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, ...

TYRINGHAM — When Joshua Williams and Shaun Mosley bought Santarella Gardens and its gingerbread house, they knew they had a mountain of repairs ahead of them. More than two years later, they still do.

It’s hard to give up an idea that you had for so long even when you find out it’s false or exaggerated. For example, everyone seems to have this idea that a thatched roof is extremely inflammable and ...

Visitors to the historic mountain villages in central Japan marvel at the elegance of the steep thatched-roof farmhouses found there. Known as "gassho-zukuri," Japanese for "constructed like hands in ...

Researchers conducted a special fire test to learn how to protect steep thatched-roof farmhouses that emerged more than 250 years ago to ruggedly withstand Central Japan's heavy winter snowfalls.