Sawtooth Roofs Help Homes Look Sharp
In undergraduate architecture faculty, most of the studios I inhabited had sawtooth skylights that faced north, bringing direct light to the big spaces. The result of the sawtooth form — where vertical and weathered surfaces alternative — wasn’t just a distinctive exterior profile for all those studios, but also a fairly industrial interior of stainless steel beneath the roof and clerestory skylights. Perhaps because other students were schooled in similar surroundings and wanted to try something different in their professions, sawtooth skylights aren’t a common form in structure. Perhaps they also had their period — in the 1970s and 1980s — and also other kinds have since become increasingly widespread.
However seeing a few jobs by Burr & McCallum here on has made me wonder why we don’t use this form more. The most advantageous part of a sawtooth roof would be the method by which the profile brings daylight to the center of spaces. As people attempt to utilize less energy, one architectural way to do that is to reduce the use of lightbulbs. My parents set up a solar chimney in the center of their one-story house, with a hip roof, but a roof shape with a more logical method of bringing light to the center of the plan wouldn’t have necessitated this excess purchase.
Following are a few jobs, two by Burr & McCallum, which reveal the benefits of a sawtooth roof.
Burr & McCallum Architects
1 consideration with a sawtooth roof is the way it relates to the spaces underneath. The module of skylight and sloped roof may coincide with individual rooms, but it might work with an open plan as easily. The view through the glass at bottom reveals a fairly free plan beneath the roof.
Burr & McCallum Architects
I adore the way Burr & McCallum has treated the sloped roofs, painting the eaves a reddish that contrasts with the brown-gray walls and frames. The reddish actually enriches the sawtooth form, as if it’s the most significant part the house.
Burr & McCallum Architects
The snow visible on among the roofs points out another consideration with sawtooth roofs: what to do so snow doesn’t accumulate at the clerestory windows. 1 solution is to pitch the roof in two directions, not only toward the windows; another would be to utilize heating coils at the lower stage of the roof.
Burr & McCallum Architects
Here is 1 location where the sawtooth connects directly to an individual room. The clerestory on the top right aligns with a garagelike retractable wall below, creating a large opening between rooms.
Burr & McCallum Architects
That door is visible on the left side of this photo. In the foreground we could see another clerestory that is independent of an inside partition. The organic light that the clerestories bring into the open area is advantageous, both in terms of reducing energy consumption and increasing quality of life.
Burr & McCallum Architects
The next Burr & McCallum project has sawtooth roofs which aren’t as large as the previous house, but they cap a striking second-story quantity that cantilevers over an outside area. Like the previous house, these contours coincide with windows which stretch down the sides perpendicular to the roof, helping to give the exterior and inside a rhythm.
Burr & McCallum Architects
By the opposite side, we can see that the sawtooth roofs have been accompanied by additional means of bringing in mild, mainly a massive corner quantity with glass on four sides.
Burr & McCallum Architects
Another view of the exterior additionally shows a row of small round skylights in a different part of the house. This illustrates that while sawtooth roofs enable lots of sun, they aren’t a lone solution, especially when siting and massing lead to a variety of manners of daylighting.
Griffin Enright Architects
A last example, this time around Griffin Enright Architects, is more complex in its own kind, but the same idea prevails. Gaps between roofs permit natural light to enter the inner spaces. Here we see a minimal volume on the left along with a high one on the right; the difference between them lets light to the latter.
Griffin Enright Architects
However, the ceiling of this taller quantity (here looking toward the smaller one) is what’s most unique. It’s folded to make modest openings that are full of glass. It would be wonderful to see somewhat more glass in the clerestory at very top, but there’s a fantastic deal of other glass areas which bring in lots of natural lighting.