robert adam adam brother design england

1. NEO-CLASSICAL ARCHITECT

3. Robert Adam ( 1728 – 1792) was a Scottish neoclassical architect, interior
designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam (1689–1748), the country's
foremost architect of the time, and trained under him. With his older brother John, Robert took on
the family business, which included work for theBoard of Ordnance, after William's death.
The Board of Ordnance was a British government body responsible for the
supply of armaments to the Royal Navy and British Army.
In 1754 he left for Rome, spending nearly five years on the continent studying architecture
under Giovanni Battista Piranesi. On his return to Britain he established a practice in London,
where he was joined by his younger brother James. Here he developed the "Adam Style", and his
theory of "movement" in architecture, based on his studies of antiquity and became one of the
most successful and fashionable architects in the country.

4. The Adam style is an 18th-century neoclassical style of interior design and architecture, as
practised by the three Adam brothers from Scotland; of whom Robert Adam (1728–1792)
andJames Adam (1732–1794) were the most widely known.
The Adam brothers were the first to advocate an integrated style for architecture and interiors;
with walls, ceilings, fireplaces, furniture, fixtures, fittings and carpets all being designed by the
Adams as a single uniform scheme. Commonly and mistakenly known as "Adams Style," the
proper term for this style of architecture and furniture is the "Style of the Adam Brothers."

6. The Adam style is identified with:
Classical Roman decorative motifs, such as framed medallions, vases, urns and
tripods, arabesque vine scrolls, sphinxes, griffins, and dancing nymphs
Flat grotesque panels
Pilasters
Painted ornaments, such as swags and ribbons
Complex pastel colour schemes

7. Osterley Park
Osterley Park is a mansion set in a large park of the same name. It is in the London.

8. The original building on this site was a manor house built in the 1570s for banker Sir Thomas
Gresham. Two hundred years later the manor house was falling into disrepair, when, as the result
of a mortgage default, it came into the ownership of Sir Francis Child, the head of Child's Bank.
In 1761 he employed Robert Adam.
The house is of red brick with white stone details and is approximately square, with turrets in the
four corners. One side is left almost open and is spanned by an Ionic pedimented screen which is
approached by a broad flight of steps and leads to a central courtyard, which is at piano
nobile level.
The piano nobile is the principal floor of a large house, usually built in one of the styles
of classical renaissance architecture. This floor contains the principal reception and bedrooms of
the house.

11. Kedleston Hall
The design of the three-floored house is of three blocks linked by two segmentally curved
corridors. The ground floor is rusticated, while the upper floors are of smooth-dressed stone. The
central, largest block contains the state rooms and was intended for use only when there were
important guests in the house. The East block was a self-contained country house in its own right,
containing all the rooms for the family's private use, and the identical West block contained the
kitchens and all other domestic rooms and staff accommodation. Plans for two more pavilions(as
the two smaller blocks are known) of identical size, and similar appearance were not executed.
These further wings were intended to contain, in the south east a music room, and south west a
conservatory and chapel. Externally these latter pavilions would have differed from their northern
counterparts by large glazed Serlian windows on the piano nobile of their southern facades. Here
the blocks were to appear as of two floors only; amezzanine was to have been disguised in the
north of the music room block. The linking galleries here were also to contain larger windows,
than on the north, and niches containing classical statuary.

12. The great north front, approximately 107 metres in length, is Palladian in character, dominated
by the massive, six-columned Corinthian portico, then the south front is pure Robert Adam. It is
divided into three distinct sets of bays; the central section is a four-columned, blind triumphal
arch , containing one large, pedimented glass door reached from the rusticated ground floor by an
external, curved double staircase. Above the door, at second-floor height, are stone garlands and
medallions in relief. The four Corinthian columns are topped by classical statues. This whole
centre section of the facade is crowned by a low dome visible only from a distance.

13. The neoclassical interior of the house was designed by Adam. Entering the house through
the great north portico on the piano nobile, one is confronted by the marble hall designed
to suggest the open courtyard or atrium of a Roman villa. Twenty fluted columns with
Corinthian capitals support the heavily decorated, high-coved cornice. The floor is of inlaid
Italian marble. Matthew Paine's original designs for this room intended for it to be lit by
conventional windows at the northern end, but Adam, warming to the Roman theme, did
away with the distracting windows and lit the whole from the roof through innovative glass
skylights.

15. The saloon, contained behind the triumphal arch of the south front, like the marble hall rises the
full height of the house, 62 feet to the top of the dome, where it too is sky-lit through a
glass oculus.
Robert's later exteriors, as in his London street houses (ca. 1769-1780), lose the three-
dimensional quality and become more flat and linear, with shallow relieving arches, flush
windows, and recessed porticoes.

17. INTERIORS
 Though Adam’s decoration is usually regarded as little more than
delicate surface embroidery, its purpose, in fact, was
considerably broader. It served to articulate, focus and define a
room, to relate the different elements within it, to achieve
balance and symmetry and to give character.
 At the same time panelling disappeared from the walls
which were painted in flat colours with narrow bands of
moulding outlining plain areas of various shapes but
excellent proportions. Lavish plaster ceilings had gilded
and coloured low-relief details and were enriched by
paintings framed in panels.


18. Neo-Classical Style in brief:
 Robert Adam exercised total control over his interiors;
 Formality and elegance of utmost importance;
 Circular and oval rooms introduced;
 Classical plaster work for walls and ceilings;
 Ceilings became more important, painted with
classical scenes;
 Wall colours dark and light green, pale blues, dark
pinks, Etruscan red and black also fashionable.

20. • The ceiling was always a key feature of Adam’s decorative schemes.
• He chose pastel shades rather than white
for the background.
• This makes the plasterwork relief stand
out.

21. 
Ceiling patterns, for instance, were put to a variety of
uses to mark out the subtle rhythm of the wall
elevations, or to draw attention to the center of the
room or divert the eye away from asymmetrical walls, to
emphasize the curve of an arched ceiling or to suggest a
shallow dome or a groin vault on a flat ceiling.

22.  Regardless of whether Adam’s ceilings were executed in stucco or
painted in the ‘Antique Style’, whether they incorporated paintings by
Zucchi of classical subjects or were purely decorative, their impact was
immediate. From Adam’s point of view, grotesques and geometrical
patterns had the additional advantage of allowing him maximum
artistic freedom.

23. 
Color was
Adam’s
most
distinctive
contributio
n to
decoration.
He used
small-scale
inlaid
scagliola
ornaments
in a wide
range of
colors.

24.  Adam was hired to remodel Syon’s House interior
in the 1760s and would ultimately redesign many
of the rooms, as well as build an exterior rotunda.
No two rooms were alike; the great hall, in black
and white and other cool tones, marble and stucco
detailing throughout, was decorated to resemble a
Roman basilica with fluted columns, a large half
dome, and statues or busts of robed ancients.
However, included are details not representative of
Roman style at all, like a Greek key pattern in the
floor and circular ceiling medallion so emblematic
of Adam style.
INTERIOR OF SYON’S HOUSE

25. 
The great hall of Syon’s House

26. The anteroom of
Syon’s House
In complete
contrast to the great
hall, the Anteroom
or Vestibule is
boldly decorated in
gold, red and grey
colors in the style of
Imperial Rome.

27. Neo-Classical Furniture and Fabrics
in brief:
 Designs on furniture are refined simplicity;
 Classical detail;
 Cylindrical legs for tables and chairs, often gilded and
painted;
 Satinwood and mahogany in use;
 Marquetry and painted furniture popular;
 Damasks, moirés, stamped velvets, striped fabrics;
 Wallpapers printed with classical designs.

28. Furniture designs
 Dovetail joints, which is an interlocking wood joint , was used during
this design era, with popular drawer pulls including the oval stamped
brass back plate with bail.
 Graceful and refined, the chairs made during this era boasted
with shield-shaped backs and oval-shaped backs, all beautifully
detailed and sporting a central splat. Chair seats were either
square or horseshoe-shaped with chair arms slightly curved. Popular
woods used to manufacture this style of furniture included
satinwood and mahogany. However not only limited to these
wood types, furniture was also made of tulipwood, sycamore,
rosewood and goncalo alves. Populate veneers included
satinwood veneer and amboyna veneer.

29. 

30. Reference
 www.adamarchitecture.com
 www.adriennechinn.co.uk
 www.encyclopedia.com
 www.britannica.com