Cornice

In residential building practice, this function is handled by projecting gable ends, roof eaves, and gutters.

A rake is an architectural term for an eave or cornice that runs along the gable of the roof of a modern residential structure.

A narrow box cornice is one in which "the projection of the rafter serves as a nailing surface for the soffit board as well as the fascia trim.

This type of cornice is easy to construct but provides little aid in dispersing water away from the building and is sometimes considered to lack aesthetic value.

It is a lower-cost treatment that requires fewer materials and may even have no fascia board, but it lacks the finished appearance of a box cornice.

It has been suggested to be a reminiscence in stone architecture of the primitive use of bound bunches of reeds as supports for buildings, the weight of the roof bending their tops out.

[5]: p.67  It is a short horizontal extension of the cornice that occurs on each side of the gable end of the building (see picture of Härnösands rådhus with two of these).

The former includes a sloped hip shape on the inside of the cornice under the eaves, which is sheathed or shingled like the rest of the roof above it and is considered very attractive; the latter is a simple return without these features.

In this context, a cornice represents a board (usually wood) placed above the window to conceal the mechanism for opening and closing drapes.