Robert Adam: The Search for a Modern Classicism

Description

Robert Adam Architects has an international reputation for classical and traditional architecture and design informed by the latest technology. The firm has offices in the UK with work throughout Britain, the USA, continental Europe, and Asia. ‘Author Richard John’s text is both erudite and illuminating; the captions for the hundreds of colour photos are similarly informative’ Period Homes ‘Robert Adam: The Search for a Modern Classicism’ examines the work of Robert Adam, director of the largest traditional architectural firm in Europe, ADAM Architecture. Turning to traditional design in the early 1970s, when it was unfashionable, Adam was granted a scholarship at the British School at Rome. In the following years his research, studies and writing backed up his growing portfolio of classical and traditional projects. He became one of the major spokesmen for the emerging body of traditional designers in the UK and abroad in the 1980s, defending and promoting traditional design in the face of savage opposition from the modernist architectural establishment. At the same time, he developed a unique position by drawing from the entire classical tradition – from ancient Greece to the 1930s – in a search for continuing relevance and modernity. Adam is now confident that traditional architecture and urbanism will continue to be recognised, if not actively supported, by the profession. He hopes that it will develop further to take a more prominent place as a significant participant in the improvement of the built environment and as a major challenge to the orthodoxy of modernism. AUTHOR: Professor Richard John is a tenured faculty member at the University of Miami and the editor of ‘The Classicist’, the award-winning, peer-reviewed journal of the Institute of Classical Architecture and Classical America. His books include ‘Thomas Gordon Smith and the Rebirth of Classical Architecture’ (2001) and ‘John Simpson: The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace and Other Works’ (2002). S