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The word bungalow comes from the Indian word bungalow, which, in the 19th century, referred to houses built in the Bengal style. bungalow were thatched roof cottages that had low roofs and porches built around them. A bungalow style home as we know it was created when British colonial administrators adapted this classic style of Indian architecture to build their summer retreats, organizing all the typical rooms of a house on one floor around a central parlor. The bungalow style became popular in Europe as a form of resort lodging and made its way to America in 1879 when William Gibbons Preston designed a two-story version to be built on Monument Beach in Cape Cod.
The bungalow's roots in warm weather explain many of its heat reducing features. Bungalow homes usually have only one floor although some variations are one and a half stories tall. That is, they have two levels but the second floor covers less surface area than the ground floor. They possess low-pitched roofs with wide, overhanging eaves. The large foundation needed to create a whole house on only one floor translates to a roof with a vast surface area; the attics of these houses, therefore, absorb a great deal of excess heat in the summer. Large porches are considered hallmarks of the bungalow style; stone chimneys leading to substantial and prominently placed fireplaces are another favorite feature of the homes.
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