A roundhouse is a house with a circular floor plan and a conical roof. Modern designs of roundhouse eco-buildings were built in the latter half of the twentieth century. Using cob, cordwood, or straw bale walls and reciprocally framed green roofs, they provide relatively energy-efficient housing for one or two families at very low cost.
They are common in rural areas where building codes don't require buildings to be fire-resistant. Often they are used by farmers as storage facilities or as offices. They are also popular with artists because of their compact nature and lack of noise from traffic or other people's activities.
Roundhouses have been built for thousands of years across many cultures and regions of the world. Some examples include the Japanese taiga camp, the African mud hut, and the American Indian tepee.
People often think that only Native Americans build round houses, but this is not true. Round houses have been built throughout history by many different cultures around the world.
Cordwood roundhouses are easy to build and inexpensive. All you need is a circle of strong wood about three feet in diameter for the base of the house and some sticks or poles for uprights. The floor can be made of earth or sand if you want, but it's not necessary.
Why did our forefathers create round houses—and why do round buildings still make sense today? The earliest kinds of indigenous shelter were frequently circular in shape. A rounded roof prevents 'air-planing,' which occurs when a strong wind pushes the roof structure up and away from the building. This can cause serious damage to the roofing material, as well as pose a risk of injury or death if someone falls through it.
Circular designs are the most efficient use of space, allowing for more rooms within a given amount of physical area. This is especially important in areas with limited land availability such as islands and suburbs. A circle's circumference is equal to its diameter multiplied by pi (3.14). So, if you have a room that needs to be filled with furniture, a circle's worth of space will hold just as much material as another shape would.
A house built during European settlement on Indian land used a square floor plan because that's what the Indians had done before they were forced to move. The floors were then divided into rooms by means of walls. A house like this could contain as many as four families with their associated clutter, but it was considered perfectly acceptable for each family to make their own rules about how they should live together.
As soon as money became available for housing, people started to build in shapes other than circles.
The circular barn was designed for dairying and is therefore ineffective for other sorts of agriculture. By the 1920s, circular barns had lost favor. Their downfall was hastened by an agricultural downturn following the conclusion of WWI and the introduction of prefabricated barns. Modern farmers prefer rectangular buildings because they're easier to build and maintain.
Circular barns are more efficient at conserving heat than rectangles because they have fewer openings through which cold air can enter or warm air escape. This is particularly important in northern climates where cold winters require that barns be well insulated. Although modern farmers also tend to be concerned with energy efficiency, nothing substitutes for practicality in agriculture.
Round barns are common in dairy farming regions because it's difficult to construct a stable roof that covers an entire rectangle. However, this limits how large you can make them. In fact, the largest known round barn in the world is located in Wisconsin and has a diameter of 80 feet (24 m).
There are several types of round barns, but the most common is the open-sided round barn. These are also called "dome" barns because their roofs resemble inflated domes. They provide good ventilation and protection from the elements. The only real drawback to open-sided round barns is that they can be prone to wind damage. Strong winds can blow inside the barn causing damage to the roof or walls.
For starters, traditional African builders built circular houses for utilitarian reasons. The walls are not only easier to create using natural resources (poles and mud), but the roofing support is easier to build from a circular base than, say, a square-shaped structure. The main reason for building a house with a circular foundation is that it is the most efficient shape in which to minimize the use of material. A circle has no ends and no corners, so it takes up less space on the ground and requires fewer posts to hold it up off the ground.
There are several other advantages to building a house with a round foundation, such as being able to hide your food stores inside the house and protecting them from thieves. There's also some evidence that people living in round buildings experience less stress and anxiety than those living in rectangular structures.
The first circular hut used by humans was probably a simple shelter for protection against the elements. Rainwater would run down the outside of the hut and into an opening at the bottom. This would drain away, leaving only dry ground inside the hut when it rained again. As we know today, modern-day Africans still build simple shelters like this one for protection from the elements. They're called "tent camps" because they look like tents from above.
As for more complex dwellings, archaeologists believe that people started building them in Africa long before they appeared in other parts of the world.
Over 1000-year-old stone-built circular cottages (also known as clochain or 'beehive huts' because they resemble an old-fashioned sort of box used for keeping bees). Remarkably similar to the monks' quarters on Skellig Michael, which inspire their construction. The beehives were probably used to provide food for themselves and their community.
The beehives may have been moved from site to site to provide fresh food for their community. They would have needed a strong person to move them since each one was very heavy!
In addition to being used for housing and storage, these beehives also served as windbreaks during stormy weather, when moving them could not be done safely. This is why you sometimes see them in clusters at some sites, with each bee hive positioned next to another.
Been here before? Take a look at our list of featured places to explore more ancient settlements like this one!
A bungalow is a type of house or cottage that is usually one storey with a second, half, or partial story constructed into a sloping roof. Bungalows are usually small in size and square footage, with dormer windows and verandas being common features. They were popular during Chicago's bungalow period of design from about 1900 to 1940 when many neighborhoods had only bungalows.
Townhouses are similar to row houses in that they are generally between four stories and five stories high, but they are much smaller - usually no more than 300 square feet (28 m2) - and there are typically only four or five townhouses on a block instead of the eight or ten found in a row house neighborhood. Although they are often considered part of the larger village center community, people within walking distance of a townhouse might not know any other residents and have no mutual friends on Facebook - nor would they want to! They're just not social communities.
Bungalows and townhouses are most commonly found in suburban areas where land is cheap and builders can afford to create small homes for small families. These days you also find them in cities where space is at a premium and people need smaller homes to fit in among all their other needs.
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