Bungalow - Elegant One Story Housing
The term bungalow is derived from bangla (Hindi) in 1676 and typically means a small, one story house or cottage. Conventionally, the roof used to be made with plant stalks or straw and the house would have a wide porch in the front.
In modern times, the word bungalow can generically define a fairly large type of house with one or one and a half stories. The word and the usage of the architectural style has been modified and adapted to suit localized styles of houses:
- Ranch bungalow
- Raised bungalow
- Bungalow with loft
- American craftsman bungalow
- California bungalow
- Ultimate bungalow
- Chicago bungalow
- Milwaukee bungalow
- Canadian bungalow
The advantages of bungalows chiefly derive from placing all the living spaces on one floor. It eliminates the need for a second story thus making construction easier. Installation of utilities is relatively easier. It is safe in case of fire since windows and doors can be used as exits. The absence of stairs is a major benefit for the elderly, for the homemaker (who can complete household chores without climbing stairs) and for the physically challenged.
Bungalows offer increased privacy. Carefully planted trees and shrubs around bungalows are enough to offer increased privacy vis-à-vis two-story houses that require taller trees (often impractical) to accomplish the same. Moreover, bungalows are usually detached from other houses and do not share foundations with neighboring houses.
Any foundation can be employed for a bungalow as the shape of a bungalow plot is usually rectangular.
Fro brick-walled bungalows, the windows are usually placed right under the roof thereby eliminating the necessity to provide support for the wall above the window with additional arches or lintels. In two-story houses, while the second story window can be right to the roof, the first story brick wall has to resume above the window.
The disadvantages of bungalows are in that they require considerably bigger foundation (and so bigger plots) and roof areas than two story houses for the same living area on a unit-to-unit basis, they are more costly. Since neighborhoods with bungalows cannot grow vertically, the increasing need for space can only be met by more and more land, thus leading to urban sprawl.
Similar entries
- Bungalow with a Loft
- Chicago Bungalow
- Milwaukee Bungalow
- Ranch Bungalow
- Ultimate Bungalow
- Canadian bungalow
- California Bungalow
- American Craftsman Bungalow
- Raised Bungalow
- House Types
- Garrison – House Style Modeled After Lookouts
- A-frame Homes
- Longhouses in Borneo, Southeast Asia
- Dingbat - Mid-20th Century Mass Housing Solution to the Burgeoning American Middle-Class
- Italianate Style in Australia