A historic symbol of the industrial age, the sawtooth roof is a lasting legacy of architectural history. Although a functional invention born from necessity nearly 200 years ago, the iconic shape is enjoying a renaissance in many contemporary projects.
Made up of many long, thin roofs with irregular pitches laid alongside each other, a sawtooth roof positions its steeper edges – filled with glass panels – away from the equator. This allows large buildings to control their solar gain by omitting direct sunlight, while still allowing uniform indirect natural light to fill an entire interior area.
First introduced in the mid-19th century, the sawtooth roof made it possible to fill single-story, deep-plan factory buildings with natural light. With electrical wiring still in its infancy, factory spaces could now be built big enough to house large steam-powered machinery and filled with enough light to operate them safely, making sawtooth roofs historically key to the period’s ongoing industrial growth.
Drawing a Memorable Skyline
While the clerestory windows in each ‘tooth’ may have been the main purpose of the roof’s design, there were additional aesthetic advantages to their shape too. The graphical line drawn by the roof, for example, filled the skylines of industrial towns with a memorable topographic character.
Lighting Up a Roof’s Exposed Strut Work
By replacing the steeper edge of the roof’s pitch with glass, the complex strut and beam work on the underside of the opposing non-glazed sections are lit up for those underneath to appreciate. These distinctive aesthetic characteristics of the sawtooth roof, along with its functionality, make it a period feature many architects of factory restoration projects are keen to hold onto.
Retaining Part of a Building’s Past, and Putting it to Good Use
With sustainability and wellbeing two of the biggest drivers of modern architectural planning, sawtooth roofs are not simply a historic remnant of a bygone age kept around for the sake of tradition or a rose-tinted view of the past. With the ability to reduce a building’s energy costs, while also improving its aesthetics, ex-factories featuring sawtooth roofs are popular with developers of adaptive reuse projects. Meanwhile, with the clean lines and harsh angles adhering to contemporary aesthetics, the technique is more regularly being introduced to new-build projects too.
Contemporary Uses For Traditional Sawtooth Roofs: Solar Energy Efficiency
The original design of the sawtooth roof was intended to block out harsh direct sunlight to keep the factory floors cool. However, instead of allowing all that direct sunlight to simply bounce away, the pitched roof sections are the perfect surface to install efficient solar panels, meaning a modern sawtooth roof can help produce a building’s energy, as well as reduce its use.
Advantages of Sawtooth Facades as Well as Roofs
In contemporary architecture, the advantages of sawtooth roofs are not restricted to just the tops of large buildings. By including the same sawtooth pattern on a building’s facade instead of the roof, the light, heat, and even sound that enters the building can be similarly controlled. In large residential properties, for example, individual properties can be pivoted away from direct sunlight and towards a better view, or partly set back to provide a healthier size of outdoor balcony without diminishing acoustic privacy.
Examples of contemporary or restoration projects featuring sawtooth roofs and facades:
Large Spaces Filled With Light
Made by NRE / Houben / van Mierlo
Ziggurat and Rhomboid Buildings London Design District / Mole Architects
Drawing in the Sky
Soul Art Center / TEMP
Vizafogo Pavilion and Ecopark / Archikon Architects
Lighting Up the Underside of a Roof
Multisports center in Tarbes / IDOM
Sandi Simon Center for Dance at Chapman University / Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects
Retaining a Building’s Industrial Past
The Beams Cultural Center / Broadwick Live
The Transformation of the Former Qianshao Weaving Factory / TJAD Original Design Studio
Increasing a Building’s Energy Efficiency With Solar Panels
CABQ International District Library / RMKM Architecture
Sanand Factory / Studio Saar
Sawtooth Facades
Danubio Budapest Building / T2.a Architects
JD.com Headquarters / gmp Architects
Find these projects with sawtooth roofs and facades in this ArchDaily folder created by the author
