A-Frame House: Everything You Need to Know About the Quintessential Vacation Property
Photo: Adam and Kev/Getty Images
A whimsical icon of American architecture, an A-frame house is exactly what it sounds like: a building constructed in the shape of the letter A. Its steep, gabled roof extends all the way to the ground on both sides, becoming the walls too. “Some might include buildings with roofs that extend quite low to the ground without reaching it [to the category], but I feel that the quintessential A-frame has a single, sharp ridge and a roof that touches the ground, like a playing card folded in half and stood up on a table,” describes Daly Mather, cofounder of A-Frame Rising, a company that sells modern A-frame house plans.
We chatted with Daly, as well as her father and cofounder, architect Todd Mather, and architect Jesse Hammer, who lives in an A-frame in Los Angeles, California, to answer all your questions about A-frame homes. Keep scrolling for everything you need to know about this distinctive architectural style.
What is an A-frame house?
According to Hammer, “the simplest description of an A-frame is a building where the major structure contains two angled beams that join at the top and are braced horizontally along the middle to form an A shape…this is both an economical solution and one that offers a lot of variation architecturally.”
Traditional A-framed Palheiro house with reed roof, Santana, Madeira, Portgual
Todd agrees, adding that “A-frames are typically symmetrical about the ridge line with, of course, a very steep roof pitch so that the walls are the roof on two sides. It’s a really bold geometry. Windows are typically found on the gable ends, but to produce more daylight and usable space, dormers can be added to the roof.”
What are the defining characteristics of an A-frame house?
External features
Steep, gabled roofs that touch the ground
Large windows, often in triangular shapes
Dormers
Wood siding
Internal features
High ceilings
Exposed beams
Open floor plans
Loft areas
What is the history of A-frame houses?
From Japanese gassho farmhouses to Swiss ski chalets to Māori marae in New Zealand, A-frame-style structures have been built around the world for centuries. “The Japanese farmhouse typology dates back to the Edo period, 1603-1868,” says Hammer. “These structures came about as a means to enclose tall spaces for raising silkworms, with communal working and living quarters nested along the edges. The steeply pitched roof resembles the pose of two hands in prayer, hence the name gassho.” (Gassho is a symbolic hand gesture that involves placing the palms together and bowing.)
The first A-frame house in the United States was built by Austrian architect Rudolf Schindler in 1934. The Lake Arrowhead, California, home, commissioned by Gisela Bennati, sparked a boom in A-frame construction across the country after World War II. Architects like Henrik Bull, whose A-frame cabin in Stowe, Vermont, was erected in 1953, and Andrew Geller, whose A-frame beach house in Long Island, New York, was completed in 1955, helped spread the trend with their vacation home designs.
Dog on bed in A-frame house
“The fascination with the style emerged because they were inexpensive to build,” reasons Todd. “From the forties through the seventies, companies like the Douglas Fir Plywood Association, Western Wood Products, Leisure House, and Potlatch Forests Inc. sold middle-class families on the dream of building their own vacation home over the course of a few weekends [with prefabricated A-frame kits]. There is no or minimal foundation, so not having to pay for concrete brings the cost down quite a bit. It was appealing for people who wanted to build on a lake, on a beach, in the mountains, and on a budget.”
Additionally, Hammer points out, many Americans had more disposable income at this time, as it was generally an era of economic prosperity. “Disposable income allowed people to build second homes,” Hammer says. “It’s not hard to imagine the urge to escape the banalities of suburbia that beleaguered Americans during the domestic workweek. Without the peering eyes of the Jones next door, enthusiasts could escape to this cheeky triangular building typology that is at once modest and yet also atypical.”
What are the advantages of A-frame houses?
One of the biggest perks of A-frame houses is they’re inexpensive to build, requiring less materials and labor than other architectural styles. “An A-frame offers the economical advantage of combining the roof with the wall, maxing out the vertical square footage within a compact footprint,” Hammer explains. And the triangular architecture, with its floor joists and roof rafters, is “the most innately strong shape of any structure, similar to the triangular basis of bridges and trusses,” Todd adds, meaning A-frame homeowners will need to pay for fewer repairs in the future.
Front view of winter cottage in night.
A-frames are ideal for cold climates because “their steeply pitched roofs prevent snow from collecting,” says Hammer. Daly, who’s based in Lake Tahoe, California, has experienced this advantage first-hand. “A-frames are uniquely positioned to weather snow and rain better than many other house styles because the roof does nothing but shed the precipitation,” she confirms. “In March of last year, the region saw over eight feet of very dry snowfall, nearly all of which piled up on rooftops. The steeply sloped A-frames fared far better than their more traditional counterparts.”
But Daly’s favorite aspect of A-frame houses is their iconic charm. “I posit that no other architectural style is as playful, quaint, and instantly recognizable—all at once—as the A-frame,” she muses. “Many people probably couldn’t tell a Tudor home from a Neoclassical one, but they could point out an A-frame by name, and may even have fond memories of vacationing in one as a child.”
What are the disadvantages of A-frame homes?
The sloped walls that define the A-frame silhouette are also the architectural style’s biggest downside, causing wasted living space. “You can’t put much furniture at the outer corners, nor can you walk there, so those areas tend to be underutilized,” shares Daly. “This can lead to the interiors feeling cramped—everything’s pushed to the center of the room—which is then exacerbated by limited natural light. Opportunities to hang art are limited too.”
Bedroom in guesthouse on fjord
Storage is also a challenge, so A-frame dwellers like Hammer must get creative with making room for their belongings. “This means finding ways to use some of the compact corners, for example,” they say. “For me, also making use of the tall vertical surfaces has been crucial since the footprint of the A-frame is quite small.”
Todd notes the difficulty of temperature regulation in A-frame houses, even though they tend to be energy-efficient due to their compact size. “Because of their open framework assembly—meaning there’s no roof cavity—there’s often not enough insulation to regulate between temperature extremes, which means it can be very cold and very hot,” Todd explains. Hammer agrees, adding that “heat rises, so the upper levels are especially warm during the summer months. It would be best to place cooling systems on the upper levels, if possible, since cool air sinks naturally.”
Why are A-frame houses often vacation homes?
As previously mentioned, many A-frame houses were built as vacation homes rather than primary residences in the mid-20th century, so the architectural style has “retained that association in our minds as the archetypal weekender home,” says Daly. “From a modern perspective, they’re not nearly as practical for full-time living for the typical family. Unless you crave the whimsy and uniqueness of the style itself, they just don’t make as much sense as a traditional square-walled home. Storage, head height, and floor space are all challenges presented by A-frames that might become a real point of contention over the long term.” For shorter getaways, however, A-frames can be ideal. Their tiny-house vibes feel like an escape from reality, which is why you can often find them on Airbnb and other rental sites.
Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
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