It is the Charleston Single House that helped crystalize my love for historic architecture, especially vernacular homes. Thought and ingenuity, born from necessity and physical location created this particular form. Dictated by the hot, humid, and wet climate, a single house has a main hall with doors on either end that can be opened to bring a breeze through; it is a single room deep (hence the name) to aid air flow, but also because of the narrow Charleston lots; the long porches provide shade and protection from the elements so that windows and doors can be left open; the street facing door isn’t actually a front door at all, but a door onto the porch.