Sawtooth Roofs Help Homes Look Sharp
Creating a distinct exterior is just one benefit of the sawtooth roof — it can help bring daylight into interiors as well
In undergraduate architecture school, most of the studios I occupied had sawtooth skylights that faced north, bringing indirect light into the large spaces. The result of the sawtooth form — in which sloped and vertical surfaces alternate — was not only a distinctive exterior profile for those studios, but also a fairly industrial interior of exposed steel below the roof and clerestory skylights. Perhaps because other students were schooled in similar environments and wanted to try something else in their careers, sawtooth skylights are not a common form in architecture. Perhaps they also had their time — in the 1970s and 1980s — and other forms have since become more prevalent.
But seeing a couple projects by Burr & McCallum here on Houzz has made me wonder why we don't use this form more. The most advantageous aspect of a sawtooth roof is the way the profile brings daylight into the middle of spaces. As people strive to use less energy, one architectural way to do that is to reduce the use of lightbulbs. My parents installed a solar chimney in the middle of their one-story house, which has a hip roof, but a roof form with a more logical way of bringing light into the middle of the plan would not have necessitated this extra purchase.
Following are a few projects, two by Burr & McCallum, that show the advantages of a sawtooth roof.
But seeing a couple projects by Burr & McCallum here on Houzz has made me wonder why we don't use this form more. The most advantageous aspect of a sawtooth roof is the way the profile brings daylight into the middle of spaces. As people strive to use less energy, one architectural way to do that is to reduce the use of lightbulbs. My parents installed a solar chimney in the middle of their one-story house, which has a hip roof, but a roof form with a more logical way of bringing light into the middle of the plan would not have necessitated this extra purchase.
Following are a few projects, two by Burr & McCallum, that show the advantages of a sawtooth roof.
One consideration with a sawtooth roof is how it relates to the spaces underneath. The module of skylight and sloped roof could coincide with individual rooms, but it could work with an open plan just as easily. The view through the glass at bottom reveals a fairly free plan below the roof.
I love the way Burr & McCallum has treated the sloped roofs, painting the eaves a red that contrasts with the brown-gray walls and frames. The red really accentuates the sawtooth form, as if it's the most important part of the house.
The snow visible on one of the roofs points out another consideration with sawtooth roofs: what to do so snow does not accumulate at the clerestory windows. One solution is to pitch the roof in two directions, not just toward the windows; another is to use heating coils at the low point of the roof.
Here is one place where the sawtooth relates directly to an individual room. The clerestory on the top right aligns with a garagelike retractable wall below, creating a large opening between rooms.
That door is visible on the left side of this photo. In the foreground we can see another clerestory that is independent of an interior partition. The natural light that the clerestories bring into the open space is beneficial, both in terms of reducing energy consumption and increasing quality of life.
The second Burr & McCallum project has sawtooth roofs that are not as substantial as the previous house, but they cap a striking second-story volume that cantilevers over an outdoor space. Like the previous house, these shapes coincide with windows that extend down the sides perpendicular to the roof, helping to give the exterior and interior a rhythm.
From the other side, we can see that the sawtooth roofs are accompanied by other means of bringing in light, mainly a large corner volume with glass on four sides.
Another view of the exterior also shows a row of small round skylights in another part of the house. This illustrates that while sawtooth roofs enable plenty of sunlight, they are not a sole solution, especially when siting and massing lead to a variety of ways of daylighting.
But the ceiling of the taller volume (here looking toward the smaller one) is what is most special. It is folded to create small gaps that are filled with glass. It would be nice to see a bit more glass in the clerestory at top, but there's a good deal of other glass areas that bring in plenty of natural light.