California bungalow

Zellers-Langel House, Franklin County, Ohio

Bungalows are one or one and a half story houses, with sloping roofs and eaves with unenclosed rafters, and typically feature a dormer window (or an attic vent designed to look like one) over the main portion of the house. Ideally, bungalows are horizontal in massing, and are integrated with the earth by use of local materials and transitional plantings. This helps create the signature look typically associated with the California bungalow.

Bungalows commonly have wood shingle, horizontal siding or stucco exteriors, as well as brick or stone exterior chimneys and a partial-width front porch. Larger bungalows might have asymmetrical "L" shaped porches. The porches were often enclosed at a later date, in response to increased street noise. A "California" bungalow (except in Australia, see below) is not made of brick, but in other bungalows, most notably in the Chicago area, this is commonplace due in large part to the weather.

A variation called the "Airplane Bungalow" has a much smaller area on its second floor, centered on the structure, and is thought to look like the cockpit of an early airplane.

True bungalows do not include quarters for servants, and have a simple living room, entered directly from the front door, in place of parlors and sitting rooms, as well as a smaller kitchen. The focal point of the living room is the fireplace, and the living room often has a broad opening into a separate dining room.

All common areas are on the first floor with cozy atmospheres. Though the ceilings are lower than in homes of Victorian architecture, they often feature redwood beams and are usually higher than in ranches and other homes built later. Attics are located under the sloping roof.

A typical front-gabled California bungalow along Utah Street in San Diego's North Park Neighborhood

Examples of neighborhoods in Southern California with a high concentration of California bungalows include: Belmont Heights in Long Beach, the Wood Streets in Riverside, Bungalow Heaven, Highland Park in Los Angeles, and North Park (site of the "Dryden District") in San Diego.

Separate from the main building, The Beverly Hills Hotel has 23 garden bungalows containing guests rooms and suites.

Examples of neighborhoods in other U.S. States include: the Avenues District in Salt Lake City; Westwood Park, San Francisco; Midtown Columbus, Georgia; Virginia Highland and Candler Park, Atlanta; Houston Heights in Houston; Park Hill and Washington Park in Denver; Takoma Park, Maryland, and Takoma, Washington, D.C.; Cherrydale and other neighborhoods in Arlington County, Virginia; Del Ray in Alexandria, Virginia; Historic Kenwood in St. Petersburg, Florida; The Garden District in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and the West University Neighborhood in Tucson, Arizona.

The Californian bungalow style was particularly popular in Australia from 1913 onwards.[9] This period coincided with the rise of the Hollywood film industry, which popularised American clothes, furniture, cars and houses, and also with the increased importation of U.S. architectural magazines into Australia, a society which previously had been heavily influenced by British domestic styles.

"...the concept of the bungalow as a cheap and attractive form of permanent suburban housing for the masses was stimulated by a variety of economic and social factors."[10] Timber versions of the bungalow were a low cost solution to shortages in housing and the California designs suited the growing suburbs of the larger cities in southern Australia. Having a similar climate to that of California the designs also reflected the requirements of Australians who needed to cater for relatively warm summers and mild winters.

The bungalow in Australia underwent regional adaptations, often being built in the local red brick in Melbourne and the local liver-coloured brick of Sydney,[11] and in limestone in South Australia. The bungalow was also constructed out of timber – in tropical Queensland these were raised on high (2.4 m (8 ft)) stilts as the Ashgrovian Queenslander (the idea being to allow free movement of air in the hot climate). Key practitioners of the California bungalow style were Peddle and Thorp, Kenneth B. Milne, Alexander Stewart Jolly and Cedric Ballantyne. One of the outstanding examples was Jolly's Belvedere in the Sydney suburb of Cremorne. Belvedere is heritage-listed.[12]\

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  An Arts & Crafts bungalow style home in the Sydney suburb of Roseville
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  An Arts & Crafts bungalow-inspired style home in the Sydney suburb of Lindfield
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  Simple low cost bungalow style home of timber, featuring imported redwood framing and terracotta tiled roof. Moonee Ponds, Victoria, built around 1928
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  A Federation-inspired bungalow in the Sydney suburb of Randwick.

The Californian bungalow was also common in New Zealand during the latter 1910s and 1920s (eg Railway houses), and is credited with starting a trend towards bungalows and influencing new local styles of bungalow in New Zealand during the early decades of the 20th century.

Resurgent interest in the American Arts & Crafts or American Craftsman movement and the emergence of special-interest publications such as American Bungalow magazine have contributed to the bungalow's recent popularity. Rising house prices nationwide through the late 1990s and early 2000s as well as the central and convenient location of many bungalow-heavy urban neighborhoods have further fueled demand for these houses; as one example, some three-bedroom bungalows in San Diego can sell for $650,000 to $700,000, or more. The strength of the local housing market must be considered, however, as many bungalows in Detroit, Michigan have been abandoned, and are being razed.