Georgian architecture

Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1720 and 1840. It is eponymous for the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover – George I of Great Britain, George II of Great Britain, George III of the United Kingdom, and George IV of the United Kingdom, who reigned in continuous succession from August 1714 to June 1830.

Georgian succeeded the English Baroque of Sir Christopher Wren, Sir John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor. Major architects to promote the change in direction from baroque were Colen Campbell, author of the influential book Vitruvius Britannicus; Richard Boyle, 4th Earl of Cork (Lord Burlington) and his protegé William Kent; Thomas Archer; and the Venetian Giacomo Leoni, who spent most of his career in England.

The styles that resulted fall within several categories. In the mainstream of Georgian style were both Palladian architecture and its whimsical alternatives, Gothic and Chinoiserie, which were the English-speaking world’s equivalent of European Rococo. From the mid-1760s a range of Neoclassical modes were fashionable, associated with the British architects Robert Adam, James Gibbs, Sir William Chambers, James Wyatt, Henry Holland and Sir John Soane.

Greek Revival was added to the design repertory, after Georgian architecture is characterized by its proportion and balance; simple mathematical ratios were used to determine the height of a window in relation to its width or the shape of a room as a double cube. "Regular" was a term of approval, implying symmetry and adherence to classical rules: the lack of symmetry, where Georgian additions were added to earlier structures, was deeply felt as a flaw. Regularity of housefronts along a street was a desirable feature of Georgian town planning.

Georgian designs usually lay within the Classical orders of architecture and employed a decorative vocabulary derived from ancient Rome or Greece. The most common building materials used are brick or stone. Commonly used colors were red, tan, or white. However, modern day Georgian style homes use a variety of colors.

General characteristics

Identifying Features (1700 – c.1780):

• A simple 1-2 story box, 2 rooms deep, using strict symmetry arrangements.
• Panel front door centered, topped with rectangular windows (in door or as a transom) and capped with an elaborate crown/entablature supported by decorative pilasters.
• Cornice embellished with decorative moldings, usually dentilwork.
• Multi-pane windows are never paired, and fenestrations are arranged symmetrically (whether vertical or horizontal), usually 5 across.

Other features of Georgian style houses can include – roof to ground-level:

• Roof: 40% are Side-gabled; 25% Gambrel; 25% Hipped.
• Chimneys on both sides of the home.
• A portico in the middle of the roof with a window in the middle is more common with post-Georgian styles, e.g. "Adam".
• Small 6-paned sash windows and/or dormer windows in the upper floors, primarily used for servant’s quarters.
• Larger windows with 9 or 12 panes on the main floors’.

Links

• Georgian architecture at Wikimedia Commons
• Georgian homes in Sydney at Wikimedia Commons
• Georgian Terrace in Horsham

Incoming search terms:

• modern day georgian architecture