Favor regional variations over period
Architectural histories often categorize buildings by period (e.g., Tudor Revival, Craftsman, Bungalow). This is a reasonable approach. See Virginia McAlester's exceptional A Field Guide to American Houses as an example resource categorizing American houses. However, a further, and more important, variation happens at the regional level.
Stewart Brand points out in How Buildings Learn that the process of builders learning from existing local buildings over time is an evolutionary process that leads to the "best fit" building for that region:
As generations of new buildings imitate the best of mature buildings, they increase in sophistication while retaining simplicity. They become finely attuned to the local weather and local society. A much-quoted dictum of Henry Glassie's states that "a search for pattern in folk material yields periods." Roof lines and room layout are regional.
Even though we may love a particular style of building common in another region or climate, it won't "work" to simply transplant a building in that style to our local region. For example, Elizabeth and I love the chalet style of mountain lodges. But that style of building is adapted to a very different climate than central North Carolina.
We should spend more time looking at the long-lasting homes around us and learn from them.