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Popular Architectural Styles
 Cape DutchReal Cape Dutch buildings are by now valuable monuments. Look for thick walls, stable doors, square multi-paned windows set low in the wall and often shuttered. Cape Dutch floors were originally made of cow dung and built up in layers over years. Today, Cape Dutch style is generally mimicked through green and white colour schemes, terracotta tiles, shuttered windows and gable details. |  TraditionalA traditional home is the most common style in the United States. It is a mix of many classic, simple designs typical of the country's many regions. Common features include little ornamentation, simple rooflines, symmetrically spaced windows. |  VictorianA busy building era throughout South Africa, Victorian style encompasses both 'servant'-cottage terrace houses and free-standing Victorian mansions. Victorians favoured high ceilings, generous doorways and sash windows. They also enjoyed decorative details such as pressed ceilings, embossed wallpaper, cornices, half-walled strip wood paneling and iron balustrading (or broekie lace). Corrugated iron verandahs and decorative balcony tiles were also popular. |  Cape VernacularThis is a Victorian rendition of the Cape Dutch style, known as 'farmyard architecture'. As a style it lacks pretension and it also tries to respect the landscape in which it resides. This style of home has been heavily favoured on urban outskirts and popular weekend-home investment towns. Rough plaster walls are whitewashed and uneven doors and details are acceptable. Roofs are either corrugated iron or tile but are most authentic in thatch. |  TuscanA hugely popular style for all levels of homes, the Tuscan style is best expressed in large double story, symmetrical homes. Often characterized by wavy terracotta roof tiles, garden water features, wrought iron details and double volume entrance halls; Tuscan homes also favour mustard coloured exterior paints and generous terracotta, marble and granite finishes. |
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 MediterraneanThis house is usually a one-story design with shallow roofs that slope, making a wide overhang, to provide needed shade is warm climates. Courtyards and open arches allow for breezes to flow freely through the house and verandas. There are open, big windows throughout. Verandas can be found on the second floor. Typically, the Mediterranean house is constructed with a stucco exterior and has a tile roof. |  ContemporaryThe common characteristic of this style includes simple, clean lines with large windows devoid of decorative trim. The exteriors are a mixture of siding, stucco, stone, brick and wood. The roof can be flat or shallow pitched, often with great overhangs. |  FarmhouseGoing back in time, the American farmhouse reflects a simpler era when families gathered in the open kitchen and living room. This version of the country home usually has bedrooms clustered together and features the friendly porch or porches. Its lines are simple. They are often faced with wood siding. |  Modern FarmhouseThe iconic American farmhouse now has a modern twist. The distinguishing interior features for the 21st-century version of this favorite home plan style include a vaulted Great Room/Family Room, open floor plans, the use of barn-style doors and wide plank wood flooring. Floor plans have a split bedroom layout. Kitchen layouts are spacious and open. On the exterior, these house plans feature gable roof, dormers, steep roof pitches |  CraftsmanIts main features are a low-pitched, gabled roof (often hipped) with a wide overhang and exposed roof rafters. Its porches are either full or partial width, with tapered columns or pedestals that extend to the ground level. A combination of natural materials are used, such as wood and stone, and often a combination of more than one type. |
 PrairiePrairie-style home plans came of age around the turn of the twentieth century. Often associated with one of the giants in design, Frank Lloyd Wright, prairie-style houses were designed to blend in with the flat prairie landscape. The typical prairie-style house plan has sweeping horizontal lines and wide open floor plans. Other common features of this style include overhanging eaves, rows of small windows, one-story projections and in many cases a central chimney. |  RanchA ranch typically is a one-story house, but becomes a raised ranch or split level with room for expansion. Asymmetrical shapes are common with low-pitched roofs and a built-in garage (in rambling ranches). The exterior is faced with wood and bricks, or a combination of both. |
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