The external wall-roof junction is barely given any attention in contemporary architecture, and especially in volume-built housing: it is invariably a simple timber or colorbond fascia/barge board, to which is attached a steel eaves gutter in one of several common profiles, which acts not only to catch water but also to hide the unsightly edge of the steel or tile roof from view.
Typical Australian ‘builder’s vernacular’ treatment of the external wall-roof junction, showing colorbond eaves gutter and ugly colorbond fascia.
Examples from traditional architecture remind us, as always, that there are many many other and more interesting ways to handle this transition, especially in brick. The possible ornamental permutations of a brick cornice are infinite!
The brick cornice and tile roof of the cloister of the church of San Michele, Venice, 15th century.
How not to do it: the monotonous, scale-impoverished result of a modernist attempt at being ‘interesting’.