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WHAT STYLE IS IT?
| WINTER 2005
SPRING 2005 |
Building Blocks
Architecture tells us about ourselves. Whether it is academic architecture guided by refined aesthetic traditions or vernacular architecture designed and constructed by the layperson, it can reveal aspects of our history, our culture, or a particular place and time. All architecture reflects its place, but vernacular architecture is inseparable from it because relies on regional materials, simple forms, and local labor. For example, a building design will respond to the area's climate: porches, large windows, and high ceilings are common in the hot and humid South, whereas small windows and low ceilings are typical in the cold and windy North. Because vernacular architecture speaks of its place and people, it allows us to experience diversity that, in turn, enriches us.
The Biloxi cottages, destroyed along the Mississippi Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina, are an example of vernacular architecture. From Pascagoula to Waveland, the Gulf Coast of Mississippi is home to vernacular traditions-including the shotgun house and the Biloxi cottage. The Biloxi cottage floor plan is simple. It consists of four rooms, two wide and two deep, with no hallways. Rooms open directly onto a gallery or porch. Being two rooms wide, with each opening directly to the outside, the Biloxi cottage has the peculiar aspect of being four bays wide, with two doors in the center. This gives these cottages the mistaken appearance of being duplexes.
The massing is also simple: four rooms under a hipped, gable-on-hip, or gable roof. Raised a few feet off the ground, the cottages employ a front gallery or porch for outdoor living. Because this type of cottage has been built during many periods, it varies in character with the times, for example, some show Greek Revival influences while others reflect the Victorian style.
In the Biloxi cottages we hear distant echoes of France, Africa, and Haiti; we are reminded of swaying branches of locally abundant trees. We feel the sultry air of a summer day and see a genteel people. The cottages have a tale to tell if we listen.
Christine G. H. Franck is a designer and educator who lives in New York.
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