Different Types of Houses Around the World, 20 House Styles

Key points from the infographic

The graphic shows 20 house styles from six regions: Europe, Russia, America and Canada, Asia, Antarctica and Australia.
America and Canada has the most entries, nine, from the A-frame to Toronto’s bay and gable.
The graphic has some errors, including a mudhif caption copied from another entry; see the notes below.

House styles around the world in text

Title: House Styles Around the World. Each style has an illustration and a caption card. Captions are reproduced as printed, including spelling errors.

#	Section	House style	Place printed	Text on the graphic
1	Europe	Chalet	Alpine region in Europe	It is made of wood, with a heavy, gently sloping roof and wide, well-supported eaves set at right angles to the front of the house.
2	Europe	Geodesic dome homes	Norway and Austria	Hemispherical thin-shell structure (lattice-shell) based on a geodesic polyhedron. Structure originated in WWI and first fully sustainable geodesic dome hotel was opened in 2001.
3	Europe	Hall house	The UK	Typically built for a yeoman, it is most common in Kent and the east of Sussex but has also been built elsewhere. Kent has one of the highest concentrations of such surviving medieval timber framed buildings in Europe.
4	Europe	Round house	British Isles	House with circular planning originally build in Western Europe.
5	Europe	Trullo	Italy	Traditional Apulian dry stone hut with a conical roof. Trullo generally were constructed as temporary field shelters and storehouses or, as permanent dwellings by small proprietors or agricultural laborer.
6	Russia	Izba	Russia	It is generally built close to the road and inside a yard, which also encloses a kitchen garden, hay shed, and barn within a simple woven stick fence.
7	America and Canada	A-frame	America	Steeply-angled sides that usually begin at or near the foundation line, and meet at the top in the shape of the letter A.
8	America and Canada	Barn dominium	Rural	Steel frame buildings, designed as a barn but now they are repurposed with the addition of living areas.
9	America and Canada	Cape Cod	England	A Cape Cod house is a low, broad, single-story frame building with a moderately steep pitched gabled roof, a large central chimney, and very little ornamentation. Originating in New England in the 17th century, the simple symmetric design was constructed of local materials to withstand the stormy, stark weather of Cape Cod.
10	America and Canada	Chattel house	West Indies, Barbados	A small moveable wooden house that for working-class occupy. These houses are set on blocks or a groundsill rather than being anchored into the ground.
11	America and Canada	Conch house	Florida	These hoses are built of wood, and set on posts or piers, which allows air to circulate under the floor. Conch houses are rectangular, of one or two floors, and usually have a porch across the full width of the front of the house (both floors if the house has two floors).
12	America and Canada	Octagon house	North America and Canada	Popular in the 1850s in the United States and Canada, these are characterized by an octagonal plan, and often feature a flat roof and a veranda all round.
13	America and Canada	Sears catalogue home	America	Central heating, indoor plumbing, and electricity were top features of these “Modern Homes”, although not all the houses were designed with these conveniences.
14	America and Canada	Shot gun house	New Orleans	Narrow rectangular domestic residence, usually no more than about 12 feet (3.5 m) wide, with rooms arranged one behind the other and doors at each end of the house.
15	America and Canada	Bay and gable	Toronto, Canada	Features large bay window that usually covers more than half of the front of the house, surmounted by a gable roof. The classic bay and gable is a red brick semi-detached structure that is two and a half storeys tall, though many variations also exist.
16	Asia	Hanok	Korea	Traditional Korean architecture which lends consideration to the positioning of the house in relation to its surroundings, with thought given to the land and seasons.
17	Asia	Minka	Japan	Vernacular houses constructed in any one of several traditional Japanese building styles. In the context of the four divisions of society, Minka were the dwellings of farmers, artisans, and merchants (i.e., the three non-samurai castes).
18	Asia	Mudhif	Iraq	Printed with the same text as Bay and gable (see Notes).
19	Antarctica	Igloo	none printed	Snow house or snow hut, is a type of shelter built of snow, typically built when the snow can be easily compacted. Although igloos are stereotypically associated with all Eskimo peoples, they were traditionally associated with people of Canada and Greenland.
20	Australia	Queenslander	none printed	Developed in the 1840s and is still constructed today, these houses were primarily applied to residential construction, although some commercial and other types of construction are identified as Queenslander.

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Background on some of the styles

A trullo is a dry stone hut with a conical roof, specific to the Itria Valley in the Italian region of Apulia[2]. A mudhif is a large reed guest house built by the Ahwari, or Marsh Arabs, in the marshes of southern Iraq [3]. An igloo is a shelter built of suitable snow; although often linked with all Inuit, igloos were traditionally used only by the people of Canada’s Central Arctic and the Qaanaaq area of Greenland [4].

Climate drives other designs. The Queenslander, which developed in the 1840s, is typically a detached timber house with a corrugated iron roof, and its defining trait is being raised on stumps [5]. The Cape Cod house originated in 17th century New England [6].

The chattel house of Barbados was designed to be moved: it sits on blocks or a groundsill rather than being anchored, so a tenant could take it apart and move it to a new property [7]. The shotgun house is a narrow home, usually no more than about 12 feet (3.5 m) wide, with rooms one behind the other; one New Orleans historian traced it to the city’s Creole suburbs in the early 1800s [8].

Notes on this infographic

Mudhif caption. The Mudhif card repeats the Bay and gable text word for word (a large bay window, red brick, two and a half storeys). That text does not describe a mudhif. The illustration correctly shows a reed building; a mudhif is a reed guest house of the Marsh Arabs of southern Iraq [3].
Igloo under Antarctica. The graphic places the igloo in an Antarctica section, but its own caption ties igloos to Canada and Greenland, and igloos were traditionally built in Canada’s Central Arctic and northern Greenland [4], not in Antarctica.
Geodesic dome origin. The caption says the structure “originated in WWI”. The first geodesic dome was designed after the First World War by Walther Bauersfeld for a planetarium in Jena, Germany, and opened to the public in 1926 [9]. The 2001 hotel claim could not be verified.
Cape Cod label. The card says “(England)” but its own text says the style originated in New England [6].
Spelling. Errors such as “hoses” (Conch house) and “originally build” (Round house) are transcribed as printed.

Questions about types of houses

What are 20 different types of houses?

This graphic names 20: chalet, geodesic dome, hall house, round house, trullo, izba, A-frame, barndominium, Cape Cod, chattel house, conch house, octagon house, Sears catalogue home, shotgun house, bay and gable, hanok, minka, mudhif, igloo and Queenslander.

Sources

Skywalker Roofing, Skywalker Roofing Company (the graphic’s maker; the original infographic page now redirects).
Wikipedia, Trullo.
Wikipedia, Mudhif.
Wikipedia, Igloo.
Wikipedia, Queenslander (architecture).
Wikipedia, Cape Cod (house).
Wikipedia, Chattel house.
Wikipedia, Shotgun house.
Wikipedia, Geodesic dome.