Terraced house
A terrace, terraced house (UK), or townhouse (US)[a] is a kind of medium-density housing that first started in 16th century Europe with a row of joined houses sharing side walls. In the United States and Canada these are sometimes known as row houses or row homes.
Terrace housing can be found worldwide, though it is quite common in Europe and Latin America, and many examples can be found in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, and Australia. The Place des Vosges in Paris (1605–1612) is one of the early examples of the style.
Although in early larger forms it was used for housing the wealthy, as cities and the demands for ever smaller close housing grew, it regularly became associated with the
Origins and nomenclature
Though earlier
The term terrace was borrowed from
Australia
In Australia, the term "terrace house" refers almost exclusively to Victorian and Edwardian era terraces or replicas almost always found in the older, inner city areas of the major cities. Terraced housing was introduced to Australia from Britain in the nineteenth century, basing their architecture on those in the UK, France and Italy.[2]
Large numbers of terraced houses were built in the inner suburbs of large Australian cities, particularly
Many terraces were built in the "filigree" style, a style distinguished through heavy use of cast iron ornament; it has a level paved area in front, also known as terrace, particularly on the balconies and sometimes depicting native Australian flora. In the 1950s, many urban renewal programmes were aimed at eradicating them entirely in favour of modern development.
In recent decades these inner-city areas and their terraced houses have been
Europe
Finland
In Finland, an agrarian country where
France
Terraced housing has long been a popular form in Paris, France. The Place des Vosges (1605–1612) was one of the earliest examples of the arrangement. In Parisian squares, central blocks were given discreet prominence, to relieve the façade. Terraced building including housing was also used primarily during Haussmann's renovation of Paris between 1852 and 1870 creating whole streetscapes consisting of terraced rows.
United Kingdom and Ireland
The first streets of houses with uniform fronts were built by the
It is far from being the case that terraced houses were only built for people of limited means. This is especially true in London, where some of the wealthiest people in the country owned them in locations such as
By the early
A major distinction is between through terraces, whose houses have both a front and a back door, and
Since the Second World War, housing redevelopment has led to many outdated or dilapidated terraces being cleared to make room for
In 2005 the English Heritage report Low Demand Housing and the Historic Environment found that repairing a standard Victorian terraced house over 30 years is around 60% cheaper than building and maintaining a newly built house. In a 2003 survey for Heritage Counts a team of experts contrasted a Victorian terrace with a house built after 1980, and found that:
The research demonstrated that, contrary to earlier thinking, older housing actually costs less to maintain and occupy over the long-term life of the dwelling than more modern housing. Largely due to the quality and life-span of the materials used, the Victorian terraced house proved almost £1,000 per 100 m2 cheaper to maintain and inhabit on average each year.
North America
Canada
Halifax
Halifax's use of rowhouses, townhouses and terraced housing has been consistent throughout its history, particularly on the Peninsula where the city first began settlement. In the older sections of the city are sections of terraced housing used historically for military families, as part of established families' real estate holdings in addition to a country house, and as dwellings for the working classes of the city and as public housing. The most well-known of the terraced housing areas is
Montreal
Montreal has the largest stock of terraced houses in Canada[10] and they are typical in all areas of the city. As is common in other North American cities, in Montreal row houses are often referred to as townhouses.
The streetscape of the city's 19th century neighbourhoods, such as
In the 21st century, Montreal has continued to build row houses at a high rate, with 62% of housing starts in the
Toronto
Terraced homes are abundant in Old Toronto. Many of them are constructed in the local bay-and-gable style, popular in the 1870s. Examples of Victorian bay-and-gable style can be found in Cabbagetown, Toronto,[11] Parkdale,[12] The Annex,[13] Kensington Market,[14] areas east of Chinatown, Toronto[15] and Spadina Avenue including Baldwin Village.
The last surviving row of Georgian-style terraced houses in Toronto, known as Walnut Hall, was demolished in 2007 as a result of structural decay.[16]
United States
According to the US Census Bureau,
Terraced housing in the United States is generally referred to as townhouses. In some cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., where they have been part of the landscape for over a century, they are often called row houses or row homes. Despite the narrow lots, many row houses are relatively large, some being over 2,000 square feet. They typically have two stories, but may have three or more (with the latter often being converted into apartments for separate tenants). The term "townhouse" in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic usually refers to modern terraced houses constructed in the late 20th century and beyond, especially those in suburban settings, which often have home owners associations and include garages. Multi-story attached homes that are grouped in twos or threes are typically called duplexes and triplexes respectively.
Baltimore
Most of Baltimore's housing consists of row houses. A few of Baltimore's row houses date back to colonial times. The style and materials used in their constructions vary throughout the city. A sizable quantity of Baltimore's row houses are clad with formstone, a distinct feature of Baltimore's row houses, typically found in working class areas of the city. Marble front steps also make Baltimore's row houses distinct from other cities' row houses. Much like Philadelphia, some areas of the city that contain row houses are neglected.
Boston
The row houses of
Chicago
In Chicago, row houses can be found in the downtown and surrounding areas developed in the late 1800s through 1930s. Many are two and three-flat buildings (consisting of one or sometimes two apartments on a three-floored building). A greystone in Chicago is similar to the brownstone found in New York and Boston, except the façade is clad in Indiana limestone. Most row houses are separated by a gangway that leads under the common wall between the houses leading to the rear of the property (where sometimes a rear house or coach house exists) and alleyway. The vast majority of two and three flats do not share a common wall and are stand alone structures. However, many row houses similar to those found in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. do exist, largely on the near south and west sides, though not as common.
Savannah
Gordon Row, in Savannah, was built in the 1850s.[21] It (and its individual carriage houses to the rear) is a contributing property of the Savannah Historic District, itself on the National Register of Historic Places,[21] and fills an entire city block. After falling into disrepair, the buildings were renovated in the mid-20th century by the Historic Savannah Foundation.[22] Other similar-style row houses exist in Savannah's Scudder's Row, William Remshart Row House, the Quantock Rows on Taylor Street and Jones Street, McDonough Row and Marshall Row.[23]
New Orleans
New Orleans has a distinctive style of terrace house in the French Quarter known as the
New York
The row houses of
Philadelphia
In historic Philadelphia, the rowhouse (almost always spelled as one word) has been the most common domestic building type in the city and some of its suburbs since colonial times. Some of the oldest rowhouses in the city are narrow three-story "Trinity" houses that accommodated a large population of indentured servants and immigrant workers, in addition to enclaves of free African-Americans in the 19th century.[24] Society Hill is known to have the largest concentration of original 18th- and early 19th-century residential architecture of any place in the United States. The style and type of material used in constructing Philadelphia's rowhouses vary throughout the city. Even in neighborhoods where twin houses are found, their façades and internal layouts usually resemble those of rowhouses.
Most are primarily red brick in construction, often with white stone trim. Some are faced with stone, being
With space within the city's borders at a premium, there has been a push to add a third floor to an existing rowhouse's in recent times, often this third level would include a rooftop deck. While zoning codes do exist which can possibly prevent third stories from being added to homes,
San Francisco
San Francisco is also famous for its terraced houses, especially in the older neighborhoods of
Washington, D.C.
Several neighborhoods in
Other cities
In other cities throughout the United States, such as
South America
Uruguay and Argentina
Montevideo and Buenos Aires during the last decades of the 19th century developed a type of terraced house called the Standard House or informally 'Chorizo' House.
Southeast Asia
Introduced around the beginning of the twentieth century, terraced houses (also known as shophouses or linear linkhouses) have been adopted in both Malaysia and Singapore since the countries' early British colonial rule.
Based on British terraced home designs, the Southeast Asian variations are similar to their British counterparts (in which the living quarters are located on the front and top floor and the kitchen at the back) and were adapted to accommodate the area's tropical weather, which is primarily warm throughout the year and receives heavy rainfall. Earlier versions were more open, designed to better circulate air and features inner courtyards, with a frontal yard, rear yard, or both. A typical Malaysian and Singaporean terraced house is usually one or two floors high, but a handful of three or four storey terraced homes exist, especially newer terraced houses. Earlier variations followed traditional Western, Malay, India and Chinese architecture, as well as
The manner in which the buildings were designed varies by their location in an urban area. Derivatives located within city centres may also utilize their space for both commercial on the ground floor and residential use on the first floor and above (accurately known as
Terrace houses located on the outskirts of city centres were less restrictive, although the design of the building itself was not unlike those in the city. Certain homes tend to feature longer front yards, enough to accommodate cars. Others strictly serve as a small garden. This design remained in demand throughout the twentieth century, and a construction boom of the house design occurred in Malaysia since the 1940s, with numerous housing estates consisting of terrace homes sprouting in and around cities and towns. In the process, the design of the building began to diversify, with various refinements and style changes. Generally, the building's floor space and yards become larger and more elaborate through time, as is the modernisation of exterior construction and façade.
Certain older terrace houses tend to be converted for various new roles; some are converted into shophouses or business premises (including clubs, hotels and boarding homes–especially pre-independence houses–and kindergartens). Others have remained in use as residential units, are abandoned, neglected, or razed. Significant expansions are also common on all terrace homes; roofs and additional rooms may be added within the floorspace of the house's lot. Concerns are also raised with the limited maintenance and monitoring of deserted terrace homes, which potentially become hiding places for rodents and snakes (in yards with overgrown grass), and drug addicts.
Earlier variations of the terrace house were constructed with wood, later replaced with a masonry shell holding wooden beams to form foundations for the upper floors and tiled roof. Contemporary variations are primarily held together with reinforced concrete beams, which are later completed with concrete slabs, brick walls and tiled roofs.
See also
- Alley house
- Back-to-back house
- List of house types
- Semi-detached
- Shotgun house
- Townhouse
- Machiya (Japanese version)
References and notes
- ^ "Townhouse" can also refer to patio homes.
- ISBN 978-0-7022-1729-6.
- ^ A Pictorial Guide to Identifying Australian Architecture: Styles and Terms from 1788 to the Present – Apperly, Richard & Irving, Robert & Reynolds, Peter. Angus & Robertson. New South Wales, 1994
- ^ Stapleton, Maisy; Stapleton, Ian. Australian House Styles. Flannel Flower Press. Mullumbimby, New South Wales. 1997
- ISBN 978-952-222-568-9.
- ^ (Summerson 1947)
- ISBN 978-0-7064-0495-1.
- ^ "How Dublin's Modest Terraced Houses Came Back Into Fashion". Bloomberg.com. 2022-05-31. Retrieved 2022-07-31.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-827426-1.
- ISSN 1886-4805. Retrieved 6 October 2015.
- ^ a b "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-09-04. Retrieved 2011-03-18.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "Bay & Gable Victorian Architecture in Toronto".
- ^ "Nostalgia Tripping: Toronto's bay-and-gable architecture".
- ^ "Nostalgia Tripping: Toronto's bay-and-gable architecture".
- ^ "Toronto' disappearing Bay and Gable houses". 22 June 2016.
- ^ "ACO Toronto - 56-58 Phoebe Street".
- ^ Goddard, John (21 May 2007). "Building in ruins, neighbours in shock". Toronto Star. Toronto. Retrieved 6 September 2021.
- ^ "2021 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates for All States and Puerto Rico, United States Census Bureau". census.gov. Retrieved 2022-11-04.
- ^ "Carstairs, Thomas (1759?-1830) - Philadelphia Architects and Buildings". Philadelphiabuildings.org. Retrieved 2018-08-01.
- ^ "Untitled Document". Archived from the original on 2007-02-05. Retrieved 2007-04-25.
- ^ "National Park Service - Signers of the Declaration (Robert Morris)". Archived from the original on 2012-10-18. Retrieved 2011-04-04.
- ^ a b Historic Building Map: Savannah Historic District – Historic Preservation Department of the Chatham County-Savannah Metropolitan Planning Commission (November 17, 2011), p. 63
- ^ Antiques at Savannah, Editorial Publications (1967), p. 18
- ^ Chatham Square – GoSouth Savannah
- ISBN 9780812231427.
- ^ "Philadelphia Rowhouse Manual: A Practical Guide for Homeowners | Philadelphia City Planning Commission".
- ^ "The Case for Raising the Roof on Philly Rowhouses". 19 November 2017.
Further reading
- Chen (1998). The Encyclopedia of Malaysia. Vol. 5.
- Hayward, Mary Ellen; Belfoure, Charles (2001). The Baltimore Rowhouse. ISBN 978-1-56898-283-0.
- Howells, T.; Morris, C. (1999). Terrace houses in Australia. Lansdowne: The Rocks, N.S.W. ISBN 1863026495.
- Muthesius, Stefan (1982). The English Terraced House. ISBN 9780300028713.
- Summerson, John (1988). Georgian London. ISBN 9780712620956.
- Summerson, John (1963) [First published 1947]. John Wood and the English town-planning tradition.
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