HISTORY OF

ARCHITECTURE
 REVISION OF RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURAL STYLE
• Revival and development of certain elements of Classical Greek and Roman
Thoughts and culture.

• Emphasis on symmetry, proportion, geometry and the regularity of parts .

• 5 orders were used during the Renaissance, namely Doric, ionic, Corinthian,
Tuscan and Composite.

• Semi- Circular Arches, Barrel Vaults and Domes (First Brick domes later Concrete
domes)

• Modular latin cross plan, later circular themed plans were proposed.

• Ashlar Masonary at external walls and white chalk paint and frescos in interior.
 REVISION OF BAROQUE AND ROCOCO ARCHITECTURAL STYLE
• Color and Light contrasted

• Rich Textures

• Asymmetrical Spaces

• Diagonal Plans

• New Subjects: Landscape, Genre, Still life

• They started to make bold, curving, and not at all symmetrical buildings, with
ornate decorations.

• They started to make curving facades, and used the double curve (in at the sides,
out in the middle) on many different buildings.

• Its art and architecture, often used to express emotion, & was very elaborate.

• Complex architectural plan shapes, often based on the oval, star

ARCHITECTURAL STYLE TIMELINE
NEO-CLASSICISM
ARCHITECTURE
 NEOCLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE
• Neo-Classical means New Classical

• Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical

movement that began in the mid 18th Century, both as a reaction against the
Roboco style of anti-tectonic naturalist ornament, and an outgrowth of some
classicizing features of late Baroque.

• It derived the architectural style from Vitruvian Principles and the Architecture of
Italian Architect Andrea Palladio.

• Neoclassicism in Architecture is evocative and Picturesque.

• Intellectually Neoclassicism was a desire to return to the perceived “Purity” of

the arts of Rome, Greek and Renaissance Classicism.
 NEOCLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE

“Neoclassical architecture is characterized by grandeur of scale, simplicity of

geometric forms, Greek—especially Doric (see order)—or Roman detail,
dramatic use of columns, and a preference for blank walls. The new taste for
antique simplicity represented a general reaction to the excesses of the Rococo
style. Neoclassicism thrived in the United States and Europe, with examples
occurring in almost every major city.”
 CHARACTERISTICS OF NEOCLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE
• Grand scale of the buildings
• Symmetrical: balance and
symmetry are the most
predominant characteristic of
neoclassicism
• Simplicity of geometric forms
• The Greek (particularly Doric)
detailing, dramatic use of
columns, and blank walls.
• Triangular Pediment
• Domed Roof
• Sculptural bas-reliefs were
flatter and often framed in
friezes, tablets or panels.
• The flatter projections and
recessions had different effects
on light and shade.
• Multiple windows; upper and
lower levels
 NEOCLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE

Monumental Architecture
During the late 18th and early 19th centuries many of the foundational buildings of
the United States government were constructed. The U.S. also looked back to
antiquity as its prototype for a new democratic system.
 NEOCLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE

Monumental Architecture
• For most of history, temples and palaces served as the leading forms of
monumental architecture.

• During the Neoclassical era, these building types were gradually replaced by
government buildings (e.g. courts, public service buildings, schools) and
commercial buildings (e.g. office and apartment buildings, performing arts
centers, transportation terminals).

• Today, government and commercial buildings dominate cityscapes all over the
world.
 NEO-CLASSICAL ARCHITECTS

The leading Architects who practiced Baroque Architecture were:

1. Giovanni Battista Piranesi

2. Claude Perrault

3. Robert Adam

4. Henri Labrouste

5. Robert Smirke

6. Jacques Germain Soufflot

 TYPES OF NEOCLASSICAL BUILDINGS

Neoclassical buildings can be divided into three main types:

• Temple Style

• Palladian Style

• Classical Block
 TYPES OF NEOCLASSICAL BUILDINGS

• Temple Style: features a design based on an ancient temple. Many temple style
buildings feature a peristyle (a continuous line of columns around a building).

Pantheon, Paris by Jacques Germain Soufflot

 NEOCLASSICAL TEMPLE STYLE BUILDING

British Museum by Robert Smirke

 BRITISH MUSEUM, LONDON

• The British Museum, was

established in 1753 and open,
free of charge “to all studious
and curious Persons.”

• The building is a fine example

of Neoclassical Architectural
style.

• Smirke designed the building in

the Greek Revival style, which
emulated classical Greek
architecture.

• The building is planned as

quadrangle with four wings:
the north, east, south and west
wings.
 BRITISH MUSEUM, LONDON

• The monumental South entrance, with its stairs, colonnade and pediment, was
intended to reflect the wondrous objects housed inside.

• The east and west residences (to the left and right of the entrance) have a
more modest exterior. This is an example of mid-nineteenth century domestic
architecture and reflects the domestic purpose of these wings. They housed the
Museum’s employees, who originally lived on site.

Entrance to South Wing Entrance to West Wing

BRITISH MUSEUM, LONDON
 BRITISH MUSEUM, LONDON
• Neoclassicism has been surely
influenced Smirke’s design of the main
entrance, which is modelled on Greek
temple design and shares the same
number of eight columns as the
Parthenon itself.

• In scale though it is almost double the

size, while the austere doric order is
replaced by the based and slender
columns and scrolled capitals of the
ionic order.

• Smirke, for instance, was one of the

first architects to make extensive use
of concrete, laying it as a base for the
cast iron frame that underpins the
entire structure.
 BRITISH MUSEUM, LONDON
• The building is topped with a flat roof,
the pediment therefore being false, in
the sense that its function is
decorative rather than structural.

• This explicit nationalist message is

illustrated in the pediment sculptures,
designed by Richard Westmacott and
given the grandiose name, The Rise of
Civilization.
 BRITISH MUSEUM, LONDON
• The floor of the entrance hall—the Weston Hall—being paved with York stone,
the staircase balustrade and ornamental vases carved from Huddlestone stone
and the sides of the Grand Staircase lined with red Aberdeen granite.
• The electric lamps in the hall are also replicas of the original, installed in 1879,
making the Museum one of the first public buildings in London to be electrically
lit.
 NEOCLASSICAL TEMPLE STYLE BUILDING
Church of Sainte-Geneviève (the Panthéon) in Paris by Jacques
Germain Soufflot
 CHURCH OF SAINTE-GENEVIÈVE (Panthéon)
• Panthéon, building in Paris that was begun about 1757 by the architect
Jacques-Germain Soufflot as the Church of Sainte-Geneviève to replace a
much older church of that name on the same site.
• Its design exemplified the Neoclassical return to a strictly logical use of
classical architectural elements.
• The Panthéon is a cruciform building with a high dome over the crossing and
lower saucer-shaped domes (covered by a sloping roof ) over the four arms.
 CHURCH OF SAINTE-GENEVIÈVE (Panthéon)
• Panthéon, building in Paris that was begun about 1757 by the architect
Jacques-Germain Soufflot as the Church of Sainte-Geneviève to replace a
much older church of that name on the same site.
• Its design exemplified the Neoclassical return to a strictly logical use of
classical architectural elements.
• The Panthéon is a cruciform building with a high dome over the crossing and
lower saucer-shaped domes (covered by a sloping roof ) over the four arms.
 CHURCH OF SAINTE-GENEVIÈVE (Panthéon)
The facade, like that of the Roman Pantheon, is formed by a porch of Corinthian
columns and triangular pediment attached to the ends of the eastern arm.

The pediment has sculptures by Pierre-Jean David d’Angers of post-Revolutionary

patriots.
 CHURCH OF SAINTE-GENEVIÈVE (Panthéon)
• The interior is decorated with mosaics and paintings of scenes from French history,
some of which were executed by Puvis de Chavannes.

• Inside, the unusually abundant rows of free-standing columns support a series of

Roman vaults and the central dome in a remarkably clear and logical expression of
space and structure
 CHURCH OF SAINTE-GENEVIÈVE (Panthéon)

“The purity and magnificence of

Greek architecture with the
lightness and daring of Gothic
construction.” It is being referred to
the way in which its classical forms,
such as the tall Corinthian columns
and the dome, were joined with a
Gothic type of structure that
included the use of concealed flying
buttresses and relatively light
stone vaulting.
 TYPES OF NEOCLASSICAL BUILDINGS

• Palladian: Andrea Palladio was an Italian architect who admired ancient Roman
architecture. His influence is still seen today and he is the best known neo-
classical architect in the western world. A well known Palladian detail is a large
window consisting of a central arched section flanked by two narrow rectangular
sections.

White House, USA

TYPES OF NEOCLASSICAL BUILDINGS

Palladian Window
 PALLADIAN ARCHITECTURE
Andrea Palladio (1508 - 1580)

• Palladio's work was strongly

based on the symmetry,
perspective and values of the
formal classical temple
architecture of the Ancient
Greeks and Romans.

• He wrote 4 books:
Vitruvius Britannicus (Colen
Campbell 1715), Palladio's
Four Books of Architecture
(1715), De Re Aedificatoria
(1726) and The Designs of
Inigo Jones... with Some
Additional Designs (1727).
 EXAMPLES OF PALLADIAN ARCHITECTURE

Villa Rotunda: One of his most famous residential design. It is square in plan with
central 2 storey Rotunda. The central domed space radiated out to the 4 porticoes and
to the elegantly proportioned rooms in the corner.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF PALLADIAN ARCHITECTURE

• Plain exteriors based on rules

of Proportion.

• Interiors were richly

decorated.

• Highly Symmetrical.

• Symmetry and Balance

implemented by Greco-Roman.
(values of the formal classical
temple architecture of the
Ancient Greeks and Romans)

• Pediments over doors,

Windows, mirrors, Fireplaces.

• Palladian objects follow

Architectural Elements.
 PALLADIAN ARCHITECTURE
Andrea Palladio Proportions
 PALLADIAN ARCHITECTURE
Essential Elements of Palladian Architecture
Scallop shells
Scallop shells are a typical motif in Greek
and Roman art. The shell is a symbol of the
Roman goddess Venus, who was born of the
sea, from a shell.
Pediments
Pediments were used over doors and
windows on the outside as well as inside of
buildings.
Symmetry
Highly symmetrical designs, inspired from
ancient Greek and Roman architecture.
Masks
Masks are faces used as a decorative motif.
based on ancient Greek and Roman art.
Terms
Terms are based on free-standing stones
representing the Roman god, Terminus.
 PALLADIAN ARCHITECTURE
Palladian Facade
Palladio offered a new solution to the Renaissance problem of placing a classical
facade in front of a basilican cross section. He combined two temple fronts: a tall
one consisting of four Corinthian columns on pedestals that support a pediment at
the end of the nave, superimposed over a wide one, with smaller Corinthian
pilasters, that matches the sloping aisle roofs.
 NEOCLASSICAL PALLADIAN STYLE BUILDING

Osterley Park by Robert Adam

 OSTERLEY PARK, LONDON
Osterley Park is a large park and one of the largest open spaces in London. There is a
large mansion with the same name, but also known as Osterley Mansion.
OSTERLEY PARK, LONDON
OSTERLEY PARK, LONDON
OSTERLEY PARK, LONDON
 NEOCLASSICAL PALLADIAN STYLE BUILDING

Kedleston Hall by Robert Adam

 KEDLESTON HALL, ENGLAND
• Kedleston Hall is an English country house in Kedleston, Derbyshire
• The central, largest block contains the state rooms and was intended for use only
when there were important guests in the house.
• The East block was a self-contained country house in its own right, containing all
the rooms for the family's private use, and the identical West block contained the
kitchens and all other domestic rooms and staff accommodation.
 KEDLESTON HALL, ENGLAND
• Kedleston Hall is an English country house in Kedleston, Derbyshire
• The south front of Kedleston Hall (1757–59) provides an example of Adam’s
exterior treatment. His theme of a triumphal arch as the exterior expression of
the domed interior hall is the first use of this particular Roman form in domestic
architecture.
• The double portico (an open space created by a roof held up by columns) at
Osterley Park, derived from the Portico of Octavia, Rome, is a similar Neoclassical
motif.
 KEDLESTON HALL, ENGLAND
• The Building is Palladian in character, dominated by the massive, six-columned
Corinthian portico, then the south front (illustrated right) is pure Robert Adam.

• It is divided into three distinct sets of bays; the central section is a four-columned,
blind triumphal arch (based on the Arch of Constantine in Rome) containing one
large, pedimented glass door reached from the rusticated ground floor by an
external, curved double staircase.
 KEDLESTON HALL, ENGLAND
• Twenty fluted alabaster columns with Corinthian capitals support the heavily decorated,
high-coved cornice.

• Niches in the walls contain classical statuary; above the niches are grisaille panels.

• The floor is of inlaid Italian marble. Matthew Paine's original designs for this room intended
for it to be lit by conventional windows at the northern end, but Adam, warming to the
Roman theme, did away with the distracting windows and lit the whole from the roof
through innovative glass skylights.
 NEOCLASSICAL PALLADIAN STYLE BUILDING

White House (Civic Building) by Robert Adam

WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON D.C.
WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON D.C.
WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON D.C.
WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON D.C.
WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON D.C.
 TYPES OF NEOCLASSICAL BUILDINGS

Neoclassical buildings can be divided into three main types:

• Classical block: features a vast rectangular (or square) plan, with a flat roof and
an exterior rich in classical detail. The exterior is divided into multiple levels, each
of which features a repeated classical pattern, often a series of arches and/or
columns. The overall impression of such a building is an enormous, classically-
decorated rectangular block.

Library of Sainte- Genevieve

 NEOCLASSICAL “CLASSICAL BLOCK” STYLE BUILDING

Library of Sainte- Genevueve by Henri Labrouste

 LIBRARY OF SAINTE, PARIS

• Between 1838 and 1850, a building for the Sainte-Geneviève Library was
designed and constructed under the direction of the architect Henri Labrouste.

• It has Rectangular Plan.

• The large (278 by 69 feet) two-storied structure filling a wide, shallow site is
deceptively simple in scheme: the lower floor is occupied by stacks to the left,
rare-book storage and office space to the right, with a central vestibule and
stairway leading to the reading room which fills the entire upper story.
 LIBRARY OF SAINTE, PARIS

• The exterior of this Parisian library is plain in comparison to the interior's

expression of detail in the ironwork and masonry, which is due to Labrouste's
appeal to his prior studies of Roman architecture.
 LIBRARY OF SAINTE, PARIS
The ferrous structure of this reading room—a spine of slender, cast-iron Ionic columns
dividing the space into twin aisles and supporting openwork iron arches that carry
barrel vaults of plaster reinforced by iron mesh—has always been revered by
Modernists for its introduction of high technology into a monumental building.