1965 - Present: Neo-mediterranean

Picture Dictionary of House Styles in North America and Beyond

Details from Spain, Italy, and other Mediterranean countries combine with North American ideas to create contemporary Mediterranean or Neo-mediterranean homes.

Photo: Jupiterimages Corporation

Spanish and Italian details mingle with contemporary styling in Neo-mediterranean style homes.

Neo-mediterranean is a Neoeclectic house style that incoporates a fanciful mix of details suggested by the architecture of Spain, Italy, and Greece, Morocco, and the Spanish Colonies. Realtors often call Neo-mediterrean houses Mediterranean or Spanish.

Neo-mediterranean houses have many of these features:

• Low-pitched roof
• Red roof tiles
• Stucco siding
• Arches above doors, windows, or porches
• Heavy carved wooden doors

A Neo-mediterranean home may resemble the much earlier Spanish Revival style. However, Neo-mediterranean homes are not careful recreations of Spanish Colonial architecture. If you remove the romantic decorative details, a Neo-mediterranean home is more likely to resemble a no-nonsense, all-American Ranch or Raised Ranch.