Here is Part One of my paper for my "Survey of Sustainable Architecture and Interior Design" class which I absolutely LOVED this Summer!
Project #1-Building Feature: Porches
"Porches are as synonymous with American culture
as apple pie. While not
unknown in colonial times, they rose to nationwide popularity in the decades
before the Civil War, and remained in fashion for almost one hundred years.
Ironically, the very social and technological forces that made them both
popular
and possible were eventually responsible for their decline."
- Renee Kahn, Preserving Porches
A "porch"
is defined by Martin Pegler as "an exterior addition to a building. It usually forms a covered approach to a
doorway." The word "portico" is used
synonymously with patio, and is defined by Pegler as "an open space
covered with a roof supported on columns.
A porch-like structure in front of a building which is fronted by
columns."
While maybe
slightly different in definition, some use the words "stoop" "veranda"
or "loggia" in a similar fashion in terms of the cultural use or
significance of such a building feature.
The "balcony" also falls into a related category. All are physical spaces and building elements
and all have a significance beyond their form or aesthetic. To say the word porch, often illicits a pause, a comforting thought, maybe a
memory. Porches create a connection between
indoors and outdoors, between what is private and what is public, between
safety and vulnerability. Such
connections are not just physical, but emotional, cultural, and
environmental.
Says Kate
Crowder in her article for Old House Journal,
"Few architectural features have
been more important in the formation of a unique American identity than this
highly beloved perch." But porches go back far beyond American
history, as they were used by Egyptians Greek and Romans due to the sunny and
warm climates there, as the overhangs provided shade and a cool place,
therefore, the use of a porch began as a more "technological" response
to a need. It is What Reyner Banham
would call a "selective" mode of environmental management.
Some trace the use of porch-like structures back to Africa where they may have
been "derived from the houses of West Africa; the shotgun house, built by
the African slave," which "appeared as one of the first American
houses to universally exhibit a front porch"
These "shotgun houses" are found in the mainly in the South, in blue
collar communities in cities like New Orleans, LA or Key Wes,t Florida. Their narrowness lends them very well to an
urban residential solution.
There was a
surge in the popularity of porches again during the Renaissance times, but it
was the islands settled and explored by French, British, and Spanish traders
that influenced what we began to see most in Colonial America. This architectural feature was, again, a
response to the warm, humid climates of these island places and, of course,
this trend in America began in the South primarily due to the similar weather
patterns. Though the colonial settlers
mostly came from Europe, the architecture there did not see the porch element
possibly because the weather (in general a cooler, less temperate climate) did
not force the need. Crowder notes that
the design influences came from "Palladian predecessors" of Europe in
the porches of Virginia with their "two symmetrical stories flanked by
columns" while Charleston saw more of a "Caribbean building tradition
to create regal, double story piazza." George Washington's Mount Vernon in Fairfax,
Virginia is an important example of the Early American porch. (See Figures 1
and 2).
In addition
to the South, Spanish settlers in the West and Southwest United States brought
their own influences, introducing "second-story porches often spanning the
width of the house...and corridors running along the backs of the
houses" which became "both
practical and widespread." Such second-story balconies were seen in the
South as well, a French influence, due to the swampy, low qualities of these areas. Again, this was in response to the heat and
humidity of these particular climates , offering a respite from the stuffy
interiors.
Figure 1: Mt.
Vernon-Fairfax, Virginia - http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Counties/Fairfax/MountVernon_photos.htm
Figure 2: Mt. Vernon Porch View - http://thedistrictandthed.com/page/4/
This brings
us to the Pre-Civil War Era of the mid-1800s and what Crowder refers to as the
"iconic..Greek Revival movement." Features of a Greek Revival facade include a
porch with large, heavy columns supporting a pediment roof (see Figure 3).
\
Figure 3: Cannonball House, Macon, GA, 1853 - http://maconcherryblossom.blogspot.com/
The columns
were often squared with simple capitals, or rounded with ornamental capitals. These features blended with French Plantation
style of architecture, as we saw some encompass the full width of the house and
second story (See Figure 3) giving the facade a classical sense of grandeur,
the calling card for this style. But this
design also served a purpose beyond a social statement in that the porches or
porticos continued to create a cooler shady space as an alternative to staying
indoors in these very humid and warm climates.
Greek Revival
Architecture did, however, have its critics.
One was Andrew Jackson Downing of Newburgh, New York, a pattern-book
writer and the son of a nursery owner who wrote extensively on house plans and
gardens. He did thought the high
columned facade did not provide the shade it proclaimed and saw it as more of a
temple-like structure rather than a residential dwelling. He preferred simplicity and a greater sense
of home.
Figure 4: Madewood Plantation, Napoleonville, LA -1845 http://midnightmacaroons.blogspot.com/2011/02/historical-home-wednesday.html
Figure 5: Madewood Porch detail - http://midnightmacaroons.blogspot.com/2011/02/historical-home-wednesday.html
Figure 6: Madewood Porch Detail - http://midnightmacaroons.blogspot.com/2011/02/historical-home-wednesday.html
European and
French influences were seen in some of the changing detail of the porch
structure with flourishes and scrolled ironwork popping up on their railings
and balustrades, as best illustrated by much of the architecture seen in areas
of cities such as New Orleans (see Figures 7 and 8). Of course the patios and balconies of New
Orleans today, particularly those of the French Quarter, are most used to
elevate and layer people in crowds so to make bead catching during Mardi Gras
more effective and eventful (See Figure 9)!
Figure 7; New Orleans, LA Residence - http://everyday-pretty.com/tag/french-quarter/
Figure 8: Iconic French Quarter Balconies, New Orleans,
LA
http://asisterofstjoseph.blogspot.com/2011/09/csjs-and-ncnwr-conference-new-orleans.html
Figure 9-French Quarter during Mardi
Gras, New Orleans, LA - http://alcanthang.blogspot.com/2005_08_28_archive.html
This
architecture not only served as a strong physical presence and an important
function in terms of cooling off the people of the time, but it represented the
strength, and tradition of the upper class American South at this time, and
once the Civil War ended, so did the popularity of this particular porch style.
