Visible facade elements are important in the assessment of the age of
residential structures. In this study a classificatory procedure is
developed in which reference to combination of critical facade elements
enable a house to be categorized according to its period of construction
and also to be assigned a vernacular label. The case study is placed in
the Kitsilano area of Vancouver, Canada.
The housing forms of a community (other than a rural or primitive
level) have often not been given the attention they deserve in relation to
their numbers or their potential contribution to an understanding of the
evolution of the North American urban landscape. Examination of architectural
histories indicated a pre-occupation with prestigious and monumental
architecture rather than the vernacular. In addition, the few general
styles embrace too wide a period for use in areas of recent growth, and are
not Immediately transferable to Vancouver which has only eighty-five years
of building and a distinctive cultural history. Geographers who have
attempted similar taxonomic exercises found that style alone was an
insufficient basis for classification it was necessary to identify the
variations of the salient characteristics of the styles. Therefore, a
detailed description and classification of four elements - window style,
roof lines, porch and entrance appearance, and external cover material -
provided the basis for the identification of vernacular styles and their
construction periods,
A regression of actual year of construction against the four facade
elements indicated their relative importance but did not yield weightings
by which the individual year of construction could be consistently
recognised. However, particular element sub-types appeared to be associated
with general time periods, and time period boundaries based on building
cycles in Vancouver were imposed on the data to examine the association of each, sub-type with particular years. Significant overlaps across the time
boundaries prevented the allocation of individual facade element sub-types
to discrete time periods; however, examination of the distribution of
combination of three elements - window, roof, and entrance - indicated
the concentration of the majority of houses in relatively few combination
of element sub-types. A two-tier classification emerged, in which precise
clusters of combinations based upon a roof sub-type core accounted for the
majority of occurrences in specific time periods. By amalgamating
adjacent clusters, the overlap of element sub-types from one small time
period to another disappeared in a more general grouping.
Using the architectural labels, the various three-element combination
could be conveniently described, and their time-popularity assessed for the
Vancouver case. The styles were: Swiss Chalet (1910-1918) and Bungalow
Proper (1912-1925) equal Bungaloid (1912-1925); and Cottage-like (1926-1938)
and Boxes (1938-1945) equal Bijou (1926-1945). Other architectural labels
were then added to this basic grouping, with the place of Queen Anne,
Sastlake, and Cubic Styles suggested for earlier Vancouver housing, together
with the contributions of modern developments in split-level, ranch style
and apartment design. Overlaps found in the examination of specific sub-type
time spans could be explained through stylistic transitions from one style to
another, since it was recognized that very few styles command a period In
absolute terms. A summary description of the styles was presented, and also
suggestions for increasing the resolution of the classification.
Finally, potential uses of the key were suggested, focusing on three
main topics where models of urban social structure might be tested: the
impact of transportation technology on in fill patterns and process; the
spatial pattern of different housing qualities to indicate differential
mobility and status in various time periods; and structural modifications
as a measure of changing land use and as an outward manifestation of the cultural mix of occupants. Mention is made of the classification's possible
role in creating awareness of the everyday urban environment, and also its
important value as a more objective approach to a theme in cultural
geography where the use of artifacts as a data source has been venerable
to criticisms that they were based on subjective interpretations. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/41876 |
| Date | January 1971 |
| Creators | Holdsworth, Derek William |
| Publisher | University of British Columbia |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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