September, 1906 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



i53 



The Modern Bungalow 



How a Bungalow Can Be Well Built at a Small Expense 



By Francis Durando Nichols 



)HK story of how a bungalow can be built 

 well, and at a small expense, is well defined 

 by the illustrations of a series of bungalows 

 presented in these pages. The term "bunga- 

 low" has been so misunderstood that it may 

 not be out of place to define its origin, its 

 form and its construction. The bungalow is classified into 

 two groups — the true bungalow of to-day, which is designed 

 after its prototype, and the modernized bungalow, which is 

 designed after the cottage 

 form. The original bungalow 

 derived its name from banga, 

 the Indian term, meaning in 

 India a species of rural villa, 

 or house of light construction, 

 with a thatched or tiled roof 

 and surrounded by an open 

 veranda, which is roofed, af- 

 fording a shelter from the 

 sun. The plan consisted of 

 one large living-room built in 

 connection with the service- 

 and sleeping-rooms, all placed 

 on one floor. The bungalow 

 of the second class, developed 

 into the cottage form and 

 while still maintaining some of 

 the original plan by providing 

 one, two or three sleeping- 

 rooms on the first floor, it has 

 a second story, in which 

 sleeping-rooms are also pro- 

 vided, and which is usually 

 reached from a staircase 



frequently ascending from a living-room or a small lobby. 

 In the chief cities of India, specially among the Anglo- 

 India people, the bungalow has become really a palatial resi- 

 dence, while in the country they are of the ordinary type, 

 many of which are arranged as public inns, and 

 are called "daks." The usual bungalow is built 

 as it is in America, according to the taste and 

 the wealth of its owner. 

 In certain parts of 

 India the bungalow is 

 built on stilts of railroad 

 iron, and is elevated 

 from ten to twenty feet 

 from the ground. This 

 form of building offers 

 a suggestion in the 

 building of a bungalow 

 by placing the first floor, 

 specially when it is a 

 one-story bungalow, on 

 posts some eight or ten 

 feet from the ground, 

 and creating an open 

 veranda between the in- 

 tervening space, from 

 the level of the ground 

 to the under side of the 



floor of the bungalow. A convenient pair of stairs can be 

 built from this veranda, leading up into the bungalow. This 

 veranda could be inclosed with glass and transformed into 

 a sun-room or a lounging-hall. 



In the building of the bungalows which are shown in these 

 pages it has been necessary to establish an economical form 

 of planning and designing, and a selection of house finishes 

 and equipment in order to overcome the cost of building, 

 which has advanced so rapidly. If we can thus succeed in 



A Bungalow Built for Mr. Gate H. Carter at Dongan Hills, Staten Island 



getting a solution of our domestic necessities in a propor- 

 tionally smaller area, and with a more economical arrange- 

 ment, then we have, to a degree, counterbalanced the 



undoubted increase in 

 the cost of building- 

 material and labor. 

 These bungalows illus- 

 trate the tendency to- 

 ward economy of origi- 

 nal outlay, as well as in 

 future maintenance. It 

 is evident by a study of 

 the plans that there has 

 been an effort made to 

 eliminate hall and pas- 

 sageway, and to throw 

 what space there is into 

 available rooms and 

 closets. This feature, 

 which is quite an im- 

 portant one, has not to 

 any great extent sacri- 

 ficed any desirable fea- 

 tures, but has enhanced 

 the domestic economy 

 by eliminating just so 

 much waste space and 



2 — Mr. Carter's Bungalow Has All of its Rooms on One Floor 



