In the most beautiful houses, no attempt is made to conceal structural elements or disguise materials. Because wooden collar beams are understood as necessary, they are also seen as beautiful. Whenever possible, features like these are left unpainted and exposed to view. Then there are those houses for which attempts are made to mimic the solid structure and materials of more substantial homes. These are easily recognized by their wood-grain textured, aluminum siding, hollow vinyl columns and false gables.
Aluminum is a fine material so long as it is used as needed and allowed to look like aluminum. Artifice is artless. It does not merely violate nature’s law of necessity, but openly mocks it. If wood is required for a job, wood should be used and allowed to speak for itself. If aluminum is required, aluminum should be used and its beauty left ungilded whenever possible.
Ornamental gables are to a house what the comb-over is to a head of hair. The vast disparity between the intention and result of these two contrivances is more than a little ironic. Both are intended to convince us that the homeowner (or hair owner, as the case may be) feels secure in his position, but as artifice, each only serves to reveal insecurity and dishonesty.
False gables are tacked onto the front side of a property in a vain attempt to prove to us that the house is spectacular. While this effort is not fooling anybody, it is effectively serving to weaken the structural integrity of the roof. The more parts there are in a design, the more things can go wrong. Leaks almost never spring on a straight-gabled roof, but in the valleys between gables, they are relatively common. Unnecessary gables compromise simplicity for what is bound to be a very expensive spectacle.
