Modern Door Awning/Portico Ideas/Plans?

I've been looking for a while now for an interesting, minimalist and modern door awning to replace an old nasty portico currently held up by a few nails and the resident carpenter bees. I've got some ideas for building one from basic lumber and metal roofing, but would love to see some examples of cheap, simple, and clean options. Most of what you find online or in stores is of the hideous aluminum trying to look like canvas variety, or, even worse, would make the house look like an ice cream stand. I'm thinking either a basic cantilevered wall-mounted style, or a suspended (from above) platform. Any suggestions? Any good pictures of something I could replicate?
Thanks much in advance for any replies!
Ben

One thing that I saw in dwell a while ago was a three foot wide awning/solar shade made of 1X4 ipe planks with a 3-4 inch gap between the planks...

I thought that looked kind of cool, it would work well for solar shade but not from rain...

some of the other guys here could give you more technical info on this I'm sure.

Is there any way you can get an image of the situation posted? That would really help. Right now I am thinking some sort of frame supporting either glass, polycarbonate or plexiglass sheets.

Why not a glass awning? Simple, clean lines, unobtrusive.

CR Laurence has the [url href=http://www.crlaurence.com/productpages/showline.asp?GroupID=13136Path=::3::9307::13136]glass awning support system[/url] that I really want to use.

Be warned. The glass must be both tempered and laminated, which makes it a bit pricey.

Check out the Glidehouse tour gallery...

http://www.mkd-arc.com/whatwedo/glidehouse/tour.cfm

there is an image of the entry with what looks like a plexi or polycarbonate sheet suspended above the doorway by 2 modern-looking metal(?)rafter-tails. I've always liked that look and want to do something similar for my southern exposure windows someday.

Also the CleverHomes site has something like you describe
that I also like...

http://www.cleverhomes.net/designs.htm

Thanks for the good links - I really like the poly/glass option. However, this would definitely need to protect from rain, so the completely level option would not really work. A bit of slope would allow for runoff but still look great. Any ideas on how much these glass options cost?

We built a really simple, slightly sloped frame and then had a local fabricator make an awning:




It's worked out really well and wasn't too expensive.

Previously Michael Morrison wrote:

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We built a really simple, slightly sloped frame and then had a local fabricator make an awning:




It's worked out really well and wasn't too expensive.

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