Craftsman House Plans & Craftsman Home Plans

Craftsman Style and Arts & Crafts Style House Plans

Craftsman House Plans

Craftsman house plans produce homes that are truly American in style, and as you will see below, craftsman-style house plans can include many unique features. Our craftsman home plans have been used to build homes all over the country, in all kinds of settings.

What follows are excerpts from "A Field Guide to American Houses", written by Virginia & Lee McAlester, and published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1984

Craftsman 1905-1930

IDENTIFYING FEATURES

Low-pitched, gabled roof (occasionally hipped) with wide, unenclosed eave overhang; roof rafters usually exposed; decorative (false) beams or braces, commonly added under gables; porches, either full- or partial-width, with roof supported by tapered square columns; columns or pedestals frequently extend to ground level (without a break at level of porch floor).

PRINCIPAL SUBTYPES

Four principal subtypes can be distinguished:

Front-Gabled Roof – About one-third of Craftsman houses are of this subtype. Porches, which may either be full- or partial-width, are almost evenly divided between those sheltered beneath the main roof and those with separate, extended roofs. Most examples of this subtype are one-story, but one-and-a-half- and two-story examples are not uncommon; dormers are found in only about 10 percent of this subtype.

Cross-Gabled Roof – Cross-gabled examples make up about one-fourth of Craftsman houses. Of these, three-quarters are one-story examples; dormers occur on about 20 percent. Porches are varied, but by far the most common type is a partial-width, front-gabled porch, its roof forming the cross gable.

Side-Gabled Roof– About one-third of Craftsman houses are of this subtype. Most are one-and-a-half stories high with centered shed or gable dormers. Porches are generally contained under the main roof, sometimes with a break in slope. Two-story examples commonly have added, full-width porches. This subtype is most common in the northeastern and Midwestern states.

Hipped Roof – These make up less than 10 percent of Craftsman houses; they are almost equally divided between one- and two-story examples. This subtype is similar to some simple Prairie houses, which normally lack the exposed rafters and other typical Craftsman details.

VARIANTS AND DETAILS

Porch Roof Supports – Columns for supporting the porch roofs are a distinctive and variable detail. Typically short, square upper columns rest upon more massive piers, or upon a solid porch balustrade. These columns, piers, or balustrades frequently begin directly at ground level and extend without break to a level well above the porch floor. Commonly the piers or columns have sloping (battered) sides. Materials used for piers, columns, and solid balustrades are varied. Stone, clapboard, shingle, brick concrete block, or stucco are all common; they frequently occur in combination.

Roof-Wall Junctions – Among the most distinctive features of the style are the junctions where the roof joins the wall, which are almost never boxed or enclosed. The roof has a wide eave overhang; along horizontal edges the actual rafter ends are exposed, or false rafter ends are added. These are sometimes cut into decorative shapes. Along the sloping, or rake, edges, three or more beams (usually false) extend through the wall to the roof edge. These are either plain or embellished by a triangular knee brace.

Other Details – Craftsman doors and windows are similar to those used in vernacular Prairie houses. Dormers are commonly gabled, with exposed rafter ends and braces such as are found at the main roof-wall junction. The most common wall cladding is wood clapboard; wood shingles rank second. Stone, brick, concrete block, and stucco are also used, most frequently in the northern and Midwestern states. Secondary influences such as Tudor false half-timbering, Swiss balustrades or Oriental roof forms are also sometimes seen.

OCCURRENCE
This was the dominant style for smaller houses built throughout the country during the period from about 1905 until the early 1920s. The Craftsman style originated in southern California and most landmark examples are concentrated there. Like vernacular examples of the contemporaneous Prairie style, it was quickly spread throughout the country by pattern books and popular magazines. The style rapidly faded from favor after the mid-1920s; few were built after 1930.

COMMENTS
Craftsman houses were inspired primarily by the work of two California brothers- Charles Sumner Greene and Henry Mather Greene- who practiced together in Pasadena from 1893 to 1914. About 1903 they began to design simple Craftsman-type bungalows; by 1909 they had designed and executed several exceptional landmark examples that have been called the “ultimate bungalows.” Several influences- the English Arts and Crafts movement, an interest in oriental wooden architecture, and their early training in the manual arts- appear to have led the Greenes to design  and build these intricately detailed buildings. These and similar residences were given extensive publicity in such magazines as the Western Architect, The Architect, House Beautiful, GoodHousekeeping, Architectural Record, Country Life in America, and Ladies’ HomeJournal, thus familiarizing the rest of the nation with the style. As a result, a flood of pattern books appeared, offering plans for Craftsman bungalows; some even offered completely pre-cut packages of lumber and detailing to be assembled by local labor. Through these vehicles, the one-story Craftsman house quickly became the most popular and fashionable smaller house in the country. High-style interpretations are rare except in California, where they have been called the Western Stick style. One-story vernacular examples are often called simply bungalows or the Bungaloid style.

IDENTIFYING FEATURES

Most domestic building ceased between 1941 and 1945 as the United States prepared for and fought World War II. When construction resumed in 1946, houses based on historical precedent were largely abandoned in favor of new variations of the modern styles that had only begun to flourish in the pre-war years. The earliest of these, the Minimal Traditional style, was a simplified form loosely based on the previously dominant Tudor style of the 1920s and ‘30s. Like Tudor houses, these generally have a dominant front gable and massive chimneys, but the steep Tudor roof pitch is lowered and the façade is simplified by omitting most of the traditional detailing. These houses first became popular in the late 1930s and were the dominant style of the post-war ‘40s and early ‘50s. By the early 1950s they were being replaced by the Ranch style, which dominated American domestic building through the ‘60s and is still popular in many parts of the country. These are one-story houses with very low-pitched roofs and broad, rambling facades. Some lack decorative detailing, but most have decorative shutters, porch-roof supports, or other detailing; these were usually loosely based on colonial precedents. Also during the 1950s the closely related Split Level style, with half-story wings and sunken garages, began to emerge. These generally have some traditional decorative detailing but their unusual form clearly marks them as modern houses. A somewhat less common modern style, the Contemporary, completely eschews traditional form and detail, and was particularly favored in architect-designed houses of the 1950s, ‘60s, and early ‘70s. These generally have wide eave overhangs and either flat roofs or low-pitched roofs with broad, low, front-facing gables. Exposed supporting beams and other structural members are common. Contrasting wall materials and textures, and unusual window shapes and placements are also typical features. The most recent of the modern styles is the Shed style. Like the Contemporary, this style eschews traditional detail and is most common in architect-designed houses of the late 1960s and ‘70s. It is characterized by one or more shed-roofed elements, usually of moderate to high pitch, which dominate the façade and give the effect of several geometric forms shoved together.

The five styles described above are by far the most common modern styles built since 1940. Many additional modern designs have, however, appeared through this period. Some have been dominated by regional design considerations or legacies, while others have been inspired by energy-conservation considerations or by new and experimental advances in building technology.

 

What follows are excerpts from “American Shelter”, written by Lester Walker, and published by Overlook Press in 1997

Craftsmen

The Craftsmen Style, also known as the Arts and Crafts Style, the Western Stick Style, and the Crafts Movement Style, was based on the Arts and Crafts movement in Europe lead by English architect William Morris (1834-1896) and the English Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society formed in 1888. This society published articles and held exhibits extolling the virtues of handcrafted art and opposing machines. The articles had a great influence on younger architects, especially in America where Frank Lloyd Wright, Bernard Maybeck, Gustav Stickley, and the Greene Brothers were beginning their illustrious careers. The Arts and Crafts movement took a stand against the English and German Functionalists who embraced the machine, and saw the French Art Nouveau group as decorators (although they shared decorative elements with the Art Nouveau, in that both styles were based on organic shapes). The machine aesthetic was regarded as impersonal and the solution was to design a house in which all the elements, inside and out, received artful attention.

The concern and care given to the details of Craftsmen Style houses gave rise to a planned “décor” with built-in furniture, stairways, windows, doorways, walls, ceilings, and floors, all constructed in the same carved and polished wooden aesthetic. Natural materials, such as redwood, tile, and stone and earth colors, were commonly employed. Craftsmen influences greatly affected small house design at the beginning of the twentieth century. The overall effect was a natural, warm, livable building.

The most famous Craftsmen Style architects were Charles and Henry Greene who practiced along the California coast. They were best known for their “ultimate bungalows” such as the Pratt House, built during the first decade of the twentieth century. They developed a style of residential wooden buildings based entirely on craftsmanship principles. They trained their workmen- most of them Japanese carpenters- to mortise and dowel the frames of their houses, made mainly from redwood. They fabricated most of their hardware, designed and leaded their own Art Nouveau-like windows, made decorative tile, and designed and built their own built-in and movable furniture.

The Greene Brothers’ refusal to compromise their standards, combined with their unusually intense personal involvement in every facet of the design and construction process resulted in a beautiful architecture of natural materials that was used for inexpensive bungalows and vast estates. The Greenes brought dignity to the design of small houses and are given much of the credit for popularizing the Bungalow Style in the United States.