Georgian architecture
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Georgian architecture is the name given in English-speaking countries to the classic architectural styles current between about 1720 and 1840, named after the four British monarchs named George. The Georgian styles succeeded the English Baroque of Sir Christopher Wren, Sir John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor. Among the first architects to promote the change in direction from baroque were Colen Campbell and the engravings in Vitruvius Britannicus, Lord Burlington and his protegé William Kent, Thomas Archer and the Venetian Giacomo Leoni, who passed his career in England.
The styles that resulted fall within the broad categories of Palladian— and its whimsical alternatives, Gothic and Chinoiserie that were the English-speaking world's equivalent of European Rococo styles— and, from the mid-1760s, the range of Neoclassical modes 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 about 1800. See also: Adam style, Georgian Dublin.
Georgian architecture is characterised by its sense of proportion and balance; simple mathematical ratios were used to determine for example, 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 include one or more of the orders of architecture and other elements derived from ancient Rome or Greece.
In the American colonies, the neo-Palladian style is associated with 'colonial Georgian' and the neo-classical styles broadly with 'Federal' building styles.
Unlike earlier styles, which were disseminated among craftsmen through the direct experience of the apprenticeship system, Georgian architecture was also disseminated to builders through the new medium of inexpensive suites of engravings. From the mid-18th century, Georgian styles were assimilated into an architectural vernacular that became part and parcel of the training of every carpenter and plasterer, from Edinburgh to Maryland.
After about 1840 Georgian conventions were slowly abandoned as a number of Revival styles, including Gothic revival, enlarged the design repertoire. In the United States this style fell out of favour after the revolution, due to its association with the colonial regime, later the Colonial Revival style would return to these designs. In Canada the United Empire Loyalists embraced Georgian architecture as a sign of their fealty to Britain, and the Georgian style was dominant in that country for most of the first half of the 19th century.