Georgian Architecture - Style That Lasted a Century

The Georgian Architectural style originated in England in the late 1600s and spread to its colonies. Named after the kings George I, II, III and IV of England, the style mainly followed the classical design principles developed by Andrea Palladio during the Italian Renaissance. By and large, Georgian designs adhered to classical rules with ornamentation derived from ancient Rome or Greece. The style displayed symmetry and regularity of detail. Mathematical ratios were used to fix the height of a window in relation to its width or the shape of a room as a double cube. Georgian town planning advocated regularity of house facades along streets. By the 1700s, the style reached the American colonies through printed material.

The style was suitable to stone constructions just as brick ones. Georgian style buildings were typified by reddish brick walls, with courses and cornices of white stone and trimmings of white painted woodwork. A portico located in entryways, was common.

History of Georgian Architecture

The Georgian style along with its variants remained much in vogue between 1740 and 1820.

The early 18th century witnessed a palpable shift away from the then popular baroque architecture. Colin Campbell, with his engravings in publications (Vitruvius Britannicus), inspired the architect Richard Boyle, earl of Burlington, and his protégé, William Kent, to revert to a classicizing form of architecture, based on the efforts of Inigo Jones and Palladio. Other notable promoters of Palladian theory included Giacomo Leoni of Venice (who passed his career in England) and Thomas Archer. Sir Christopher Wren, Sir John Vanbrugh, Nicholas Hawksmoor, and James Gibbs too contributed actively to the Palladian revival to classicism through their building designs.

Besides the strong influence exerted by the Palladian tradition in both England and America, the Georgian buildings were also infused with distinguishing styles including Rococo, Chinese (called Chinoiserie) and Gothic. Sometimes, an amalgamation of all the three influences was used in a parent-Georgian structure. From the mid-1760s, among others, the British architects Robert Adam, James Gibbs, Sir William Chambers, James Wyatt, Henry Holland and Sir John Soane, period also contributed with their Neoclassical variants. After 1800, the style absorbed Greek Revival overtones too.

Colonial Georgian Architecture

In North America, the period architecture was influenced by the Georgian Neoclassical style and the neo-Palladian style alike, and the resulting combined style was generally referred to as the Federal style architecture. For classification however, the Federal style buildings were those built after 1780 with a Palladian window, and were decorated with an elliptical fanlight over the door.

The Georgian style adapted to its surroundings, climate and the puritan influence, and thus was less elaborate than in other colonies. Buildings extensively used wood along with clapboard and columns were built of timber. Earlier buildings had unpainted exteriors and the later versions were painted white/yellow/red. Wooden shingles made up the roofs (which had very small overhangs). The windows were double hung, and almost touched the cornice or roof. Sometimes stone, brick or wooden quoins adorned the corners. In some Georgian buildings, columns supporting an extended triangular or flat pediment formed the front entryway.

The Georgian style was sought after in the face of increasing wealth of the colonists, who began emphasizing on comfort, convenience and privacy. The style gained popularity among the middle and upper classes as opposed to the immediate preceding architecture style – Baroque – that was just about limited to churches and palaces. Furthermore, contrasting to earlier styles that spread among craftsmen only through the apprenticeship system, Georgian architecture was also propagated to builders through an innovative medium of inexpensive collections of engravings. Consequently, the number of rooms in each dwelling multiplied that led to specialization of rooms for specific purposes – separate rooms for sleeping, cooking, dining and so forth. Fireplaces in the living room were used for heating only; thus became smaller and more efficient, and the large hearth was restricted to the kitchen.

Around the mid-1800s, the Georgian style started to fade. Several Revival styles (including Gothic) gained ascendancy.

In the Unites States, the increasing trend to disassociate from everything colonial caused the style to decrease in popularity. However, the early 1900s saw a rising nostalgia for its orderly structures, and a revival came about, that became known as the Colonial Revival. Canadians, as loyalists to Britain, retained the Georgian style right up to the mid-1900s.

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