Architectural Character in
Palladian Architecture - is derived from the villas of
THE GROWTH OF EUROPEAN STATES
“The Age of Enlightenment”
“The Age of Reason”
Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his nonage
Isaac Newton
Voltaire
Diderot
“The Age of Revivals”
REVIVAL:
The act of reviving, or the condition of being revived.
A restoration to use, acceptance, activity or vigour after
a period of obscurity or quiescence
A return to use or fashion, as of former styles, manners
or activities
A reawakening of faith or interest
TIMELINE OF ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTERS
NEOCLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE
The antidote to progress
England is the birthplace of Neoclassicism,the forefront of
building and sculpture.
 It is a style principally derived from the architectural
antiquity, following the Vitruvian principles
Antique:
Belonging to, made in, or typical of an earlier period
Of or belonging to ancient times, especially of, from, or
characteristics of ancient Greece or Rome
Vitruvian Principles:
Utilitas, Firmitas, Venustas
Commodity, firmness, delight
 Aimed to regain for art and design, a purity of form
 Rejected the spirited and rich ornament of Baroque
Style
 Believed that the golden age of progress and knowledge
as from the age of the Romans which ad peace,
progression and harmony
 Back to basics with purity and simplicity
NEOCLASSICAL BUILDING TYPES
1. 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).
~The most famous temple style buildings of the
Neoclassical age:
Panthéon (Paris, by Jacques-Germain
Soufflot) Roman-based (modelled after the
Pantheon in Rome)
British Museum (London, by Robert Smirke). The
former is , while the latter is Greek-based.
2.
Andrea Palladio, the greatest architect of the Late
Renaissance. He admired ancient Roman Architecture.
Palladio, like famous artists generally, was followed by
many successors who absorbed and worked in his
style; these ranged from unoriginal imitators to artistic
geniuses, the latter of whom applied old ideas in
brilliant new ways. Interestingly, Palladio's greatest
successors emerged primarily in England.
Robert Adam, Lord Burlington, William Kent,
Colen Campbell
The most famous of all Palladian buildings are two
American civic buildings, the White House and United
States Capitol
3. Classical Block or Beaux-Arts - features a vast
rectangular (or square) plan, with a flat (or low-lying)
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.
The classical block aesthetic is also known as
"Beaux-Arts style", since it was developed principally
by the French École des Beaux-Arts.)
ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER
 Revival of the classical orders; Greek and Roman or
Greco-Roman hybrid.
Greek Columns:
Doric, Ionic, Corinthian
A Capital is the
crowning member (top) of
a column, on which rests
the column and base.
Capital styles are based on
the Orders of Architecture.
Columns are vertical
architectural support.
They typically include: the round or square shaft, the top
(capital) and the bottom (base). The base is the lowest
element of a column structure on which the column shaft
rests. The plinth is the square or round slab that the column
base rests upon.
In architecture, columns are utilized as loadbearing
elements supporting porches, arches or a cornice.
 Pediments - An architectural element developed in
ancient Greece, pediments were historically
embellishments over doors and windows that were both
structural (supported by columns) and decorative
(with sculpture reliefs). Beginning with Roman
architecture, pediments became primarily decorative.
 1 - 2 1/2 stories in height – generally low buildings
 Symmetrical: balance and symmetry are the most
predominant characteristic of neoclassicism
 Building’s facade is flat and long, often having a
screen of free-standing columns.
 Exterior was built in such ways as to represent classical
perfection. Decorations were reduced to a minimum on
outside.
 Wide variety of different window configurations
including basic, arched, Palladian and Norman Wheel.
A well known Palladian detail is a large window
consisting of a central arched section flanked by two
narrow rectangular sections.
 Neoclassical structure are characterized by their walls
rather than the decoration of it. Its emphasis is on the
planar characteristics.
 In form, Neoclassical architecture emphasizes the wall
rather than chiaroscuro and maintains separate identities
to each of its parts (segmented).
 Features: Colonnade, Rotundas, Porticoes
Colonnade: A series of columns placed at regular
intervals
Rotundas: A circular building, hall or room, with or
without a dome
Porticoes: A porch or walkway with a roof supported
by columns, often leading to the entrance of a
building
THE PALLADIAN REVIVAL
 Colen Campbell
was a pioneering Scottish architect and architectural
writer, credited as a founder of the Georgian style. For most
of his career, he resided in Italy and England.
His major published work, Vitruvius Britannicus, or
the British Architect, appeared in three volumes between
1715 and 1725.
Stourhead House (1720)
Designed by Colen Campbell based on Palladio’s
Villa Emo
The portico part of Campbell's design was only
added in 1840 (1721–24); interiors destroyed
by fire (1902)
Burlington House, London (1717)
Remodelled the front and provided an entrance
gateway for Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of
Burlington (Remodelled in 1868 and the
gateway demolished.)
 Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington
born in Yorkshire, England, was the son of The 2nd
Earl of Burlington and 3rd Earl of Cork and Juliana Noel.
Burlington was called 'the Apollo of the Arts' and 'the
architect Earl', never taking more than a passing interest in
politics despite his position as a Privy Counsellor and a
member of both the British House of Lords and the Irish
House of Lords.
 William Kent
was an eminent English architect, landscape architect
and furniture designer of the early 18th century.
Kent introduced the Palladian style of architecture into
England with the villa at Chiswick House, and for originating
the 'natural' style of gardening known as the English
landscape garden at Chiswick, Stowe House in
Buckinghamshire, and Rousham House in Oxfordshire. As a
landscape gardener he revolutionised the layout of estates,
but had limited knowledge of horticulture.
Chiswick House (1725)
Designed by Richard Boyle and William Kent
Adapted from Palladio’s Villa Rotunda.
Compact, simple, geometric, and segmented look
The surfaces are flat and unbroken
The ornament is meager. (Deficient in richness or
lack of ornamentation)
A temple portico juts out abruptly from the
block-like body of the structure.
THE ENGLISH LANDSCAPE GARDEN
“Carefully planned to look unplanned.”
Winding paths
Irregularly placed clump of trees
Little lakes and rivers instead of symmetrical
basins and canals
Must seem unbounded
Must be picturesque
Suggesting a striking of attractive picture
Standard Features:
Little temples half concealed by the shrubbery
Artificial ruins
To draw sorrowful reflections from the soul.
Landscape garden with Temple of Apollo, Stourhead,
England. 1744-1765
By Henry Flitchoft and Henry Hoare
INTERIOR DESIGN
 Adam Style by Robert Adam
was a British neoclassical architect, interior designer
and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam
(1689–1748), the country's foremost architect of the time,
and trained under him. With his older brother John, Robert
took on the family business, which included lucrative work
for the Board of Ordnance, after William's death.
was a leader of the first phase of the classical revival in
England and Scotland from around 1760 until his death.
 He influenced the development of Western architecture,
both in Europe and in North America. Adam designed
interiors and fittings as well as houses.
The Library, Kenwood London (1767-1769)
Covered with barrel vault connected at either end
to an apse that is separated by a screen of Corinthian
Columns
Balance of varied shapes and proportions
Play of semi-circles, half domes and arches
The color was in daring contrast to the stark white
that was widely preferred for interiors that time.
Echoes delicacy of Rococo interiors but with a
characteristically Neoclassic insistence on planar
surfaces, symmetry and geometric precision.
 Louis XVI Style or Directoire Style
French neo-classic interiors feature a return to the
straight line over the curve, a heavy reliance on classical
Roman design motifs and characteristics as well as a
gradual decrease in the quality of workmanship and materials.
Blue and white continue from Louis XV as important color
schemes. Hoping to revive the support for the Monarchy,
French Designers reject the more playful and erotic Rococo
for a simpler more unified approach and re-introduce many
of the motifs seen in Louis XIV designs. Especially the Apollo,
sun disk and Die and taper leg form. Etruscan and Pompeian
panels, Roman arrow quivers, and caryatids combine with
Greco-roman moldings. Furniture of the Directoire period
following the Revolution tend to be more subtle and use
more delicate color schemes.
Color: Blue and White, Gold and White, Pale tints and
Murals with classical motifs dominate interiors.
Furniture: Furniture tends to be more effeminate (but
sometimes confusedly mixed with the masculine), lighter and
more architectural , smaller in scale, employ straight legs and
either do away with stretchers or imitate Louis XIV with
multi-leg chests. There is less ormalu and marquetry is often
replaced by porcelain or ceramic plaques. We once again see
the three legged Roman form especially in small tables and
stands. The Style can be seen as a reaction against the
Rococo, and while similar in proportion it is more angular.
The leg becomes a die and tapered (often fluted) shaft
(sometimes done in a spiral fluting) Furniture types include
the return of the true 4 post bed, three legged tables and the
complete range of seating seen in the Rococo.
Materials: Mahogany, satin wood, Ebony etc. from
Asia, Africa and the Americas replace Lacquer and Ceramics
and porcelains are used.
Textiles. The Jacquard loom introduced in 1728 coupled
with Whitney’s cotton gin begins to now revolutionize the
textile industry. Stripes and floral patterns that previously had
to be hand woven or printed can now be Mass Produced,
ushering in the start of the Industrial Revolution.
 Empire Style
grandeur of Egypt and Rome, pompous, formal, and
more masculine furniture selections, assert France’s
dominance
led to direct copying of classical types of furniture and
accessories; to this was added a new repertory of Egyptian
ornament, stimulated by Napoleon’s campaigns in Egypt.
Mahogany-veneered furniture with ormolu mounts assumed
the shapes of Roman, Greek, and Egyptian chairs and tables
with winged-lion supports and pilasters headed with sphinxes,
busts, or palm leaves. Where no classical prototypes existed,
contemporary designs were enlivened with ancient
ornamental motifs, often with symbolic implications in
reference to Napoleon’s reign—e.g., winged victory and the
laurel wreath used as decorative symbols of triumph; bees,
sheaves of grain, and cornucopias for prosperity; and fasces
and sphinxes for conquest.
NEOCLASSICISM AND THE ANTIQUE
The mid-eighteenth century was greatly stirred by two
experiences: the rediscovery of Greek art as the original
source of classic style, and the excavations at Herculaneum
and Pompeii, which for the first time revealed the daily life
of the ancients and the full range of their arts and crafts.
Richly illustrated books about the Acropolis at Athens, the
temples at Paestum, and the finds at Herculaneum and
Pompeii were published in England and France.
Late 18th century, had come to favor the heavier and
more austere Greek Doric over the Roman. This “Greek
Revival” phase of Neoclassicism was pioneered on a small
scale in England but was quickly taken up everywhere, since
it was believed to embody more of the “noble, simplicity,
and calm grandeur” of Classical Greece than did the later
less “masculine” orders.
Greek Doric was also the least flexible order, hence
particularly difficult to adapt to modern tasks even when
combined with Roman or Renaissance elements. Only rarely
could Greek Doric architecture furnish a direct model for
Neoclassic structures. We instead find adaptations of it
combined with elements derived from the other Greek orders.
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.
ENGLAND
 Sir John Nash
He was a British architect. The greatest architect of the
English picturesque.
The Royal Pavilion, Brighton. (1815-1818)
The style of this "stately pleasure dome" is a
cream-puff version of the Taj Mahal. Over a
Neo-Palladian building Nash imposed a facade of
cast-iron domes, minarets, and lacy screens, with
Chinese and even Gothic motifs thrown in for good
measure; hence, it was known as Indian Gothic.
The Buckingham Palace
is the London residence and administrative
headquarters of the reigning monarch of the United
Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the
palace is often at the centre of state occasions and royal
hospitality. It has been a focal point for the British
people at times of national rejoicing and mourning.
 Sir John Soane
was an English architect who specialised in the
Neoclassical style. The son of a bricklayer, he rose to the top
of his profession, becoming professor of architecture at the
Royal Academy and an official architect to the Office of
Works. He received a knighthood in 1831.
Bank of England, London (destroyed) (1794)
On 16 October 1788 he succeeded Sir Robert
Taylor as architect and surveyor to the Bank of England.
He would work at the bank for the next 45 years,
resigning in 1833. Given Soane's youth and relative
inexperience, his appointment was down to the
influence of William Pitt, who was then the Prime
Minister and his friend from the Grand Tour, Richard
Bosanquet whose brother was Samuel Bosanquet,
Director and later Governor of the Bank of England. His
salary was set at 5% of the cost of any building works at
the Bank, paid every six months. Soane would virtually
rebuild the entire bank, and vastly extend it. The five
main banking halls were based on the same basic layout,
starting with the Bank Stock Office of 1791–96, consists
of a rectangular room, the centre with a large lantern
light supported by piers and pendentives, then the four
corners of the rectangle have low vaulted spaces, and in
the centre of each side compartments rising to the height
of the arches supporting the central lantern, the room is
vaulted in brick and windows are iron framed to ensure
the rooms are as fire proof as possible.
The Bank being Soane's most famous work, Sir
Herbert Baker's rebuilding of the Bank, demolishing
most of Soane's earlier building was described by
Nikolaus Pevsner as "the greatest architectural crime,
in the City of London, of the twentieth century".
 Sir Robert Smirke
was an English architect, one of the leaders of Greek
Revival architecture, though he also used other architectural
styles. As architect to the Board of Works he designed several
major public buildings including the main block and facade
of the British Museum. He was a pioneer of the use of
concrete foundations.
The British Museum
The core of today’s building was designed by the
architect Sir Robert Smirke (1780–1867) in 1823. It was
a quadrangle with four wings: the north, east, south and
west wings.
The building was completed in 1852. It included
galleries for classical sculpture and Assyrian antiquities
as well as residences for staff.
Smirke designed the building in the Greek Revival
style, which emulated classical Greek architecture.
Greek features on the building include the columns and
pediment at the South entrance.
This style had become increasingly popular since
the 1750s when Greece and its ancient sites were
‘rediscovered’ by western Europeans.
The building was constructed using
up-to-the-minute 1820s technology. Built on a concrete
floor, the frame of the building was made from cast iron
and filled in with London stock brick. The public facing
sections of the building were covered in a layer of
Portland stone.
FRANCE
 Jacques-Germain Soufflot
was a French architect in the international circle that
introduced neoclassicism. His most famous work is the
Panthéon in Paris, built from 1755 onwards, originally as a
church dedicated to Saint Genevieve.
Pantheon, Paris (1755-1792)
was built as the church of Ste.-Genevieve, but
secularized during the Revolution. As with so much else
in eighteenth-century France, the building looks back to
the preceding century
huge portico is modeled directly on ancient
Roman temples
 Etienne-Louis Boullee
was a visionary French neoclassical architect whose
work greatly influenced contemporary architects.
was half a generation younger than Soufflot and far
more daring. He began as a painter and retired early, but
though he built little, his teaching at the Royal Academy
helped to create a tradition of visionary architecture that
flourished during the last third of the century and the early
years of the next. Boullee's ideal was an architecture of
"majestic nobility," an effect he sought to achieve by
combining huge, simple masses. Most of his designs were for
structures on a scale so enormous that they could hardly be
built even today.

Project for a Memorial to Isaac Newton. 1784. Ink
and wash drawing, 15 1/2 x 25 1/2". Bibliotheque
Nationale, Paris
 Claude-Nicolas-Ledoux
was one of the earliest exponents of French Neoclassical
architecture. He used his knowledge of architectural theory to
design not only domestic architecture but also town planning;
as a consequence of his visionary plan for the Ideal City of
Chaux, he became known as a utopian.
was the opposite of Boullee: an architect who built
much and turned to theory only late in his career. Yet his
work quickly developed visionary qualities that are readily
apparent in his most important achievement, the 50 tollgates
he designed for the new walls around Paris in 1785-89, of
which only four still exist.
Barriere de Villette (after restoration), Paris.
(1785-1789)
shows a remarkable sense of geometry placed at
the service of a singular imagination. Ledoux has
mounted a huge rotunda on a square base, which is
entered through a Greek portico supported by pillars
instead of columns. (All four sides are identical in
appearance.) Although the structure derives from
antiquity, the effect is anything but classical. Visually
the portico seems almost crushed by the burden of the
rotunda, whose massiveness is barely relieved by the
strangely medieval-looking screen of arches over paired
columns. Implicit in the radically simplified forms and
decidedly odd proportions is a critique of all earlier
examples of the same type, from the Roman Pantheon
through Soufflot's Ste.-Genevieve. The building, nearly
Mannerist in its gestures, is among the most peculiar of
any before Wright's Guggenheim Museum, which
may be regarded as its descendant.
 Jean Chalgrin
was a French architect, best known for his design for the
Arc de Triomphe, Paris.
The Arc de Triomphe was commissioned by Napoleon
to commemorate the victorious armies of the Empire. The
project was under way when Chalgrin died, and it was
completed by Jean-Nicolas Huyot.
Acr de Triomphe
One of the most famous monuments in Paris.
honours those who fought and died for France in the French
Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars, with the names of
all French victories and generals inscribed on its inner and
outer surfaces. Beneath its vault lies the Tomb of the
Unknown Soldier from World War I.
The astylar design is by Jean Chalgrin (1739–1811), in
the Neoclassical version of ancient Roman architecture (see,
for example, the triumphal Arch of Titus). Major academic
sculptors of France are represented in the sculpture of the Arc
de Triomphe: Jean-Pierre Cortot; François Rude; Antoine
Étex; James Pradier and Philippe Joseph Henri Lemaire. The
main sculptures are not integral friezes but are treated as
independent trophies applied to the vast ashlar masonry
masses, not unlike the gilt-bronze appliqués on Empire
furniture. The four sculptural groups at the base of the Arc
are The Triumph of 1810 (Cortot), Resistance and Peace
(both by Antoine Étex) and the most renowned of them all,
Departure of the Volunteers of 1792 commonly called La
Marseillaise (François Rude). The face of the allegorical
representation of France calling forth her people on this last
was used as the belt buckle for the honorary rank of Marshal
of France. Since the fall of Napoleon (1815), the sculpture
representing Peace is interpreted as commemorating the
Peace of 1815.
GERMANY
 Karl Friedrich Schinkel
was a Prussian architect, city planner, and painter who
also designed furniture and stage sets. Schinkel was one of
the most prominent architects of Germany and designed both
neoclassical and neogothic buildings. His most famous
buildings are found in and around Berlin.
an architect of great ability, began as a painter in the
style of Caspar David Friedrich.
Together with Carl Gotthard Langhans (1732-1808), the
giant of late-18th century architecture, Schinkel gave Berlin a
rational, dignified air, transforming it into a city to rival the
classical splendour of Rome or Paris.
The Altes Museum (1824-1828)
is a spectacular example of the Greek revival. The
main entrance looks like a Doric temple seen from the
side, but with Ionic columns strung across a Corinthian
order. The building is notable for its bold design and
refined proportions.
proclaims Berlin as the new Athens, with Kaiser
Wilhelm III as a modern Pericles.
 Carl Gotthard Langhans
A master of several different styles, the Silesian builder
Carl Gotthard Langhans was one of the greatest architects in
Germany to move away from Baroque architecture and adopt
the new idiom of Neoclassical architecture, which was later
popularized in Prussia by his successor Karl Friedrich
Schinkel (1781-1841)
Brandenburg Gate
one of the most famous monuments of neoclassical art,
the internationally renowned Brandenburg Gate (1789–94),
based on the Athenian Propylaea.
SPAIN
 Juan de Villanueva
was a Spanish architect Villanueva is the best known
architect of Spanish Neoclassicism.
He entered into the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San
Fernando as a pupil when he was eleven years old. In 1758,
he travelled to Rome to become a grant holder of the
Academy to complete his studies. In 1765, he returned to
Spain.
His undisputed masterpiece is the Prado Museum,
projected in 1785 and 1787.
He was a prolific architect and he displayed the majority
of his work in Madrid.
With his personal style and with his strong local
influences, he was the architect who best brought the
theorical basis of European Neoclassicism to Spain.

Prado Museum, Madrid

It was constructed as a Museum of Natural History,
a School of Natural History, and an auditorium for
conferences and lectures. It was transformed into the
Museum of Art in 1814, and today it is also known as
Edificio Villanueva.

REPORTERS:
BS ARCHITECTURE 2A

GOYENA, Shanna Mae

SALAZAR, Shannine
CLAVERIA, Jomari