Reproducing the A&C style
November 10, 2007
Alex Newman
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
Today, with a renewed interest in Craftsman and bungalow homes, a growing number of architects and designers are specializing in new houses built in the old style.
Christian Gladu is a U.S. designer who started the Bungalow Company in 1995. Last year, his company, based in Bend, Ore., designed 168 houses, most of which were modified from the stock plans that usually run from $1,800 to $2,000. As long as you provide a lot of information, including site plans and photos of the lot, the company can take any design and modify it to your specs.
Gladu has sold data to Canadian customers – packages with 14 to 16 pages of structural drawings and foundation plans. The final task is to find an architectural engineer who can prepare the plans to meet Canadian building and fire code requirements.
One of Gladu's customers is Oakville resident Timothy Duncan, who recently poured the foundation on his 2,300-square-foot Arts and Crafts home in Cayuga, which should be ready by March. Duncan found the Bungalow Company while surfing the Net last year, and purchased plans because the designs were well-thought-out, and had larger rooms and more space than original Craftsman bungalows.
Duncan, a stonemason, loves the housing style's theory – "building with your hands" – and the design principles of no corridors, large front foyer and the intimacy of defined rooms.
In a material sense, the home will stick closely to the A and C style, with wood exterior siding, stone fireplace and front pillars, cottage-style Pella wood windows and doors, enviro-shake shingles and quarter sawn white oak floors.
Gladu credits the renewed Craftsman bungalow interest to people willing to forgo bigger interiors for homes with more crafted – and expensive – details. Land-use practices, particularly in cities, have changed to increase densities and "the Craftsman bungalow lends itself to this prototype more than any other North American style," he says.
There are several books to help anyone interested in building a bungalow: Arts and Crafts Houses, by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, C.F.A. Voysey, and Greene and Greene; Stickley's Craftsman Homes; and Arts & Crafts Home Plans, all of which are available in bookstores.
Toronto Star