These 9 Structures Prove That Shingle Exteriors Can Be Surprisingly Modern
In architecture, shingles often bring to mind historic, pitched-roof buildings—but this certainly isn’t the case with these nine modern structures.
A shingle is a rectangular wooden tile that's made of wood, slate, flagstone, fiber cement, metal, plastic, or composite materials such as asphalt. When applied to a building, it adds an interesting scale-like texture to roofs and walls.
Many shingled buildings were born from the early-Victorian Stick style and Queen Anne style, and were popular in New England from the late-1870s to the 1890s. Though rectangular wood shingles are the most common, they're also available in other varieties including fish scale, cover, V-cut, octagonal, and arrow patterns. These days, they can even be found made of shiny metal alloys or recycled rubber.
UFO-Like Cabin in Austria
Designed by architects Peter and Lukas Jungmann, this holiday cabin near an old farmhouse in the East Tyrolean village of Nussdorf, Austria, is covered in rustic Austrian-style shingles. Its sharp angles and asymmetrical shape gives it a distinctly futuristic, UFO-like appearance.
Courtesy of Lukas Jungmann
This home in northeast Austin, Texas, has a back patio with floors made out of concrete and stone and walls of wood shingles.
Courtesy of Chase Daniel
Inspired by bird hides, this annex building in Cornwall, England, that was part of an existing thatch cottage was fully revamped with concrete and silver-wood shingles to create a minimalist rental cottage.
Courtesy of Unique Home Stays
This Melbourne home is made up of a series of renovated gabled structures. It features a geometric cladding that consists of white-steel panels and western red cedar shingles.
Courtesy of Peter Bennetts
Taking a creative twist on the traditional wood shingle, this Connecticut home uses metal shingles for a cutting-edge, modern look.
Courtesy of Andrew Rowat
In Buffalo, New York, architect Adam Sokol designed "Birdhouse," a house with a black facade composed of shingles made out of locally recycled rubber.
Courtesy of Adam Sokol
On the site of old farmhouse ruins in Italy, architecture firm Bergmeister Wolf Architekten built a new section with concrete, weathered steel, and wood shingles to contrast with the old stones.
Courtesy of Günter Richard Wett
Designed by Tokyo architecture practice Sohei Nakanishi Design, this seaside getaway has a facade that combines rectangular, red cedar shingles with rounded-edged, fish-scale shingles for an unusual visual and textural composition.
Courtesy of Yohei Nakazato
Designed by Michaelis Boyd Associates in collaboration with Nicholas Plewman Architects, Sandibe Okavango Safari Lodge in Botswana’s Okavango Delta has 12 nest-shaped guest suites with cedar-shingle exteriors inspired by the shell of pangolins and the nests of weaver finches.
Courtesy of Dook
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