List of roof shapes

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Roof shapes differ greatly from region to region. The main factors which influence the shape of roofs are the climate and the materials available for roof structure and the outer covering. Roof terminology is also not rigidly defined. Usages vary slightly from region to region, or from one builder or architect to another.

Roof shapes vary from almost flat to steeply pitched. They can be arched or domed; a single flat sheet or a complex arrangement of slopes, gables and hips; or truncated (terraced, cut)^[1] to minimize the overall height.

Roof shapes

Flat: These are found in traditional buildings in regions with a low precipitation. Modern materials which are highly impermeable to water make possible the very large low-pitch roofs found on large commercial buildings. Although called flat they are generally gently pitched.
- Terrace: A flat roof with a balustrade, used as a living space.

Mono-pitched roofs (Pitched here means a roof plane rather than a slope and implies it is not a flat roof)
- Mono-pitched roof (shed, skillion, lean-to roof^[2]): A roof with one slope, historically attached to a taller wall.
- Saw-tooth: A roof comprising a series of mono-pitched roofs with vertical surfaces glazed and facing away from the equator. The sloping surfaces are opaque, shielding the workers and machinery from direct sunlight. This sort of roof admits natural light into a factory, and is also known as "Northlight" in the northern hemisphere.^[3]
Pent roof (pentice, skirt roof if carried around the house^[4]): A roof appended, thus the name, to the wall of a building. (See gallery below)

Multi-pitched roofs:
- Gable (ridged, dual-pitched, peaked, saddle, pack-saddle, saddleback,^[5] span roof^[6]): A simple roof design shaped like an inverted V.
  - Cross gabled: The result of joining two or more gabled roof sections together, forming a T or L shape for the simplest forms, or any number of more complex shapes.
  - See also roof pitch, crow-stepped, corbie stepped, stepped gable: A gable roof with its end parapets extended upwards and shaped to resemble steps.
- A-frame
- Asian traditional style
- Half-hipped (clipped gable): A combination of a gable and a hip roof with the hipped part at the top and the gable section lower down.
- Dutch gable, gablet: A hybrid of hipped and gable with the gable at the top and hipped lower down; i.e. the opposite arrangement to the half-hipped roof.
- Saltbox, catslide: A gable roof with one side longer than the other, and thus closer to the ground unless the pitch on one side is altered.
- Outshot or catslide: A pitched extension of a main roof similar to a lean-to but an extension of the upper roof.
- Bonnet roof: A reversed gambrel or Mansard roof with the lower portion at a lower pitch than the upper portion.
- Monitor roof: A roof with a monitor; 'a raised structure running part or all of the way along the ridge of a double-pitched roof, with its own roof running parallel with the main roof.'
- Butterfly roof (V-roof,^[7] London roof^[8]): A V-shaped roof resembling an open book. A kink separates the roof into two parts running towards each other at an obtuse angle.
Karahafu: A type of gable found in some traditional Japanese buildings.
Hidden roof: A type of Japanese roof construction.
Hip, hipped: A hipped roof is sloped in two pairs of directions (e.g. N-S and E-W) compared to the one pair of direction (e.g. N-S or E-W) for a gable roof.
- Half-hipped: A hybrid of a gable and a hipped roof. (See above.)
- Dutch gable, gablet: The reverse hybrid of a hipped and a gable roof. (See above.)
- Cross hipped: The result of joining two or more hip roof sections together, forming a T or L shape for the simplest forms, or any number of more complex shapes.
- Satari: A Swedish variant on the monitor roof; a double hip roof with a short vertical wall usually with small windows, popular from the 17th century on formal buildings. (Säteritak in Swedish.)
Mansard (French roof): A roof with the pitch divided into a shallow slope above a steeper slope. The steep slope may be curved. An element of the Second Empire architectural style (Mansard style) in the U.S.
- Gambrel, curb, kerb: A roof similar to a mansard but sloped in one direction rather than both.
- Bell-cast (sprocketed, flared): A roof with the shallow slope below the steeper slope at the eaves. Compare with bell roof.
East Asian hip-and-gable roof
Mokoshi: A Japanese decorative pent roof

Pyramidal
- Pyramid roof (pavilion roof): A hip roof on a square building.
- Pyatthat: A multi-tiered and spired roof commonly found in Burmese royal and Buddhist architecture.
- Tented:A type of polygonal hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak
- Helm roof, Rhenish helm: A pyramidal roof with gable ends; often found on church towers.
- Twisted, an extreme display of craftsmanship found on some church towers in France, see gallery below.
Arched roof
- Barrel, barrel-arched (cradle, wagon): A round roof like a barrel (tunnel) vault.
- Catenary: An arched roof in the form of a catenary curve.
- Bow roof, rainbow,^[9] Gothic, Gothic arch, and ship's bottom roof. Historically also called a compass roof.^[10]

Circular
- Bell roof (bell-shaped, ogee, Philibert de l'Orme roof): A bell-shaped roof. Compare with bell-cast eaves. De l'Orme also used bow roofs (see below).
- Domed
- Onion dome or rather an imperial roof
- Bochka roof
- Conical roof or cone roof

Hyperbolic
- Saddleback

Illustrations of common roof shapes


Flat roof	Shed roof	Pitched roof with catslide	Saw-tooth roof

Gable or saddle roof	Trough	Gambrel roof	Clerestory roof

Hip roof	Half-hip roof	Tented or pavilion roof	Gablet roof or Dutch gable

Rhombic roof	Rainbow roof	Barrel roof	Bow roof

Conical roof	Spire	Onion dome	Welsh spire

Selection criteria

Location
Economics
Building plan
Neighbouring buildings
Building geometry
Architectural reasons

Roof shapes
Arched roof, also called a Gothic arch, rainbow, and ship's bottom roof.
A bonnet roof with the lower slopes at a lower pitch. This roof form is a classic on some barns in the western United States.
Catenary curved roof.
Flat roof. Western Australia.
Mansard roof on a county jail. Mount Gilead, Ohio.
A helm roof on the two towers.
Temple roof with a decorated gable end and ceramic tile covering. Chang Mai, Thailand.
Conical Chinese roof. Nanhai Academy, Taipei.
A conical dry-stone roof on a Trullo hut.
Cross gabled roof at the Verla mill village and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Kouvola.
Basic mansard roof.
Curved form of a mansard roof with bell-cast eaves. Rommersdorf Abbey, Germany.
A common form of gambrel roof. Captain Joseph Atwood house, 1752; now part of the Atwood House Museum, Chatham, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
A less common form of gambrel roof with a curved lower roof slope. Altnau, Switzerland.
An ogee roof. (A roof shape following an ogee curve. In this example the roof follows an ogee along both axes.) Montacute Lodge, England. Image by Symon Parsley.
South Korean Woljeongsa Octagonal Nine Story Pagoda. Note the typical Asian concave roof shape in the background, with roof corners higher than the sides.
A form of pyramid roof with a chimney exiting the peak. The Round House, Finchingfield, Essex, England. Image by Robert Edwards.
Beehive roof. This is a traditional roof form. Syria.
An M-roof.
A pent roof is a smaller roof attached to a wall.
A Swedish Sateri roof (Säteritak in Swedish)
A currently unnamed roof form (you can help) on a charchala style temple in India.
A twisted church tower roof.

References

↑ Long, George. "Roof". The Penny cyclopaedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. London: Charles Knight, 18331843. 143. Print.
↑ Cowan, Henry J., and Peter R. Smith. "Shed roof" Dictionary of architectural and building technology. London: Elsevier Applied Science Publishers ;, 1986. 272. Print.
↑ "The Machine Shop and the Works. Modern Principles of Design", The Times: Engineering Supplement, London, November 13, 1912, p.25.
↑ Harris, Cyril M.. "Pent roof". Harris dictionary of architecture & construction. 3rd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2000. Print.
↑ Fleming, Honour, & Pevsner, A Dictionary of Architecture
↑ Passmore, Augustine C.. "Span Roof". Handbook of technical terms used in architecture and building and their allied trades and subjects,. London: Scott, Greenwood, and Co.;, 1904. 325. Print.
↑ Passmore, Augustine C.. "V Roof" Handbook of technical terms used in architecture and building and their allied trades and subjects,. London: Scott, Greenwood, and Co.;, 1904. 362. Print.
↑ Coutts, John. Loft Conversions. 2nd ed. New York: Wiley, 2012. Print.
↑ Davies, Nikolas, and Erkki Jokiniemi. Dictionary of architecture and building construction. Amsterdam: Elsevier/Architectural Press, 2008.304
↑ http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/rainbow+roof

External links

Top 15 Roof Types with Pros and Cons by Roofer Calculator