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Getting To Know The City’s Arts & Crafts House Style

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Vancouver’s architecture is often difficult to distinguish as many of its homes are adaptations or amalgamations of more recognized styles. By cataloguing them, we gain an understanding of our homes and neighbourhoods, which gives us all a sense of pride in our city. With this is mind, the Vancouver Heritage Foundation provides Scout with an exclusive series that we call The Roof Over Your Head.

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The English Arts & Crafts style emerged as a reaction to the negative aspects of the rapid industrialization in England and encompassed artistic, ideological and political ideas. Architecturally, it was inspired by the look of the country cottage and manor house. In Vancouver and Victoria, architect Samuel Maclure was the most accomplished practitioner of the Arts & Crafts style.

The stylistic emphasis of the Arts & Crafts home is on their picturesque form. This includes asymmetrical massing, steeply pitched hip or gable roofs, with long ridge lines. Arts & Crafts homes are often compared to the Tudor Revival style. The main difference is that Arts & Crafts houses are more horizontal, with a closer relationship to the garden.

The entrance is an important feature of Arts & Crafts houses, as they were seen as symbols of welcome. Typically there is a discrete entrance with a covered porch that has a close relationship to the garden. Leaded glass is often incorporated into the door and multi-paned casement (swing open from one hinged side) windows are common. Chimneys are often prominent and cast in stone rather than the brick common in Tudor Revival homes. Eave overhangs and dormers are minimal.

Both in Vancouver and abroad, the use of local materials was encouraged in the Arts & Crafts home. In Vancouver, this included wooden shingles, siding and trim, as well as brick, stone and stucco. Many of the homes have smooth stucco surfaces with little applied decoration, though some include ‘Tudor’ half-timbering and medieval detailing.

The Arts & Crafts home is often on the grander scale, so here in Vancouver Shaughnessy remains the best place to find good examples.

OTHER ROOFS OVER YOUR HEAD

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Vancouver Heritage Foundation is a registered charity supporting the conservation of heritage buildings and structures in recognition of their contribution to the city’s economy, sustainability and culture. VHF supports Vancouver’s built history by offering educational tours, talks and lectures, courses, and special events. Launched early in 2013, the Vancouver House Styles Architectural Web Tool is a free online reference cataloguing Vancouver’s common architectural styles.