Roof Shapes & Forms

Gable, hip, mansard, dome and the other shapes roofs take. 25 entries.

• A-Frame RoofAn A-frame is a building whose steep roof planes start near the ground and meet at the ridge, so the roof also forms most of the walls.
• Barrel Roof (Barrel Vault)A barrel roof is a continuously curved roof shaped like half a cylinder, the roof form of a barrel (tunnel or wagon) vault.
• Bonnet RoofA bonnet roof is a double-pitched roof whose lower slope is shallower than the upper slope, the reverse of a mansard or gambrel, often forming porch eaves.
• Butterfly RoofA butterfly roof is an inverted gable: two roof planes slope down from the outer walls to a central valley, like a pair of raised wings.
• Conical Roof (Turret Roof)A conical roof is a roof shaped like a cone, rising to a point over a circular plan; it typically crowns towers, turrets and round huts.
• Cross-Gabled RoofA cross-gabled roof combines two or more gable roofs that intersect, usually at right angles, over an L-, T- or cross-shaped plan.
• DomeA dome is a curved roof shaped like the hollow upper part of a sphere or similar surface, spanning a circular, polygonal or square space.
• Dutch Gable Roof (Gablet Roof)A Dutch gable roof is a hip roof topped with a small gable (gablet) at the ridge ends; in Britain the term also means a curved, shaped gable parapet.
• Flat RoofA flat roof is a roof that is almost level, laid to a slight fall for drainage and covered with a continuous waterproof membrane rather than overlapping units.
• Gable RoofA gable roof has two sloping planes meeting at a central ridge, leaving a triangular wall section, the gable, at each end.
• Gambrel RoofA gambrel roof is a two-sided roof with two slopes on each side, a steep lower slope and a shallow upper one, giving a characteristic barn profile.
• Gonjong Roof (Minangkabau)Gonjong are the upswept, horn-like roof peaks of the Minangkabau rumah gadang in West Sumatra, Indonesia, said to recall buffalo horns.
• Hip RoofA hip roof slopes down to the eaves on all sides, with no vertical gable ends; on a rectangular plan it has two trapezoidal and two triangular faces.
• Hyperbolic Paraboloid Roof (Hypar)A hyperbolic paraboloid roof is a saddle-shaped, doubly curved roof that can be built from straight members, used for thin concrete shells and tensile structures.
• Irimoya (East Asian Hip-and-Gable Roof)Irimoya is the Japanese hip-and-gable roof: a hip roof whose upper part rises into gables on two sides, known as xieshan in China and paljak in Korea.
• Jerkinhead Roof (Clipped Gable)A jerkinhead roof is a gable roof whose peak is clipped by a small hip, combining a mostly vertical gable with a short sloping face at the top.
• Joglo RoofThe joglo is the steep, two-peaked Javanese roof over four tall central columns and a stepped tumpang sari ceiling, historically reserved for nobility.
• M-Shaped RoofAn M-shaped roof is two parallel gable roofs side by side, joined by a central valley or gutter, giving an M-shaped end profile.
• Mansard RoofA mansard roof is a four-sided roof with two slopes on each face, the lower one steep and often pierced by dormers, the upper one shallow.
• Pagoda RoofA pagoda roof is the stacked series of projecting eaves on a tiered tower, typically an odd number of tiers, found across East, Southeast and South Asia.
• Pyramid, Pavilion and Tented RoofsA pyramid roof is a hip roof on a square plan whose faces meet at one point; pavilion and tented roofs are low- and steep-pitched versions on regular polygons.
• Saltbox and Catslide RoofA saltbox roof is an asymmetric gable roof with one long slope reaching low at the back; a catslide is a roof that extends below the main eave line.
• Sawtooth RoofA sawtooth roof is a series of parallel ridges, each with one steep, glazed face and one shallower solid face, giving a jagged profile and even daylight.
• Shed Roof (Skillion, Mono-Pitch, Lean-To)A shed roof is a single flat plane sloping in one direction; it is called a skillion in Australia and a mono-pitch, pent or lean-to roof in the UK.
• Tensile Membrane RoofA roof of tensioned fabric or foil, such as PTFE-coated glass fibre, PVC-coated polyester or ETFE, held in curved shapes by masts, cables and edge beams.