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A butterfly roof (sometimes called a V roof) is a form of The Free Dictionary definition
Retrieved 2016-04-09 It is so called because its shape resembles a
Retrieved 2016-04-09 Butterfly roofs are commonly associated in the US with 20th century Mid-century modern architecture. They were also commonly used in Georgian and Victorian terraced house architecture of British cities, where they are alternatively termed "London" roofs. The form has no gutter as rainwater can run off the roof in no more than two locations, at either end of the valley, often into a
A butterfly roof (sometimes called a V roof) is a form of roof
A roof ( : roofs or rooves) is the top covering of a building, including all materials and constructions necessary to support it on the walls of the building or on uprights, providing protection against rain, snow, sunlight, extremes of te ...
characterised by an inversion of a standard roof form, with two roof surfaces sloping down from opposing edges to a valley near the middle of the roof.Retrieved 2016-04-09 It is so called because its shape resembles a
butterfly
Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprise ...
's wings.Palm Springs Modernism – The Butterfly Effect, Morris Newman in Palm Springs Life, February 2009Retrieved 2016-04-09 Butterfly roofs are commonly associated in the US with 20th century Mid-century modern architecture. They were also commonly used in Georgian and Victorian terraced house architecture of British cities, where they are alternatively termed "London" roofs. The form has no gutter as rainwater can run off the roof in no more than two locations, at either end of the valley, often into a
scupper
A scupper is an opening in the side walls of a vessel or an open-air structure, which allows water to drain instead of pooling within the bulwark or gunwales of a vessel, or within the curbing or walls of a building.
There are two main kinds of s ...
or downspout
A downspout, waterspout, downpipe, drain spout, drainpipe, roof drain pipe,Francis Joseph Patry 1974. Roof Drain ArrangementUnited States Patent 3909412< or leader is a
roof cricket diverting water towards the valley ends, or sloping if the entire roof form is tilted towards one end of the valley. The roof also allows for higher perimeter walls, with clerestory windows allowing light penetration without impacting privacy.
Retrieved 2016-04-09 * 1930: Le Corbusier, the Swiss-French architect, first used the butterfly roof form in his design of Maison Errazuriz, a vacation house in Chile. * 1933:
History
The modern butterfly roof is commonly credited to be the creation ofWilliam Krisel
William Krisel (November 14, 1924 – June 5, 2017) was an American architect best known for his pioneering designs of mid-century residential and commercial architecture. Most of his designs are for affordable homes, especially tract housing, wi ...
and Dan Palmer in the late 1950s in Palm Springs, California. It has been estimated that starting in 1957, they created nearly 2,000 houses in a series of developments that were popularly known as the Alexander Tract, which has been described by historian Alan Hess as "the largest Modernist housing subdivision in the United States." Krisel confirms that while his work popularized the form, he was not its originator.
Timeline
The timeline of the emergence of the butterfly roof:''Le Corbusier's Forgotten Design: SoCal's Iconic Butterfly Roof'', Marni Epstein-M3rvis in Curbed, December 22, 2014Retrieved 2016-04-09 * 1930: Le Corbusier, the Swiss-French architect, first used the butterfly roof form in his design of Maison Errazuriz, a vacation house in Chile. * 1933:
Antonin Raymond
Antonin Raymond (or cs, Antonín Raymond), born as Antonín Reimann (10 May 1888 – 25 October 1976)"Deaths Elsewhere", ''Miami Herald'', 30 October 1976, p. 10 was a Czech American architect. Raymond was born and studied in Bohemia (now part ...
, the Czech-born architect, used this form on a house in Japan, whose design was featured in Architectural Record in 1934.
* 1943: Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho (15 December 1907 – 5 December 2012), known as Oscar Niemeyer (), was a Brazilian architect considered to be one of the key figures in the development of modern architecture. Niemeyer was ...
designs and builds the Pampulha Yacht Club, in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, which was widely published.
* 1945: Marcel Breuer
Marcel Lajos Breuer ( ; 21 May 1902 – 1 July 1981), was a Hungarian-born modernist architect and furniture designer.
At the Bauhaus he designed the Wassily Chair and the Cesca Chair, which ''The New York Times'' have called some of the most i ...
used this form on his Geller House project in Long Island, New York, US.
* 1957: Krisel's first use of the form in Twin Palms neighborhood of Palm Springs, California, US.
See also
*List of roof shapes
Roof shapes include flat (or shed), gabled, hipped, arched, domed, and a wide variety of other configurations detailed below.
Roof angles are an integral component of roof shape, and vary from almost flat to steeply pitched.
Roof shapes diffe ...
References
External links
{{Le Corbusier Roofs Structural system House styles Modernist architecture in the United States Modernist architecture Le Corbusier