A Dutch gable roof or gablet roof (in

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

) is a roof with a small gable at the top of a

hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downward to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope, with variants including Tented roof, tented roofs and others. Thus, a hipped roof has no gables or other ve ...

. The term

Dutch gable A Dutch gable or Flemish gable is a gable whose sides have a shape made up of one or more curves and which has a pediment at the top. The gable may be an entirely decorative projection above a flat section of roof line, or may be the terminat ...

is also used to mean a gable with

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...

s. Some sources refer to this as a gable-on-hip roof. A Dutch gable roof combines both the gable and the hip roof while adding additional architectural interest. A drawback of a hip framed roof is its reduced attic space for a given roof pitch compared to a simple

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

roof. In Mediterranean climates with lower snow loads high roof pitches and their greater consumption of materials and labor are unnecessary. Simple gable roofs are also problematic, as the lower low

eave The eaves are the edges of the roof which overhang the face of a wall and, normally, project beyond the side of a building. The eaves form an overhang to throw water clear of the walls and may be highly decorated as part of an architectural sty ...

s made possible by a shallow pitched hip roof provide the opportunity for both shade and rain protection in the form of an overhang or latticed porch. The shade these create keeps a structure cooler, their covered space is an attractive place for relaxation and escape from heat trapped inside, and the rain "shadow" created by overhangs greatly reduces the moisture content of the soil. This inhibits both foundation decay and subterranean

termite Termites are a group of detritivore, detritophagous Eusociality, eusocial cockroaches which consume a variety of Detritus, decaying plant material, generally in the form of wood, Plant litter, leaf litter, and Humus, soil humus. They are dist ...

s common in these areas.

History

Gable roofs were already common in Flanders in the 16th century, being the result of the architectural tradition of a region with a rainy climate where the most accessible building material was brick. The relative scarcity of wood meant that its use tended to be optimized, combining the needs of having effective roofs and being able to fit out habitable attics. The Dutch colonial expansion led to this type of roof being built in other areas of the world, especially in the settlements of the Cape and on the Atlantic coast of the United States, in the surroundings of the small town of New Amsterdam, which over time would end up becoming the city of New York. The Dutch architectural heritage was taken up by Anglo-American home designers from the second half of the 19th century, when a current tending to recover traditional styles in the construction of luxurious country villas prevailed. This trend has continued throughout the 20th century, such that the Dutch roof has become a design element of numerous single-family suburban homes in cities around the world.

References

Roofs {{architecturalelement-stub

History

See also

References