small, one room cottages with stone walls and steep roofs to allow a second floor loft. By 1670 or so, two-story gable-end homes were common in New Amsterdam.
Later, the Dutch farmhouse evolved into a linear-plan home with straight-edged gables moved to the end walls. The distinctive gambrel roof was adopted from the English styles, with the addition of overhangs on the front and rear to protect the mud mortar used in the typically stone walls and foundations.
Farm House
Going back in time, the American farmhouse reflects a simpler era when families gathered in the open kitchen and living room. This version of the country home usually has bedrooms clustered together and features the friendly porch or porches. Its lines are simple. They are often faced with wood siding.
French Provincial
Rooted in the rural French countryside, the French Provincial style includes both modest farmhouse designs as well as estate-like chateaus. At its roots, the style exudes a rustic warmth and comfortable designs. Typical design elements include curved arches, soft lines and stonework. Inside, you’ll find wood beams, plaster walls and stone floors as common thematic features.
Log Home
The log home of today adapts to modern times by using squared logs with carefully hewn corner notching on the exterior. The interior is reflective of the needs of today’s family with open living areas. The log home started as population pushed west into heavily wooded areas. Today’s log house is often spacious and elegant.
Modern
Modern house plans feature lots of glass, steel and concrete. Open floor plans are a signature characteristic of this style. From the street, they are dramatic to behold. There is some overlap with contemporary house plans.
Prairie
The Prairie style is usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in horizontal bands, integration with the landscape, solid construction, craftsmanship, and discipline in the use of ornament. Horizontal lines were thought to evoke and relate to the native prairie landscape. Introduction of he Prairie design was an attempt at developing an indigenous North American style of architecture that did not share design elements and aesthetic vocabulary with earlier styles of European classical architecture.
Ranch
A ranch typically is a one-story house, but becomes a raised ranch or split level with room for expansion. Asymmetrical shapes are common with low-pitched roofs and a built-in garage (in rambling ranches). The exterior is faced with wood and bricks, or a combination of both.
Traditional
A traditional home is the most common style in the United States. It is a mix of many classic, simple designs typical of the country’s many regions. Common features include little ornamentation, simple rooflines, symmetrically spaced windows. A typical traditional home is Colonial, Georgian, Cape Cod saltbox, some ranches. Building materials are either wood or brick.
Tudor
Considered a step up from the English cottage, a Tudor home is made from brick and/or stucco with decorative half timbers exposed on the exterior and interior of the home. Steeply pitched roofs, rubblework masonry and long rows of casement windows give these homes drama.
Victorian
While the Victorian style flourished from the 1820’s into the early 1900’s, it is still desirable today. Strong historical origins include steep roof pitches, turrets, dormers, towers, bays, eyebrow windows and porches with turned posts and decorative railings. Ornamentation and decoration are used along with shingles or narrow-lap wood siding. These homes are mostly two-story in design.