![]() ![]() Whether shotgun houses can keep their promise of affordability in the Mississippi metropolis remains to be seen.This Home Design is Perfect for Narrow Lots and Tiny Homes Currently, social media and tourism driven short-term housing contributes to increases in property values that are difficult to stomach for residents who rely on affordable urban housing. In recent years, gentrification created problems for local residents who can’t keep up with rising rents. Over time, they have become attractive to a wider audience, captured by the charm this architectural type possesses. The likelihood is high that shotgun houses will remain a characteristic element of the cityscape of New Orleans. The Make It Right initiative proposed contemporary design versions that were intended to showcase how modern architecture can contribute to the post-Katrina recovery of the city. ![]() Duany Plater-Zyberk, well known for their “New Urbanism” approach to architecture and urban design, built contemporary interpretations of historic shotgun houses in the Bywater neighborhood of New Orleans. Organizations such as the Preservation Resource Center assisted post-disaster rebuilding efforts based on the reuse of existing materials and artifacts. ![]() Given New Orleans’ persistent cultural image and context, historic preservation is of key importance. ![]() Historic preservation is of key importance Handed down within families from one generation to the next, they gained a strong symbolic and cultural meaning for New Orleanians and shape the cityscape to this day. They can feature ornamentation and elaborate woodwork, particularly on their front facades. Adding a second story on top produces a “camelback shotgun”. Two units combined under one roof become a “double shotgun”. Shotgun houses are optimized for a particular way of life that doesn’t require strict privacy when walking through one room to the next. Historic shotguns were built raised on stumps, while later models were built slab-on-grade, offering no protection against floods. Suitable for prefabrication, they typically consist of wood frames covered in wood siding and became particularly popular following the 1890s. This arrangement led to a common myth: if all doors are open, a shotgun can be fired from the front porch through the house out the back without hitting a wall. Rooms are accessed one by one through successive doorways. The typical shotgun features a linear arrangement of rooms without a separate corridor. This slim proportion perfectly utilizes the long lots in the city with their narrow frontage and deep backyards. In its most basic configuration, a shotgun house is a one-story dwelling with a ratio of length to width of 10 to 1. Different theories about the historic origins of shotgun housesĭifferent theories exist regarding the historic origins of shotgun houses, either based on the indigenous population’s way of life before the Europeans arrived, cultural ties to the Caribbean, comparable historic examples in Europe, or local developments that mirror existing types based on circumstances of need, use, climate, context, and available resources. Against this background, the shotgun house became an affordable solution to the housing demands of citizens with low income or limited access to resources. The only available option for many African Americans were poor neighborhoods or slums, characterized by low quality of residential space, absent amenities, and lacking infrastructure. However, their opportunities were severely limited due to racial segregation and legalized discrimination. When mechanical drainage allowed the development of the swamps along the former urban fringe, the “back-of-town”, African Americans found new places to live. This was of decisive importance in the days when the Mississippi was the main means of transportation and characterizes the urban fabric of the city to this day. Properties were divided into very slim lots with narrow frontage facing the river. In the urban “sliver by the river”, located roughly one hundred miles from where the Mississippi enters the Gulf of Mexico, available land was and is a finite resource. Historic shotgun houses are a common sight in New Orleans. The fifth and last part is about the question whether shotgun houses, a characteristic element of the cityscape of New Orleans, can keep their promise of affordability in the Mississippi metropolis. Our author discusses the question: Can she facilitate the coordination, cooperation and funding that are critical for achieving the city’s resilience towards future disasters? Accompanying the print article, we present a five-part series on our website. She led the recovery of one of the city’s neighborhoods after Hurricane Katrina. Topos 105 contains an article about LaToya Cantrell, the first female mayor of New Orleans. ![]()
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