Bungalow House Plans
Our bungalow house plans, in keeping with the long tradition of bungalow houses, come in various styles and sizes. Whether you’re searching for bungalow plans to build a beach bungalow, a Craftsman bungalow, or any other style in any other location, our selection of bungalow floor plans will hopefully include one that will suit your needs. Because of their similarity, you may want to also look at our Craftsman house plans and/or our Prairie house plans.
Common Characteristics of Bungalow Houses:
- Typically one story, but there are some two story bungalows
- Low-slung roof, often with a flared roof line
- Often small, and have a cottage look and feel
- Includes many different styles, including Prairie and Craftsman
- Normally have a low profile
- Typically simple (and thus less costly) to build
- Large wide porches, often with tapered square columns
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What follows are excerpts from “American Shelter”, written by Lester Walker, and published by Overlook Press in 1997
Bungalow
The Bungalow Style was an outgrowth of many influences – the Craftsmen style, Japanese architecture
derived from new tea houses built in this country and from photographs and travel in Japan, the low
adobe dwellings of the Spanish Colonial Style of the Southwest, the open informal planning of the Eastern
Shingle Style, shack-like rural cottages, the Swiss chalet, and barn and log cabin construction. Bungalows,
built throughout the country primarily from 1890 to 1920, were loosely described as any cottage-like
dwelling, informal in plan, elevation, and detail. They answered a widespread need for simpler residences
brought on by economic setbacks of the 1890’s. The bungalow began in California, evolving from the
Craftsmen heritage, and quickly spread to other parts of the country where it was adapted to a multitude
of different styles. Despite these variations, the bungalow had certain basic characteristics. Its
lines were low and simple with wide projecting roofs. It had at most two stories, but usually one,
large porches (verandas), and was made with materials that suggested a kind of coziness. The bungalow
was sometimes defined as “the least house for the most money,” and indeed, although low cost materials
were emphasized the bungalow was not inexpensive. It depended on costly foundations, wall, and roof
areas because of the spread-out first floor.
The Bungalow Style was so popular after 1905 that it became the first style to be built in quantity by the contractor-builder. By 1910, throughout all of California and most other parts of the country, street after street was lined with differently styled bungalows built for speculative sale. Plan books and monthly journals made it possible for any contractor or future homeowner in any part of the country to erect a bungalow. So, despite its lofty aspirations and exotic antecedents, the Bungalow Style ended up sloppily imitated in thousands of tacky boxes. It has come to represent both the best and the worst in American architecture.
Just as the Cottage Style is given credit for popularizing the front porch, the Bungalow Style is given credit for introducing the front stoop to the American house. The stoop became a distinctive part of the architecture of the suburban bungalow by providing a semipublic transition place between the front porch and the connecting walkway to the sidewalk and the street. The stoop was a place to sit and talk, for children to play, or to simply pause before entering the privacy of the porch or house.
It would be almost impossible to list all of the variations of the Bungalow Style. Each geographical area seemed to adapt it to a favorite cottage-like style. The Chicago area used the Prairie Style as its source, California used the Craftsmen and Spanish Colonial Styles, the Catskill and Adirondack Mountain areas in the East developed its own picturesque Camp Building Style, and so on.
The term “Bungalow” (from the Hindustani word “Bangla” meaning low house for travelers with surrounding porches) was used in America to describe any modest, low-slung, picturesque cottage.
The Patio Bungalow Style, found primarily in Southern California, was an offshoot of the Craftsmen Style but based its plan on the Spanish Colonial Style. The inner court, or patio, provided a cool outdoor living area with plants, fountains, and pools.
The first patio bungalows copied the Spanish Colonial plans by either encircling the patio with the house or enclosing the patio with a wall. Later patio bungalows placed the patio on the front or rear of the plan, depending on the constraints of the site.
California had many shack-like bungalows intended for temporary use. The Southern California tent bungalow had hinged wall panels made from canvas stretched over frames designed to cool the house quickly in the warm climate. It was an excellent outdoor sleeping room when so arranged. The temporary bungalow was used as a residence for many people moving into the area until they found a more substantial home.
Bungalows in the Camp and Picturesque Lodge Styles located primarily in the Adirondack, Catskill, and Pocono Mountain areas of the East, are of an endless variety. There are so many examples that it would be impossible to classify them. All of them, however, used rough natural materials, such as fieldstone, logs, rough-cut pine, and split cedar shingles, and were based on the Craftsmen and Swiss Chalet Styles, popular in all the mountain retreats of the country.