Outline of classical architecture

Updated on Nov 06, 2023

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The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to classical architecture:

Classical architecture – architecture of classical antiquity, that is, ancient Greek architecture and the architecture of ancient Rome. It also refers to the style or styles of architecture influenced by those. For example, most of the styles originating in post-renaissance Europe can be described as classical architecture. This broad use of the term is employed by Sir John Summerson in The Classical Language of Architecture.

What type of thing is classical architecture?

Classical architecture can be described as all of the following:

Architecture – both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art. Historical civilizations are often identified with their surviving architectural achievements.

Architectural style – classification of architecture in terms of the use of form, techniques, materials, time period, region and other stylistic influences.

Art – aesthetic expression for presentation or performance, and the work produced from this activity. The word "art" is therefore both a verb and a noun, as is the term "classical architecture".

Work of art – aesthetic physical item or artistic creation.

One of the arts – as an art form, classical architecture is an outlet of human expression, that is usually influenced by culture and which in turn helps to change culture. Classical architecture is a physical manifestation of the internal human creative impulse.

A branch of the visual arts – visual arts is a class of art forms, including painting, sculpture, photography, architecture and others, that focus on the creation of works which are primarily visual in nature.

Form of classicism – high regard in the arts for classical antiquity, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate.

Classicism in architecture – places emphasis on symmetry, proportion, geometry and the regularity of parts as they are demonstrated in the architecture of Classical antiquity and in particular, the architecture of Ancient Rome, of which many examples remained.

Classical architectural structures

List of ancient architectural records

Ancient Greek architectural structures

Ancient Greek architecture – architecture produced by the Greek-speaking people (Hellenic people) whose culture flourished on the Greek mainland and Peloponnesus, the Aegean Islands, and in colonies in Asia Minor and Italy for a period from about 900 BC until the 1st century AD, with the earliest remaining architectural works dating from around 600 BC.

Classical orders –

Doric order –

Ionic order –

Corinthian order –

Hellenistic architecture –

Ancient Greek roofs

Buildings

Ancient Greek temple

List of Ancient Greek temples

Temple of Artemis

Temple of Zeus

Temple of Hephaestus

Samothrace temple complex

Parthenon

Acropolis of Athens

Ancient Agora of Athens

Ancient Roman architectural structures

Ancient Roman architecture –

De architectura – treatise on architecture written by the Roman architect Vitruvius and dedicated to his patron, the emperor Caesar Augustus, as a guide for building projects. The work is one of the most important sources of modern knowledge of Roman building methods, planning, and design.

Herodian architecture

Public architecture

Amphitheatre

Basilica

Circus (building)

Forum (Roman)

Insulae

Temple (Roman)

Roman theatre

Thermae

Triumphal arch

Public buildings

List of Roman amphitheatres

Baths of Trajan

Baths of Diocletian

Baths of Caracalla

Colosseum

Trajan's Column, in Rome

Circus Maximus, in Rome

Curia Hostilia (Senate House), in Rome

Domus Aurea (former building)

Roman Forum

Pantheon

Tower of Hercules

Tropaeum Traiani

Hadrian's Villa

Roman lighthouse

Roman watermill

Private architecture

Roman gardens

Alyscamps, a necropolis in Arles, France

Domus

Catacombs of Rome

Roman villa

Architectural elements

Hypocaust

Mosaics

Roman brick

Roman roofs

Roman spiral stairs

Roman domes

Classical architectural styles

Byzantine architecture –

Pre-Romanesque architecture –

Romanesque architecture –

Gothic architecture –

Renaissance architecture –

Baroque architecture –

Palladian architecture – European style of architecture derived from the designs of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). Palladio's work was strongly based on the symmetry, perspective and values of the formal classical temple architecture of the Ancient Greeks and Romans.

Georgian architecture – set of architectural styles current between 1720 and 1840. 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.

Neoclassical architecture – architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing features of Late Baroque. In its purest form it is a style principally derived from the architecture of Classical Greece and the architecture of the Italian architect Andrea Palladio.

Empire style – sometimes considered the second phase of Neoclassicism, is an early-19th-century design movement in architecture, furniture, other decorative arts, and the visual arts followed in Europe and America until around 1830, although in the U. S. it continued in popularity in conservative regions outside the major metropolitan centers well past the mid-19th century.

Biedermeier architecture – neoclassical architecture in Central Europe between 1815 and 1848.

Resort architecture (Bäderarchitektur) – a specific neoclassical style that came up at the end of the 18th century in German seaside resorts and is widely used in the region until today.

Federal architecture – classicizing architecture built in the United States between c. 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815. This style shares its name with its era, the Federal Period.

Regency architecture – buildings built in Britain during the period in the early 19th century when George IV was Prince Regent, and also to later buildings following the same style. The style corresponds to the Biedermeier style in the German-speaking lands, Federal style in the United States and to the French Empire style.

Greek Revival architecture – architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture.

Neoclassical architecture in Poland

Nordic Classicism – style of architecture that briefly blossomed in the Nordic countries (Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland) between 1910 and 1930.

New Classical Architecture – Architectural movement to revive, and embrace classical architecture as a legitimate form of architecture for the 20th and 21st Centuries. Beginning first with Postmodern architecture's criticism of modernist architectural movements like International Style, New Classical architecture seeks to be an alternative to the ongoing dominance of modernist architecture.

Building elements

Acroterion – ornament mounted at the apex of the pediment of a building

Aedicule – small inset shrine

Apollarium

Aegis

Apse

Arch

Architrave

Archivolt

Ante-Fixae

Amphiprostyle

Atlas (architecture) – male figure support

Bracket (architecture)

Capital

Caryatid - female figure support

Cella

Coffer

Coin

Colonnade

Column

Cornice

Crepidoma

Crocket

Cupola

Decastyle

Diocletian (thermal) window

Dome

Eisodos

Entablature - superstructure resting on the column capitals

Epistyle - see Architrave

Euthynteria

Exedra

Finial

Frieze

Gutta

Imbrex and tegula - interlocking roof tiles used in ancient Greek and Roman architecture

Keystone

Metope (architecture)

Naos - see Cella

Nave

Opisthodomos - rear porch of a temple

Ornament (architecture)

Orthostates

Pediment

Peristyle

Pilaster

Plinth

Portico

Portico types – tetrastyle, hexastyle, octastyle, decastyle

Pronaos

Prostyle

Quoin

Rustication (architecture)

Stoa

Suspensura

Term (architecture)

Tracery

Triglyph

Sima

Stylobate

Volute

Classical orders

Composite order

Corinthian order

Doric order

Ionic order

Tuscan order

Types of building

Agora

Amphitheatre

Heroon

Odeion

Orchestra

Skênê

Stoa

Temple

Theatre

Tholos

Treasury

Classical architecture organizations

The Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America

Classical architecture publications

De Re Aedificatoria – classic architectural treatise written by Leon Battista Alberti between 1443 and 1452. Although largely dependent on Vitruvius' De architectura, it was the first theoretical book on the subject written in the Italian Renaissance and in 1485 became the first printed book on architecture.

The Classical Language of Architecture

Persons influential in classical architecture

John Summerson – one of the leading British architectural historians of the 20th century.

References

Outline of classical architecture Wikipedia

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