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Victorian Architecture: facts and Philosophy

If we go through the history of Great Britain there are some architectural styles that made a great impact on the history of Britain and the world itself, like the Georgian architecture which came after kings of Britain George I, II  and II, the Victorian style came after the very famous Queen Victoria.

England had great taste and always held their royalty in anything that resembled Britain, Victorian architecture is royal in itself, the architecture is a cocktail of many forms and styles around the Western countries and influenced various architectural philosophies from Romanesque to Georgian.

From the period of mid 18th century to the 19th and above the Victorians did great artwork and also reshaped the buildings of England into something wonderful, the Victorian style refers to the architecture that was constructed during the 18th to 19th century, it had most of the Georgian architectural features like symmetry and box-shaped structure.

Victorian architecture is more of a restoration of its previous architectural styles and had a response to remodeling it, the usage of advanced technology and steel made the Victorian style stand against all other architectures at the time, it created stunning visuals and even today anybody will get awestruck while seeing the Victorian-style buildings.

Architecture Philosophy

The usage of iron in architecture was something new in the Victorian era and it made a clear impact on people but most of the Victorian architecture is either public, educational, or official buildings, Victorian style seems more royal than any other architecture at the time even Georgian seemed very simple while comparing to the mighty Victorian architecture.

The iron made Victorian stronger and wider with more elements of Georgian it created something new with fewer bricks and stunning visuals, the geometry played a very important role, though Victorian influenced various architectural styles it had its own characteristics like columns, bay windows, turrets, dormers and cornices which made it unique in style and design.

victorian architecture

Like Georgian, a Victorian architectural style emerged from England but as people started to move around the world the architecture too moved along with architects of England to the world like the United States, Australia, and Italy, for the mighty and stunning visuals of Victorian-style the world soon adapted to Victorian while constructing important buildings like educational and official buildings.

Some core purpose of the Victorian era was to reestablish the former architecture, most of the churches were reconstructed and restored during the Victorian era which created a great impact on Victorian architecture in churches and palaces.

Works to look at

victorian architecture

Victorian played a very important role in the history of architecture and most of the amazing works are made on the red carpet of England London itself if you ever go to London you get amazed by a lot of things around London and the Palace of Westminster “ the house of the lord” will surely amaze you, it is one of the most beautiful works done in the Victorian style, Augustus Pugin takes all the credit for being the architect and also an admirer of both gothic and Victorian architectural style.

Royal Albert Hall, the Victorian School of Art and Science, the Gilbert Scott Building (University of Glasgow), and Balmoral Castle are other wonderful works of Victorian architecture.

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Georgian Architecture: facts and philosophy

Every piece of architecture ever created follow an ideology that resembles its purpose to be served, some form of architecture served a religious purpose, some for political, and some were made out of pure art and nothing more but every piece of architecture also stood as an identity of time and period, Georgian architecture is one such architecture which resembles the time and being the only true identity of art.

Georgian architectural style is a bit different when compared to all the other architectures of the world, it is not composed or formed as a single architecture, what we and the architects of the world call Georgian is the time and the architecture which were built during the period of 17 to the mid 18th century.

Rome and Greece are the two major pillars in the formation of the Georgian style, the architectural style was used more in Europe as usual, and in American countries too, the simplest style of Georgian architecture made it adapt too quickly, and in the end of the 18th century, almost the entire western countries were adapted to the Georgian architectural style.

Architecture Philosophy

Britain and America acted as the two major places where the Georgian architectural style was more popular than anywhere in the world, the tall and large windows which let the natural light inside, and the high ceiling and wider open space inside are the two major characteristics of the Georgian style.

The architecture became famous for its symmetry, balance, and proportion, the geometry played a wide role in constructing Georgian architecture which made it look more classical and stylish at the same time, the pattern rectangular in shape with larger use of bricks made it simple looking and budget architecture too.

The core decoration of the Georgian style is the usage of bricks and stones in the right place in the right order, even the raw bricks acted as a design concept of the Georgian architecture, American woods are also used in place of bricks which is merely for their environmental purpose, not just houses churches, public buildings, and colonial houses are major construction of the Georgian architectural style.

Like the name resembles the Georgian is kind of royal, classical, and yet simple in form, entrance, roofs, and doors were given more importance than any other part of the architecture and it worked well with people of classical styles.

georgian architecture

Bricks, stones, and stucco were the core materials used in the construction of the Georgian style but woods were also used in some parts of the world, Georgian architecture is complete more with bricks than woods or stones.

The name and style of Georgian architecture changed according to the time, in the early 19th century it was called colonial revival architecture in America, by the 20th century it was called as neo-Georgian architecture, and then Georgian revival architecture in Great Britain.

Works to look at

Strawberry Hill and Marble Hill in Twickenham, no 13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields in London, Royal Exchange in Dublin, and Circus Bath are some of the fine buildings constructed in the Georgian architectural style.

georgian architecture