Five Beautiful Things

 

 

A is for A-frame

I’ve recently become enamored of the simple lines and basic shape of A-frame homes and cottages. There is something sort of Zen about them. The simplicity of the structure makes them easy to design and build, a fact that was not lost on ancient Scandinavian and Asian cultures, which widely employed A-frame structures in their early architecture. In North America, the A-frame became very popular in post-war society. A-frame cottages, in particular, were highly in demand in the 1950s for American families seeking a summer vacation home. The design was popularized by architects like George Rockrise, Henrick Bull and Andrew Geller, who designed a modern A-frame beach house on Long Island, New York, that garnered much attention and acclaim. This style of house, with basic tenants that include a steeply-pitched roofline that begins at or near the foundation and joining at the summit to create an “A” shape, is inexpensive to build, adding to their wide popularity. Below are five examples of A-frame cottages and cabins – some luxurious and some very simple.