Fifty Words for Porch
Jan. 22nd, 2008 09:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebAfter we came back from the cruise, I looked for a book on Jamaican architecture. I wanted something that showed the whole range of architecture, not just rich people's houses, and I wanted lots of pictures and was hoping to find clues about how to properly build in an area with a lot of sun and a lot of storms.
I found something much closer than I ever expected to find: Caribbean Style by Suzanne Slesin, Stafford Cliff, Jack Berthelot, Martine Gaume (e has accent), and Daniel Rozensztroch. It's mostly pictures and it shows a wide variety of houses from lots of Caribbean Islands.
I only saw a few building hints:
* Broad roofs protect the building from rain and sun - I already knew that extending the eaves far beyond the exterior walls provides you with a lot more shade, but these guys often make this shaded area just as big as the indoor area and do a lot of their living out there.
* Maximize air circulation - I first noticed this at one of Lyndon B. Johnson's houses that is open to the public which was built with rooms sticking out so that they had windows on three sides. These guys use a different strategy: they may have windows on only two sides, but the covered porch is open to breezes, and then they use a lot of shutters on the windows and have openings in the walls that look like fancy vents to let air circulate.
* It's common to use stone floors on the first story, because they resist fire, and wood floors on the second story, because they resist earthquakes.
* Some houses are built over stone bases and are meant to be moved. Originally this allowed workers to live near whatever part of the field they were working. I wonder what they do during hurricanes.
After a while, I started noticing that they used several different words for porch. I wondered if this was just to keep from using the same word over and over or if there were some subtle difference in meaning I could learn from. After some re-reading and a look in the dictionary, I decided it was some of both. Here are the terms I found in order by how often they were used.
* gallery - emphasizes length. Generally refers to a porch that extends for the entire length of the house. This was the word most commonly used in the book.
* veranda - a pretty generic term.
* balcony - emphasizes railings or balustrades and being above the ground floor.
* terrace - emphasizes being raised. These were usually on a second floor, otherwise raised from ground level, or in one case cantilevered over a slope. This term also refers to what I call a patio, or just a slab of something hard that could be attached or detached from the house and might or might not have any kind of built structure overhead for shade.
* porch - used in this book only for covered entrance approaches. I have these on my house, and they are good for standing in out of the rain while fiddling with your key to unlock the door.
* portico - emphasizes columns or supports.
Two related terms:
* gazebo - a cute little detached porch, really
* pavilion - these just looked like buildings to me.
Sadly I suspect all of these porches and shutters and louvers and vents are of less use when one has central air conditioning. Getting a good breeze is just a lot less important. I couldn't even tell if they had screens on their windows or glass or both. All I could make out were various kinds of shutters. I did see mosquito netting over the beds, so maybe shutters are all there are.
I'm also not sure how to mix shutters, glass, and screens. Plus, some shutters open to the outside and some to the inside. It's nice to control them from the inside. But having them on the outside could make them very handy in a bad wind storm. I've read a bit about protecting your windows in hurricanes and tornadoes, and the common options are to either cut a piece of plywood the size of your window and find some way to attach it to your house, or you can buy something called storm shutters that are expensive and metal and considered ugly and problematic. It seems like one could attach regular real shutters that would look fine and also work easily and well.
I found something much closer than I ever expected to find: Caribbean Style by Suzanne Slesin, Stafford Cliff, Jack Berthelot, Martine Gaume (e has accent), and Daniel Rozensztroch. It's mostly pictures and it shows a wide variety of houses from lots of Caribbean Islands.
I only saw a few building hints:
* Broad roofs protect the building from rain and sun - I already knew that extending the eaves far beyond the exterior walls provides you with a lot more shade, but these guys often make this shaded area just as big as the indoor area and do a lot of their living out there.
* Maximize air circulation - I first noticed this at one of Lyndon B. Johnson's houses that is open to the public which was built with rooms sticking out so that they had windows on three sides. These guys use a different strategy: they may have windows on only two sides, but the covered porch is open to breezes, and then they use a lot of shutters on the windows and have openings in the walls that look like fancy vents to let air circulate.
* It's common to use stone floors on the first story, because they resist fire, and wood floors on the second story, because they resist earthquakes.
* Some houses are built over stone bases and are meant to be moved. Originally this allowed workers to live near whatever part of the field they were working. I wonder what they do during hurricanes.
After a while, I started noticing that they used several different words for porch. I wondered if this was just to keep from using the same word over and over or if there were some subtle difference in meaning I could learn from. After some re-reading and a look in the dictionary, I decided it was some of both. Here are the terms I found in order by how often they were used.
* gallery - emphasizes length. Generally refers to a porch that extends for the entire length of the house. This was the word most commonly used in the book.
* veranda - a pretty generic term.
* balcony - emphasizes railings or balustrades and being above the ground floor.
* terrace - emphasizes being raised. These were usually on a second floor, otherwise raised from ground level, or in one case cantilevered over a slope. This term also refers to what I call a patio, or just a slab of something hard that could be attached or detached from the house and might or might not have any kind of built structure overhead for shade.
* porch - used in this book only for covered entrance approaches. I have these on my house, and they are good for standing in out of the rain while fiddling with your key to unlock the door.
* portico - emphasizes columns or supports.
Two related terms:
* gazebo - a cute little detached porch, really
* pavilion - these just looked like buildings to me.
Sadly I suspect all of these porches and shutters and louvers and vents are of less use when one has central air conditioning. Getting a good breeze is just a lot less important. I couldn't even tell if they had screens on their windows or glass or both. All I could make out were various kinds of shutters. I did see mosquito netting over the beds, so maybe shutters are all there are.
I'm also not sure how to mix shutters, glass, and screens. Plus, some shutters open to the outside and some to the inside. It's nice to control them from the inside. But having them on the outside could make them very handy in a bad wind storm. I've read a bit about protecting your windows in hurricanes and tornadoes, and the common options are to either cut a piece of plywood the size of your window and find some way to attach it to your house, or you can buy something called storm shutters that are expensive and metal and considered ugly and problematic. It seems like one could attach regular real shutters that would look fine and also work easily and well.