Modern Rowhouse

I doodled this modern rowhouse while thinking about the upkeep houses require, and about the layer of grime that tends to accumulate on buildings, especially where there is intensive automobile traffic. Or where street cleaning is done with big machines, which just blow the dirt from the road surface up onto buildings. I used to watch this happen from inside my own rowhouse, which was separated from the street by only the width of the sidewalk.

With that in mind, the house features large windows akin to storefront glass. Much easier to clean than muntined windows. The metal-and-glass front door is enameled in a cheerful color, and large metal panels replace traditional wood clapboard. The operable shutters are wood, and so require stain or paint, but they’re paneled rather than louvered, for ease of maintenance and to add another layer of warmth in the winter and protection against the sun’s heat in summer.

I drew windows on one side of the house, for houses at the end of the block or if the houses don’t abut. The placement of the windows could vary from one house to the next, so that a person in one house can’t see into the windows of the house next door. Alternately, the houses that don’t abut could all have side windows only on one side—say, their left side, so that the windows face the blank wall of the house next door, which could be required to have a garden in some form, for a pleasing view.

These houses could also be built in clusters around a central internal or external courtyard or green space. Although that might be a little too much togetherness for some people.