PEOPLE DON’T NORMALLY worry too much about how the roof of their house looks. Modern roof tiles keep out water and require sparse maintenance, ensuring they go unnoticed for the most part. Thatched ...

GRASPING AT STRAWS is all the rage among a growing number of British homeowners, as Mark Phillips now shows us: When it comes to housing design, it's hard to get more retro than this: a thatched roof, ...

Roofs are an integral part of a building’s architectural design. A roof is designed to enhance the beauty of a particular building but most importantly, a roof is a safety mechanism against wind, rain ...

This is especially sad because thatch used to be the standard roofing material in Japan. It was used not only on farmhouses, but on the country's grandest buildings. For example, the most important ...

This article is brought to you by our exclusive subscriber partnership with our sister title USA Today, and has been written by our American colleagues. It does not necessarily reflect the view of The ...

They look beautiful and evoke a bygone era, but the charm of thatched cottages and houses comes at a price - owners pay higher insurance bills because of the threat of fire. Statistically, the 60,000 ...

When Bob Parks wanted to replace the thatch on his pretty Broads cottage with tiles, officials had rather some strange advice for him. They would not grant him planning permission to do - but said ...