Porch

Porches allow for sufficient space for a person to comfortably pause before entering or after exiting a building, or to relax on.

[citation needed] In Ancient Greek architecture, the peristyle was a continuous porch with a row of columns around the outside of building or a courtyard.

A loggia is a covered exterior corridor or porch that is part of the ground floor or can be elevated on another level.

[7] A veranda (also spelled 'verandah') style porch[8] is usually large and may encompass the entire façade as well as the sides of a structure.

An extreme example is the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Michigan, which has the longest porch in the world at 660 feet (200 m) in length.

[citation needed] A lanai is a roofed, open-sided veranda, patio, or porch originating in Hawaii.

In the Southwestern United States, ranch-style homes often use a porch to provide shade for the entrance and southern wall of the residence.

However, many American homes built with a porch since the 1940s have only a token one, usually too small for comfortable social use and adding only to the visual impression of the building.

The New Urbanism movement in architecture urges a reversal in this trend, recommending a large front porch, to help build community ties.

The National Park Service produced a pamphlet or brief concerning Preserving Historic Wood Porches.

A common and similar function could be served at weddings, where the marriage was officiated in the porch, and then blessed inside the church.

The south porch at Northleach, Gloucestershire, in the Cotswolds, built in 1480, is a well-known example, and there are several others in East Anglia and elsewhere in the UK.