While the Mediterranean exterior home style has existed for centuries, it was only around the 19th century that it reached the United States.
Soon enough, it established itself as a common design possibility for the exterior of both homes and buildings.
However, as it became more popular, architects began to experiment with the traditional Mediterranean style, particularly impacting Mediterranean roof styles the most.
Mediterranean Roof Styles
Traditionally, Mediterranean roof designs stress symmetry, low-pitched slopes, broad overhanging eaves, and heavy-red tiles. These elements helped to keep a home breezy and cool during hot temperatures, reflecting the easy and slow lifestyles found in the seaside towns during the Renaissance.
However, contemporary Mediterranean roof styles showcase a more comprehensive range of rooflines, colors, shapes, and overhangs while still maintaining the classic Mediterranean roof appeal.
Here are are 15 examples of modern Mediterranean roof styles that highlight these design differences:
1. Mediterranean Revival with a Dutch Gable Roof
Although the exterior uses beige brick, this home remains a perfect example of the classic Mediterranean symmetry.
It has a Dutch gable roof that combines hip and gable roof lines, and the white soffits of the roof helps create a divide between the structure of the roof while also highlighting the traditional reddish-brown color of the clay tiles.
2. Spanish Mediterranean with Combination Rooflines
The Spanish-Mediterranean styles that date back to the Spanish colonization of North and South America often feature a more traditional stucco exterior siding with symmetrically arched windows and doors—as seen in this house.
The roof of this house features a combination of traditional and modern mediterranean roof styles, including a low-sloping gable roof and Mansard roofing for most of the house. The bell tower stands out above the rest, with a small hip-style roof capping it off.
3. A Modern Mediterranean Home with Synthetic Barrel Roofing Tiles
This home uses warm, earthy tones and arches to create a welcoming appearance that combines modern aesthetics with old-world charm. The low-pitched gable roof and dormers add to the charm and overall aesthetic.
The dark brown, reddish-hued roof tiles create contrast with the light tan stucco, and by appearance, you would never know they aren't traditional clay tiles.
In fact, these barrel tiles above are actually Brava composite Spanish Barrel Tiles that mimic that traditional clay tile appearance. With a one-piece barrel design, these tiles help create the distinct roof ripple design that is often associated with classic Mediterranean roof styles.
4. Modern Mediterranean Flat Roof Style
A less ornate example of a classic Mediterranean-style home, this contemporary-asymmetrical house puts a modern spin on a medieval castle. The simplicity of its clean-lined shapes and orange-yellow stucco facade give it a unique elegance, while the balconies create an easy transition between the indoors and outdoors.
Furthermore, the building’s design includes four different flat roofs, each with short overhangs and covered in red barrel tile. The four roofs seem to climb towards the bell tower, topped with a red-barrel tiled hip roof, invoking a sense of upward mobility.
5. Classic Mediterranean with Hip Roof
A Classic Mediterranean house with a red barrel hip roof features a center-placed arched roof window as a focal point, enhancing the home's height. The roof features wide, overhanging eaves with large white brackets, highlighting and contrasting the beautiful, red-barrel roof from the neutral-tan brick facade. Like many Italian-influenced Mediterranean-style homes, the front porch contains wide columns spanned by arches, drawing visitors into the house.
6. Small Mediterranean-style Building with a Low-Sloped-Hip Roof
A modest Mediterranean-style building displays a symmetrical, cream-colored stucco facade with two sets of identical, white-framed, clean-line windows. Red barrel tiles tip the building's low-slope hip roof and open front porch's gable roof, adding to the simple aesthetics of this traditional Mediterranean-style structure.
7. Contemporary Mediterranean Home with Flat and Hip Rooflines
For this contemporary Mediterranean house, homeowners choose a stone facade and vast outdoor spaces, from the rooftop porch to the stone-pillared covered seating areas, designs aimed to merge the outdoors with the indoors. Architects choose white-barreled roofing to de-emphasize the low-sloping hip roof of the home, along with the porch coverings, bringing attention to the beautiful stonework.
8. Modern Home With Varying Style Roofs
If there was ever a picture of a grandeur modern home, this encapsulates it all. Sporting smooth, light brown stucco with large windows at every level and angle, this home speaks of elegance.
Its soft arches and columns across the first level create a shaded outdoor space to sit and relax, while Brava’s darker brown spanish barrel tile help form a hips and gable roofing with a nearly flat skillion.
9. Tall Home With Hip and a Mansard Roofing
It’s much easier to create a modern Mediterranean roofing style the taller your home is. This is another example of a grand home standing tall with a light gray stone exterior.
Like the previous home, it features many windows overlooking the property. The columns are used to create a shaded outdoor patio space on the lower level.
The bright red barrel tile from Brava helps the home’s roof stand out as a contrast to the gray stone and lush green surroundings. The main part of the roof, however, is the roof hips, also sporting the red tiles, which help cover the other parts of the house.
10. Classic Style with Multi-Colored Roof
This single-story, cream-colored sided home features a simple, classic exterior, though it’s a beautiful example of a modern home using a mediterranean style roof for inspiration
The white seam detail runs along the sides of the house, connecting with the white-trimmed windows, ultimately tying the house together with the white column outside.
Plus, the vibrant, multi-colored spanish tile creates a cross-hipped roof that draws the attention of others as it sits among freshly cut grass and taller palm trees.
11. Buildings With Rich Green Cross-Hipped and Gable Roofs
The addition of color was an exceptional way to transform the exterior mediterranean roofing styles.
This tannish hotel building—featuring Brava’s Pine Green Spanish Barrel Tile—creates an exterior facade that is linear and structured, using the walkways of the building to highlight the diverse line structures throughout the building. The areas between the walkways are connected with gable-style roofs, providing more support and shade.
The deep, rich green barrel tiles, used in a cross-hipped style, stand out above the light tan stucco while the brighter greens compliments the roofs presence in the area.
12. Large Home With Hip and Gable Roofing
This is another large home covered in a smooth white stucco, though the features of this home make it different from others.
The mediterranean style of this roof is one of the most visible features, predominantly featuring hip and cross-hipped styles, with multiple gable roofs connected to the front.
13. Gray-on-Gray Home With Hip and Gable Roof
Arguably the most modern Mediterranean home style on this list, this home features elements of modern minimalism designs while using mediterranean roofing styles to provide elegance.
The owners of this home use light gray stucco with bright white details, including the window trim, garage door, and front door, and Brava’s Arendale roof tile color.
These colors make an exceptional choice for the roof, which features cross-hipped and gable roofing to match. The right side of the roof transitions from a hipped style at one end to a gable roof at the other end, with one side shorter than the other.
14. Big House with a White Hip Roof
This house exterior has large tan stones as a contemporary driveway option and uses tan stucco as a compliment.
It is also done in a cross-hipped style, with arched cutouts on the eaves, which come just enough to cover the window and are supported by columns. The front door has a contrasting gray tile with an arched roof covering.
The Mediterranean roof style, however, is what is most interesting about the home.
It features Brava’s white spanish barrel tiles, designating it as a "cool" roof, ideal for those hot Southern climates common in California and Florida.
15. Classic Style Home With Hipped Roof
This two-story multi-family home is a very simple yet excellent example of the modern mediterranean style. It features a cream-colored, white-trimmed exterior and arched entryway leading to a small courtyard by the front doors.
The house's color makes the reddish-brown of the cross-hipped roof stand out even more. One of the posts of the entrance archway has a gable end, while the other continues with the hipped design, which cuts off the most symmetrical design.
Creating Modern Composite Spanish Roofing Tiles from Brava
Many of the homes above featured Brava’s composite Spanish Roofing Tiles, though Brava's has a lot more to offer than just their beautiful appearance. Some other benefits include:
Brava's composite Spanish tiles are the only ones on the market to be 3rd-party tested and Miami-Dade County Approved.
They are environmentally friendly, made from recycled materials, and are the only company offering white cool roof composite tiles.
Brava uses a unique system to paint the tiles, creating a fade-resistant, realistic finish.
The tiles are lightweight, which makes shipping and installing them significantly easier. It also eliminates the need for additional structural support.
The extremely durable tiles offer Class A to Class C fire protection and the highest wind and hail ratings possible. The durability also ensures that they are safe for food traffic.
