Mansard Roof Architecture

A mansard or mansard roof also called a french roof or curb roof is a four sided gambrel style hip roof characterized by two slopes on each of its sides with the lower slope punctured by dormer windows at a steeper angle than the upper.

Mansard roof architecture.

Before long french fever spread to the united states. But the imposing nearly perpendicular roofs were not merely decorative. Second empire architecture spread to england during the paris exhibitions of 1852 and 1867. Mansard roofs were considered especially practical because they allowed usable living quarters to be placed in the attic.

Installing a mansard roof became a practical way to provide additional living space in the attic level. Thus this roof architecture was christened as the mansard roof in his honor. The mansard roof is a combination of gambrel and hip roof. Interestingly in europe mansard can also refer to the attic space and not just the roof structure.

In the united states second empire or mansard was a victorian style popular from the 1860s through the 1880s. The steep roof with windows creates an additional floor of habitable space a garret and reduces the overall height of the roof for a given number of. For this reason older buildings were often remodeled with mansard roofs. The mansard roof is a hipped gambrel roof thus having two slopes on every side.

You may not see such roofing style in most traditional homes but they can be easily found in barn houses and similar modern places. Well the roof particularly defines the form of art rather than just making an architectural design for functionality.