The Corrugated Iron Roof: Avant-Garde or Unaesthetic?

It’s an essential architectural element, one we tend to immediately take note of when we look at buildings new to us – the roof. The roofs that shelter the buildings we see in our cities today are diverse in their typology. Flat roofs are a common sight in the city centers of urban metropolises, hip roofs are a popular choice for dwellings around the world, and the gable roof is arguably the most common of all, a roof type popular in stylized depictions of what a standard house looks like.

The Corrugated Iron Roof: Avant-Garde or Unaesthetic?
Shop with corrugated iron roof - Laos. Image © Wikimedia User Basile Morin licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Shop with corrugated iron roof - Laos. Image © Wikimedia User Basile Morin licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

It’s an essential architectural element, one we tend to immediately take note of when we look at buildings new to us – the roof. The roofs that shelter the buildings we see in our cities today are diverse in their typology. Flat roofs are a common sight in the city centers of urban metropolises, hip roofs are a popular choice for dwellings around the world, and the gable roof is arguably the most common of all, a roof type popular in stylized depictions of what a standard house looks like.

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