Thatched buildings

thumb|right|A thatched public house|pub (The Williams Arms) at [[Wrafton, North Devon, England]] Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge (Cladium mariscus), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of the vegetation stays dry and is densely packed—trapping air—thatching also functions as insulation. It is a very old roofing method and has been used in both tropical and temperate climates. Thatch is still employed by builders in developing countries, usually with

right|thumb|A -styled home in Shirakawa, Gifu (village)|Shirakawa village, [[Gifu Prefecture]] are vernacular houses constructed in any one of several traditional Japanese building styles. In the context of the four divisions of society, were the dwellings of farmers, artisans, and merchants (i.e., the three non-samurai castes). This connotation no longer exists in the modern Japanese language, and any traditional Japanese-style residence of appropriate age could be referred to as . thumb|Okugame minka farmhouse are characterized by their basic structure, their roof structure, and their roo

thumb|250px|An undecorated rondavel Rondavel is a style of African hut known in literature as cone on cylinder or cone on drum. The word comes from the Afrikaans rondawel.

wells or reservoirs built as part of the temple complex near Indian temples

park and museum in Chengdu

open-sided dwelling with a thatched roof

thumb|Traditional maneaba in Babaroroa, Arorae atoll, Kiribati thumb|Tenimanraoi maneaba in Betio, Kiribati The heart of any Kiribati community is its maneaba or meeting house. The maneaba is not just the biggest building in any village, it is the centre of village life and the basis of island and national governance.

Israeli air raid shelter

chapel in Estonia

park in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan

thumb|Mother and children at a camp on the Brighton Seminole Indian Reservation, 1949 thumb|An Indian camp with a sleep chickee, cooking chickee, and eating chickee Chikee or Chickee ("house" in the Creek and Mikasuki languages spoken by the Seminoles and Miccosukees) is a shelter supported by posts, with a raised floor, a thatched roof and open sides. Chickees are also known as chickee huts, stilt houses, or platform dwellings. The chickee style of architecture—palmetto thatch over a bald cypress log frame—was adopted by Seminoles during the Second (1835–1842) and Third (1855–1858) Seminole W

hut in Samoan architecture