THE TRANSITIONAL

PERIOD
HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE - V
THE TRANSITIONAL
PERIOD
 PREMODERN ARCHITECTURE
 PALLADIAN REVIVAL IN BRITAIN
 GREEK REVIVAL
 GOTHIC REVIVAL
 INTRODUCTION TO THE TRANSITIONAL
PERIOD
 CHISWICK HOUSE, LONDON
 MEREWORTH CASTLE, KENT
 ST. PANCRAS CHURCH, LONDON
 WESTMINSTER PALACE, LONDON
 ARC DE TRIOMPHE, PARIS
 Premodern
• Architecture
Villa Savoye, by Le Corbusier and his cousin, was built from 1928 to 1931. With the
rise of Nazism in 1933, the German experiments in modernism were replaced by
more traditionalist architectural forms.

• Economic conditions severely limited the number of built commissions between 1914 and
the mid- 1920s, resulting in many of the most important expressionist works remaining as
projects on paper, such as Bruno Taut's Alpine Architecture and Hermann Finsterlin's
Formspiels.
• The style was characterised by an early-modernist adoption of novel materials, formal
innovation, and very unusual massing, sometimes inspired by natural biomorphic forms,
sometimes by the new technical possibilities offered by the mass production of brick,
steel and especially glass.
• As a result of isolation during World War I, an art and design movement developed
unique to the Netherlands, known as De Stijl (literally "the style"), characterized by its
use of line and primary colors. While producing little architectural design overall (with
 Premodern
• Architecture
Expressionism was an architectural movement that developed in Northern Europe
during the first decades of the 20th century in parallel with the expressionist visual
and performing arts. Making notable use of sculptural forms and the novel use of
concrete as artistic elements, examples include Rudolf Steiner's Second Goetheanum,
built from 1926 near Basel, Switzerland and the Einsteinturm in Potsdam, Germany.

• Unlike the influential architects and designers of Britain who saw ornamentation and
decoration as a way of reviving arts and crafts in the face of machine production, the
modernists in Germany sought to integrate the machine into human living and
space. In reaction to the decadence of the Art Nouveau style and its German
counterpart Jugendstil, Adolf Loos remarked, "ornamentation should be eliminated
from all useful objects”.
 Palladian Revival in
Britain

Palladian Architecture
• Palladian architecture is a European style of architecture derived from and inspired
by the designs of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580).

• That which is recognised as Palladian architecture today is an evolution of Palladio's

original concepts. Palladio's work was strongly based on the symmetry, perspective
and values of the formal classical temple architecture of the Ancient Greeks and
Romans.

• From the 17th century Palladio's interpretation of this classical architecture was
adapted as the style known as Palladianism. It continued to develop until the
end of the 18th century.

A typical example of Palladian architecture:

A villa with a superimposed portico, from Book
IV of Palladio'sI Quattro Libri dell'Architettura,
 Characteristics of English Palladian Architecture
• In a nutshell, grace, understated decorative
elements, and use of classical orders. At its most
rigid, Palladianism simply copied designs made
popular in Italy by Palladio.
• Thus Colen Campbell (1676-1729) produced the
square symmetrical block of Mereworth Castle,
Kent, in imitation of Palladio's own Villa Capra.
• "True Palladianism" in Villa Godi by Palladio
from the Quattro Libri dell'Architettura. The
extending wings are agricultural buildings and
are not part of the villa.
• In the 18th century they became an important part of
Palladianism secondary bedrooms and
accommodation.
• The proportion of each room within the villa were
calculated on simple mathematical ratio like 3:4
and 4:5, and the
façade: differentPalladio's
however, rooms within the house
designs related
the house were to become
were interrelated by these
to the whole, ratios.
usually squareEarlier architects
villa. incorporated in numerous Palladian
had used these formulas for balancing a single style houses through Europe over
symmetrical the following centuries.
• Palladianism became popular briefly in Britain during the
mid- 17th century, but its flowering was cut short by
the onset of the Civil War.
• In the early 18th century it returned to fashion, not
only in England but also, directly influenced from Drayton
Hall
Britain, in Prussia.
• Count Francesco Algarotti may have written to
Burlingto from Berlin that he was recommending to
Frederick the Great the adoption in Prussia of the
architectural style Burlington had introduced in
England but Knobelsdorff's opera-house on the Unter den Hammond-Harwood
Linden, based on Campbell's Wanstead House, had been House
constructed from 1741.
• Later in the century, when the style was falling from
favour in Europe, it had a surge in popularity throughout
the British colonies in North America, highlighted by
examples such as Drayton Hall in South Carolina, the
Redwood Library in
Redwood Library in Newport, Rhode Island, the Newport
The Greek Revival was an architectural
movement of the late 18th and early 19th
centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and
the United States.

KEY ELEMENTS
• Tall columns and pediments: The ancient
Greek temple model, with its row of tall
columns and pediments, includes two of the
most obvious characteristics of this style of
historic home design.
• Painted plaster exterior: Although the
buildings and ruins in Greece were all made of
stone, American homes of this style were not.
They were instead crafted in wood and
covered in plaster, then painted in white to
create the illusion of stone.
• Horizontal transom: It sits over the front door,
instead of a fanlight like the earlier Federal
 Characteristic Features
• Heavy entablature and cornices
• Generally symmetrical façade, though entry is
often to one side
• Front door surrounded by narrow sidelights
and rectangular transom, usually incorporated
into more elaborate door surround
• Small frieze-band windows set into wide
band trim below cornice not uncommon
• Chimneys are not prominent
• Gable or hipped roof of low pitch
• Cornice lines emphasized with wide band of
trim
• Porches common, either entry or full-width
supported by prominent square (vernacular)
or rounded columns (typically Doric style)
• Columns typically in Greek orders, many
still have Roman details (Doric, Ionic or
Corinthian), vernacular examples may have
 Gothic
• Other Names - Victorian
Revival\
Gothic, Neo Gothic or
Jigsaw Gothic.
• Began in the late 1740s in
England.
• Its popularity grew rapidly
in the early 19th century.
• When increasingly serious and
learned admires of Neo Gothic
Style sought to revive
Medeival Gothic
Architecture, in contrast to
Neo Classical Style.
• Gothic revival draws features
from original gothic style,
including decorative patterns,
 Gothic
Roots
Revival
• The Gothic Revival
Movement emerged in
19th century in England.
• Its roots were intertwined with
deeply philosophical
movements associated with a
re-awakening of high-church
or anglo-catholic belief
concerned by growth of
religion.
• The gothic revival was
paralleled
and supported by medievalism.
• A reaction against machine
production and the
appearance of factories also
grew.
Chiswick House,
 Chiswick House,
London
• Palladian villa.
• Designed by Richard Boyle.
• House and garden occupies
65.1 acres.
 Characteristic Architectural
Features

• The walls and the facade.

• The dome.
• The rooms.
• The columns.
• The two floors.
• The relationship between the villa and the
garden.
Mereworth Palace,
 Mereworth Castle,
• Kent
Built c1720-25
• Based on Palladio's Villa Capra near Vicenza
• Leaded ribbed dome
• Large square block with 4 identical fronts,
excepting
the lack of portico steps to east and west.
• String-course above basement,
cornice-band at portico entablature level
• Entrance Hall: Barrel-vaulted with plaster
busts in shells over side doors and pair of
female allegorical figures over arched
doorway into central rotunda
• Hipped slate roof carrying heavily banded
almost hemispherical dome with blind
lantern surrounded by high half-columns
• Single pedimented and balconied 1st floor
windows
each side of Hexastyle Ionic porticos
 Mereworth Castle,
• Kent
Four major axial and four minor diagonal
doorways on both floors, the upper to deep
balustrade gallery on carved volute brackets
• Cornice under gallery. Sumptuous
plasterwork with pairs of female figures,
putti and busts in shells over doorways, and
rectangular relief
panels, portrait busts and foliage drops
arrayed on
the walls
St. Pancras Church,
 St. Pancras Church,
•
London
The church is in a Greek revival
style,
using the Ionic order.
• It is built from brick, faced with
Portland stone, except for the
portico and the tower above
the roof, which are entirely of
stone. All the external
decoration, including the
capitals of the columns is of
terracotta.
• The Inwoods drew on two
ancient Greek monuments,
the Erechtheum and the
Tower of the Winds, both in
Athens, for their inspiration.
• The doorways are closely
modelled on those of the
Erechtheum, as is the
entablature, and much of the
 St. Pancras Church,
• London
The octagonal domed ceiling of the vestibule is in imitation of
the
Tower of the Winds.
• The west end follows the basic arrangement of portico,
vestibules and tower established by James Gibbs at St
Martin-in-the-Fields.
• At the east end is an apse, flanked by two tribunes, with
entablatures
supported by caryatids.
• The caryatids are made of terracotta, constructed in sections
around cast-iron columns, modelled by John Charles Felix
Rossi. Each caryatid holds a symbolic extinguished torch or
an empty jug, appropriate for their positions above the
entrances to the burial vault.
• There is a stone sarcophagus behind the figures in each
tribune, and the cornices are studded with lion's heads.
• The upper levels of the tribunes were designed as vestries.
• Access to the church is through three doorways ranged under the
portico. There are no side doors.
• Inside, the church has a flat ceiling with an uninterrupted
Westminster Palace,
 Meeting place of the House of Commons and the House of Lords - the two houses
of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom.
 Commonly known as the Houses of Parliament, the Palace lies on the northern bank
of
the River Thames in the City of Westminster, in central London.
 The first royal palace was built on the site in the eleventh century, and
Westminster was the primary residence of the Kings of England until a fire
destroyed much of the complex in 1512. After that, it served as the home of the
Parliament of England.
 In 1834, an even greater fire ravaged the heavily rebuilt Houses of Parliament,
and the only medieval structures of significance to survive were Westminster
Hall, the Cloisters of St Stephen's, the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft, and the
Jewel Tower.
 The remains of the Old Palace (with the exception of the detached Jewel Tower) were
incorporated into its much larger replacement, which contains over 1,100 rooms
organised symmetrically around two series of courtyards. Part of the New Palace's
 Westminster Palace,
Design & Detail
London
 After the fire in 1834, competition for the reconstruction of the
Palace was won by the architect Charles Barry, whose design was
for new buildings in the Gothic Revival style.
 Barry was also careful to weld the old to the new, so that the
surviving medieval buildings - Westminster Hall, the Cloisters and
Chapter House of St Stephen's, and the Undercroft Chapel -
formed an integral part of the whole.
 In his design, Barry was also concerned to balance the horizontal
(continuous bands of panelling) with the vertical (turrets that
ended high above the walls). He also introduced steeply-pitched iron
roofs which emphasised the Palace's lively skyline. His Gothic
scheme for the new Palace also extended to its interior furnishings,
such as wallpapers, carvings, stained glass and even the royal
thrones and canopies.
 The Palace of Westminster contains over 1,100 rooms, 100
staircases and
4.8 kilometres (3 mi) of passageways, which are spread over four
floors. The ground floor is occupied by offices, dining rooms and bars;
the first floor (known as the principal floor) houses the main rooms
Plan of Westminster Palace,
Arc De Triomphe,
Paris
 Arc De Triomphe,
•
Paris
The Arc de Triomphe is one of the
most famous monuments in Paris.
• The Arc de Triomphe 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.
• The monument stands 50 metres in
height,
45 m wide and 22 m deep. The large
vault is
29.19 m high and 14.62 m wide. The
small vault is 18.68 m high and 8.44
m wide. Its design was inspired by the
Arc De Triomphe,
Paris
The four main sculptural groups on
each of the Arc's pillars are:
• The sculptural group celebrates the
cause of the French First Republic
during the 10 August uprising. Above the
volunteers is the winged
personification of Liberty.
• The detail celebrates the Treaty of
Schönbrunn. This group features
Napoleon, crowned by the goddess of
Victory.
• The third commemorates the
French resistance to the Allied
armies during the War of the
Sixth Coalition.
• The fourth detail commemorates the
 On the inner façades
of the small arches
are engraved the
names of the military
leaders of the French
Revolution and Empire

The ceiling with

21
sculpted
A list of French roses
victories is
Panoramic
engraved under
view of
the great arches
internal
on the inside
staircase.
façades of the
monument

Bas relief in
walls of
arch