Replies

1. 
   rez | May 29, 2004 07:35pm | #1

   <The answer to your question can be as simple or as complicated as you'd like it to be. If you would really like to know a lot about our American Bungalows, their origins and unique characteristics, I recommend that you purchase a copy of The American Bungalow by Clay Lancaster. This is, in my opinion, the definitive work on the origin of bungalows and the various styles that exist overseas as well as in various regions of this country. When I began reading this book I couldn't put it down. In fact, I began reading it on a Sunday morning and cancelled my work on the following Monday so I could continue reading and finish it.

   That said, you probably aren't interested in getting that involved in understanding the term bungalow. Heck, just the origin of the word 'bungalow' is a fascinating story in itself. I suppose you really want to know what the distinguishing characteristics of what we would characterize a bunglow today would be in this country.

   For the most part, I think you can say they are small, one or one-and-a-half story homes with a gable roof, frame construction with roof lines that are relatively low-pitched and architectural elements that give the home a strong horizontal flavor - horizontal clapboard siding, a full-width front porch, deep overhangs at the eaves, horizontal banding and fretwork, pergolas that extend from the sides, and the use of prominent woodwork - heavy brackets supporting the gable ends of roofs. You'll also see squared off and simple trim, use of small-paned glass windows, earth-tone colors and a general sense of blending in with the lot around it.

   Some folks have a hard time differentiating a bungalow from a craftsman. In truth, there is not that much difference, since bungalow houses were built primarily during the craftsman era. Bungalow owners today will say that a large craftsman can't possibly be a bungalow, when in fact many of the early bungalows were two-storied, often very large homes. In California, some of the best examples of west coat 'bungalow architecture' are the Blacker and the Gamble houses in Pasadena, that were designed by Greene and Greene. Most craftsman houses have nearly identical elements to bungalows, just on two stories.

   In this country, you'll find clapboard bungalows on the east coast, stucco and brick bungalows, some of the designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, in the midwest, and tons and tons of bungalows on the west coast that are very similar to those found on the east coast but have deeper overhangs and more of a low-slung appearance.>

   Much thanks to Mike O'Handley of JLC for these comments.
1. 
   pino | May 29, 2004 08:16pm | #2

   Then you've got your Chicago Bungalow, a style unto itself.

   http://www.chicagobungalow.org/

2. 
   Piffin | May 29, 2004 09:05pm | #3

   whatchatryin'todo? Start an argument?

   ;)

    

    

   Welcome to the
   Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
    where ...
   Excellence is its own reward!

1. 
   rez | May 29, 2004 09:20pm | #4

   It would be more entertaining than a polijive discussion if I can use the term 'discussion' so liberally. Err, wait...not liberally! I mean...Stop! Guys, this is not a poli thread. Please refrain from embarking on a poli-rant because of a multi use  word.

   If a small story and a half had a mansard roof could it be defined as a bungalow?

1. 
   hasbeen | May 29, 2004 09:24pm | #5

   Watch it!  You'd better be more conservative with your use of language!

   ; )You're unique!  Just like everyone else!      Scott Adams

2. 
   Piffin | May 29, 2004 10:29pm | #7

   "If a small story and a half had a mansard roof could it be defined as a bungalow?"

   No, that sounds more like a bungle up 

    

   Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!

1. 
   HeavyDuty | May 29, 2004 11:25pm | #8

   No, that sounds more like a bungle up

   LOL. Piffin, you never stop to amaze.

1. 
   Piffin | May 30, 2004 12:15am | #9

   a moving tareget is hard to hit so I amaze while running...gotta go now.

   ;) 

    

   Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!

3. 
   IanDG | May 29, 2004 09:54pm | #6

   It derives from the Hindi word for a single storey building with a verandah all around.

   English expats built similar homes when they returned to UK and called them by the Hindi name.

   IanDG

4. 
   darcey | May 30, 2004 08:02pm | #10

   Bungal-ode

   ÊBurges Johnson

   There's a jingle in the jungle,

   'Neath the juniper and pine,

   They are mangling the tangle,

   Of the underbrush and vine,

   And my blood is all a-tingle

   At the sound of blow on blow,

   As I count each single shingle

   On my bosky bungalow.

   There's a jingle in the jungle,

   I am counting every nail,

   And my mind is bungaloaded,

   Bungaloping down a trail;

   And I dream of every ingle

   Where I angle at my ease,

   Naught to set my nerves a-jingle,

   I may bungle all I please.

   For I oft get bungalonely

   In the mingled human drove,

   And I long for bungaloafing

   In some bungalotus grove,

   In a cooling bung' location

   Where no troubling trails intrude,

   'Neath some bungalowly rooftree

   In east bungalongitude.

   Oh, I think with bungaloathing

   Of the strangling social swim,

   Where they wrangle after bangles

   Or for some new-fangled whim;

   And I know by bungalogic

   That is all my bungalown

   That a little bungalotion

   Mendith every mortal moan!

   Oh, a man that's bungalonging

   for the dingle and the loam

   Is a very bungalobster

   If he dangles on at home.

   Catch the bungalocomotive;

   If you cannot face the fee,

   Why, a bungaloan'll do it--

   You can borrow it of me!

   Published in Good Housekeeping, 1909

1. 
   rez | May 30, 2004 08:08pm | #11

    View Image View Image

2. 
   darcey | May 30, 2004 08:11pm | #12

   Erik's Bungalow Manifesto presents

   The best in Bungalow humor:

   http://www.irvinggill.com/prose-ode.html

1. 
   rez | May 30, 2004 08:36pm | #13

   hey, Bungalow Bill View Image View Image