bluur magazine: bungalow living elsewhere

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

bungalow living elsewhere

Living in a bungalow has had its ups and downs. The upside is that the, diminutive, central living space is on one floor. The down side, is that, we're all on top of each other. A close knit family that sometimes wants to unravel because of those pearls/purls. But it has its charm and history.

manhattan beach cottage, 1902 torn down in 1987. here is this same location, as it looks today .

Once upon a time, this little beach town was nothing more than sand dunes dotted with these charming beach houses. The one I live in was built with the intention of summer use by those who lived inland, like Pasadena and other places that soared with heat in those hot summer months. They were built with small galley kitchens and maybe 2 bedrooms- one for the children and one for the parents.

the child of the first owners in the front yard of my beach bungalow {early 40s}

Over the years, one by one, these bungalows have disappeared giving way to larger...much larger homes. Homes, I suppose that are more suitable for modern lifestyles.

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a little, bungalow, back history:

In the late 19th century, the bungalow style house spread in popularity across America. With its beginnings in India, as small, single family homes, the structures eventually became holiday homes for the British Colonists. In time the idea of making these, small homes into year round dwellings gained popularity. Over the years, architects have used the bungalow concept as an inspiration to recreate varying versions of the original holiday house.

I love this, Seattle, pagoda style bungalow, originally built from a 1920s Sears catalog.

A second story was added by architectural firm, Bosworth Hoedmaker, maintaining the integrity of the design while adding space.

factoid to add to your useless knowledge bank: Chicago, sometimes known as the 'bungalow belt' is home to more bungalows than any other type of architecture. There are approximately 80,000 within the city limits alone.

Chicago bungalows are usually brick and have the distinctive design element of the roof gable being parallel rather than perpendicular to the street.

another notable: most bungalows have a distinctive front porch and a low roof line.

the large front porch created community among neighbors, as a place to sit and visit.

this is my kind of bungalow...

It looks like maybe it was added onto? check out all of those windows! I can only imagine how beautiful the light is in those two front rooms.

While the bungalow was introduced to California in the late 19th century, the fad spread up to our Canadian cousins over the next 10 years. Houses like these Ontario, Canada bungalows, started showing up around the early teens.