Roof shapes differ greatly from region to region. The main factors which influence the shape of roofs are the climate and the materials available for roof structure and the outer covering. Roof terminology is also not rigidly defined. Usages vary slightly from region to region, or from one builder or architect to another.
Roof shapes vary from almost flat to steeply pitched. They can be arched or domed; a single flat sheet or a complex arrangement of slopes, gables and hips; or truncated (terraced, cut) to minimize the overall height.
Arched roof, also called a Gothic arch, rainbow, and ship's bottom roof.
A bonnet roof with the lower slopes at a lower pitch. This roof form is a classic on some barns in the western United States.
Catenary curved roof.
Flat roof. Western Australia.
Mansard roof on a county jail. Mount Gilead, Ohio.
A helm roof on the two towers.
Gable roof with eaves, exposed, decorated rafters and soffits and stepped (incrementally ascending apexes). Curvy white stenciled fascia and artistic gilt gable end. To temple in Chang Mai, Thailand.
Conical Chinese roof. Nanhai Academy, Taipei.
A conical dry-stone roof on a Trullo hut.
Cross gabled roof at the Verla mill village and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Kouvola.
Basic mansard roof. Features classic dormer windows.
Curved form of a mansard roof with bell-cast eaves. Rommersdorf Abbey, Germany.
A common form of gambrel roof. Captain Joseph Atwood house, 1752; now part of the Atwood House Museum, Chatham, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
A less common form of gambrel roof with a curved lower roof slope with supporting curved soffits and thick tiles. Altnau, Switzerland.
An ogee roof. (A roof shape following an ogee curve. In this example the roof follows an ogee along both axes.) Montacute Lodge, England. Image by Symon Parsley.
South Korean Woljeongsa Octagonal Nine Story Pagoda. Note the typical Asian concave roof shape in the background, with roof corners higher than the sides.