Glossary · T
Thatch
Also called thatched, kaya
A roof covering of dried straw, reed, rush or grass laid thickly in overlapping bundles; it needs a steep pitch, about 45° or more, to shed water.
See also: Pitch
Rules that use the word
Thatch a third, tile a quarter. Raise a thatched roof by a third and a tiled roof by a quarter: the rougher and more absorbent the covering, the steeper the roof must be.
Each covering has its lowest pitch. Pitch a roof no lower than its covering allows (roughly 45° for thatch, 35° for plain tiles, 20–25° for slate, 15–20° for interlocking tiles, a few degrees for sheet metal) and steeper where snow lies long or rain is heavy.
The Maya house: a steep thatch over a divided room. Build the house of wood and daub under a steep roof of thatch or palm, to throw off the rain; divide it along its length by a wall, with a whitewashed front room for receiving guests and a back room for sleeping.
Tile for the great, thatch for the rest. Roof the palace with lead and glazed tile; let officials tile only their family temple and their principal hall, sizing their houses by rank; and let common people roof with thatch.
Houses of the nobles and of the people. Build the houses of the great round courts and gardens, with pools and fountains, rooms below ground for the heat of the day and terraces for the nights; the ordinary houses crowd behind the streets, many of them of mud and thatch.
Where it appears in the book
In the chapters The Roof, China, Japan and Korea.
A feature of Japanese architecture.
Nearby in the glossary
Tatami · Temple-mountain · Tensegrity · Tensile structure · Thermae · Thermal bridge · Thermal mass · Tholos