ABSTRACT
In many rural areas of the South, a type of building has emerged which combines two familiar rural fixtures: the mobile home and the prefabricated metal farm-shed roof (with an echo of a “higher” form of art). The mobile home, whose ancestry has been traced by J. B. Jackson to a number of vernacular American house types, is a model of economical dwelling (in the short term). The added roof modifies the microclimate, providing shade and a covered outdoor space. The design presented here was inspired by this act of ingenuity, combining a long, thin house in the tradition of early, climatesensitive southern vernacular urban and rural dwellings, with the great sheltering roof to shade the sun, capture the breezes and collect the rain. As is the case in many American cities, the residential streets of this Richmond, Virginia neighborhood run east to west, creating long, narrow north-south lots. This orientation does not support typical strategies for passive solar design. In this climate, where the avoidance of air conditioning would be a major achievement, summer cooling can be accomplished with shelter from the west sun, wind-channeling sideyards, a deep south-facing porch, crossventilation and a breeze-catching roof, and (when all else fails) a simple exhaust fan. For heating, the efficiency of a simple hydronic system has been enhanced through proper insulation, judiciously chosen windows and doors with insulating glass, and may be augmented by the addition of roof-mounted solar panels. As a prototypical dwelling for urban infill conditions, this design attempts to balance the need for energy conservation with the best uses of the spaces created by existing patterns of American urbanism.
