“They have personality,” says Philip Regan, partner at Hutker Architects on Martha’s Vineyard. “They change over time and individually. They’re easy to handle and you can hold one in one hand, unlike most building materials that seem to have only one characterless purpose – a four-by-eight-foot sheet of plywood, for example.
2. Shingles are versatile
They come in many shapes – think diamond and fish-scale shapes, jagged edges – and can be arranged in a plethora of patterns for great decorative effect. Although traditionally installed in even rows of about five inches each, shingles can also appear in undulating waves, vertically staggered, or even in a random-looking “drunken weave” pattern. Says McClung: “We bent them in steam boxes to cover curved volumes. We cut patterns into it. In some cases, the amount of exposure can be varied to create a layered course.
They can be painted or left bare. “Natural shingles show off their organic colors and wood grain so well, and we cherish them,” McClung continues. “Alaskan yellow cedar or white cedar shingles will turn silver gray from exposure to the sun. Red cedar shingles create these beautiful dark brown colors. If a more uniform appearance is preferred, or hues that don’t occur naturally, paints and stains easily fill the void. (And some surface options may still be worth trying: “There’s a very nice Japanese practice called shou sugi ban, which is a method of preserving wood by charring it with fire,” says Tomei. “The results are beautiful. . I would love to apply this technique with shingles. The effect is surprisingly contemporary.”)
3. Shingles are suitable for many styles
Stripped-down modernity is probably not what comes to mind when you imagine a shingled structure, but many architects have used the cladding in distinctly non-traditional settings.
“Modern architects have taken this material and adapted it to their forms. It gives scale and texture to the buildings,” says Ike, pointing to the Haystack Mountain Craft School in Deer Isle, Maine, designed in 1959 by Edward Larrabee Barnes. Thomas Kligerman, former partner of Ike in AD100 Ike Kligerman Barkley and now director of Kligerman Architecture & Designanother member of AD PRO Directory, mentions the recent work of Bates Masi + Architects in the Hamptons, as well as that of Norman Jaffewhose designs in the 1970s and 1980s were what he calls “very inventive architecture”.
(By the way, Kligerman’s homes, steeped in historical precedent, can have a decidedly forward-looking aura. “Tom uses shingles like an origami,” Ike comments, “where they create these blueprints. which are bent and intersect.”)
4. Shingles can be used indoors and outdoors
Just because shingles started out as exterior protection against the elements doesn’t mean they haven’t made their way indoors. “I just finished a house in the mountains of South Carolina, and the columns of the house are made of diamond-shaped white oak shingles,” Kligerman notes. “My own living room has a shingle frieze. It’s really wonderful to bring them inside; it gives that warmth and sense of scale.
