Architect Robert Adam | Biography & Designs
Table of Contents
ShowWho was Robert Adams?
Robert Adam was an 18th-century architect who was born and raised in Scotland. He traveled widely in Europe and did architectural work as an adult throughout the United Kingdom.
What is a famous design by Robert Adam?
A famous design of Robert Adam's is the entrance hall of Syon House. The hall features columns and tiled floors and is considered a prime example of Neoclassical design.
What is Robert Adam famous for?
Robert Adam was famous for developing a holistic style of Neoclassically-informed architecture. He sought to create connective fluidity between interiors, exteriors, and decoration in each building he worked on professionally.
Table of Contents
ShowScottish architect Robert Adam was born in Kirkaldy (Fife, Scotland) in 1928. He was the son of master architect William Adam and inherited William's architectural practice upon his death in 1748. Adam traveled widely in the 1920s and 1930s, with a particular focus on Greece, Italy, and Egypt; he studied ancient artistic stylings assiduously and would eventually draw on those learning to formulate an offshoot of Neoclassical design style (Adamesque) at the height of his career back in the United Kingdom. He worked alongside many other artists and designers, including his younger brother, Architect James Adam, with whom he went into professional partnership in 1763. By the time of his death in 1792, Adam had revolutionized architectural and design practices in Europe through a fusing of ancient aesthetics and modern ones. His impacts still reverberate in the present day.
Early Life and Biography of Robert Adam
Although he was born in Fife (on the North side of the mouth of Scotland's Firth of Forth, where it meets the North Sea), Adam spent most of his upper-class childhood and adolescence in Edinburgh, on the South coast. There, the second son of a wealthy professional, he completed his secondary education and some of a university degree before dropping out and apprenticing with his father's architectural firm. Following the elder Adam's death in 1748, Robert assumed the firm's leadership and worked tirelessly for the next five years. With the sizable income accrued during that period, he was able to take a Grand Tour of Europe. There, Robert studied with French designer Charles-Louis Clérisseau and Italian artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi, honing his skills as a draftsman and deepening his knowledge of ancient societies and their design practices. Although he compromised his social standing in European society by prioritizing his artistry over social climbing, Adam was a tenacious and passionate creator. He pursued networking opportunities doggedly without apologizing for his craft. Ancient Greece and Rome, in particular, held Adam's interest, laying the groundwork for his eventual development of Adam's style, reimagining ancient design themes in a modern context in ways that broke the molds created by Neoclassicists in the preceding design generation. Although he loved developing buildings from the ground up, Adam and his brother were often hired to remodel existing buildings with their Adamesque stylings. However, their successes in this capacity opened doors for original architecture and construction in their careers.
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Adam's architecture, envisioned by himself (Robert) with influence from his brother James, became prevalent in Great Britain during the second half of the 18th century.
Adam Style House
Adam broke from the rules of Neoclassicism and experimented with his designs. Adamesque, or Adam style, is defined by a duality of neoclassical motifs and a modern perspective on structures as complete, living organisms. This phenomenon is most noticeable in interior designs, which he developed in direct dialogue with a building's other rooms, the infrastructure, and exteriors of a building, striving to create a unified aesthetic across the entirety of the structure. The most famous attributes seen in his work included:
- A light-hearted color palate.
- Classical motifs inside the house (columns, symbols of nature and history, mosaics).
- The integration of the exterior and the interior to create a holistic sense of place specific to the structure in its entirety.
Kenwood House
Kenwood House is a mansion erected in the early 1600s by Hampstead Heath on the outskirts of London. In 1764, then-owner William Murray (also known as Lord Mansfield) commissioned Adam to remodel the original brick structure into a more modern, Neoclassically-inspired villa. Given free creative rein, Adam created a greater sense of flow in the house, altering interiors and exteriors to create a cohesive whole. His alterations included the addition of a portico inspired by Ancient Greek and Roman aesthetics, additional bedrooms, new social rooms intended for hosting and entertaining, and even new chimneypieces. Interior decorations echo the updates to the home, combining Italian Renaissance decorations, French furniture, Roman structures, and light color schemes to create a unique aesthetic.
Syon House
In 1762, the Adam brothers remodeled the interior of Syon House, a mansion in Hounslow (a borough of London, England). The remodeling included an ornate entrance hall, lined with carved columns and tiled floors, thought to be the epitome of Neoclassical design for the time. A new library, a long walking gallery, and social rooms were added, reimagining the mansion as a modern, Neoclassical masterpiece. Its exterior, however, went untouched by the Adam brothers, preventing the holism that was their trademark. Syon House's exterior is solemn stone topped with ramparts reminiscent of a 15th-century castle. The interior, on the other hand, is all Adamesque.
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Robert Adam was a Scottish architect who followed in his father's architectural footsteps alongside his brother. Drawing on a highly informative Grand Tour including Greece and Rome in his young adulthood, Adam developed interiors, exteriors, and holistic aesthetic designs that drew on multiple ancient artistic styles with additions of modern styles, particularly Neoclassical (Adamesque) in Britain. He used a lighter color palette than was preferred by other creatives at the time and fused different cultures' decorative styles, architectural layouts, and artistic leanings. Two of the Adam brothers' landmark projects were the remodeling of Kenwood House (which saw the retrofitting of a 17th-century mansion as a Neoclassical villa) and Syon House (which resulted in interior remodeling that is thought to be a classic example of Neoclassical design). Adam believed that buildings were whole organisms and designed interiors, exteriors, furniture, and decorations to create a seamless fluidity that reflected that holistic belief. By his death in 1762, Adam and his brother had remodeled and designed several landmark buildings, many of which still stand today.
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Additional Info
Robert Adam
You may have heard the phrase ''I don't know him from Adam.'' Well, this phrase cannot be applied to architecture! If something in English architecture is from Adam, you're sure to know it. Robert Adam was an 18th-century British architect who worked largely in the neoclassical style, reviving the traditions of ancient Greece and Rome but in new, modern ways. However, his take on this style was so unique that it was essentially a genre all its own.
Biography
Robert Adam was born in 1728 in Scotland to a well-respected architect named William Adam. This meant that Robert was born into a fair amount of privilege, was educated, and decided to follow in his father's footsteps. In 1754 he began working toward accomplishing this goal by taking a five-year trip of France and Italy to study the major sites of Classical Roman and modern European architecture. This trip, called the Grand Tour, was a common practice amongst aspiring architects. Adam learned a great deal about Classical architecture, a very popular motif at the time, and returned home. He then opened an architectural firm with his brother, James Adam. Robert would quickly become one of the most popular architects in Great Britain.
The Adam Style
Neoclassicism was already very much ''in'' when Robert and James Adam opened their practice. However, Robert Adam broke from the strict rules of accepted neoclassicism (called Palladianism after the Italian architect Andrea Palladio), and started experimenting. His designs were aesthetically lighter and less serious, with variations of color and decoration. This style became known as the Adamesque or the Adam style - or at the time, the Style of the Brothers Adam.
What really defined Adamesque architecture was Robert's theory about holistic design. You see, most neoclassical architecture was focused only on the exterior. The structure's façade embraced Classical Roman and Greek elements, but not the interior. Robert Adam was unique in that he pictured the entire building as one living whole, which meant that the interiors and exteriors needed to complement each other. This concept of an integrated aesthetic was entirely new, and Adam began introducing Classical elements into interior design.
The Kenwood House
Robert Adam was a busy guy, involved in numerous projects. A few, however, stand out as exemplary of the Adam style. One of these is the Kenwood House of Hampstead, London. William Murray, Earl of Mansfield, commissioned Adam to remodel the house in the then-fashionable neoclassical style in the 1760s. On one side of the house was an orangery (a kind of greenhouse where orange trees are grown), so Adam added a library to the other side, giving the overall house a more balanced symmetry, which is a very important concept in neoclassical architecture. He also added a colonnaded portico in the front, filled with Ionic columns for a very Roman aesthetic. Overall, he strove to capture a feeling of calm, rational logic - very much in keeping with the rules of Classical architecture.
Inside, the house featured smaller rooms than may be expected, so Adam designed a scheme that would unite the entire interior. By using consistent color patterns, ceiling paintings, and architectural features like columns, Adam created a greater sense of flow and order inside the house, which mirrored the building's exterior. The light pinks and blues of the library interior are exemplary of the Adamesque style - in form they are very classical but the color adds a bit of light whimsy to the serious chamber.
Syon House
Another of Adam's masterpieces is the interior of the Syon House of London. The Duke and Duchess of Northumberland instructed Adam to create a ''palace of Graeco-Roman splendor.'' He obliged.
It's important to remember that prior to Robert Adam, Classical elements were kept strictly on the exterior of the house. But at the Syon House, Adam filled the interior with marble chimneypieces, fluted Corinthian columns, and even domed niches reminiscent of Roman temples and public buildings. Just to ensure that there could be no doubt as to the inspiration for the interior, Greek and Roman-style statues fill the walls. It's also worth noting that in the playful Adamesque manner, the ceilings of some rooms are covered in decorative stucco and beams that mirror marble patterns on the floor. A splash of pastel colors completed this interior space. The effect is unique and powerful. It's unmistakably an Adam.
Lesson Summary
Robert Adam (1728-1792) was a Scottish architect and interior designer. Born to another famous Scottish architect named William Adam, Robert took his Grand Tour of Italy in 1754 and learned about Classical architecture. The Neoclassical style was the big thing at the time, which Adam not only mastered but amended with his own unique flair. The Adamesque or Adam style is a variation on neoclassical architecture that integrates the interior and exterior designs, incorporates Classical themes in the interior design, and provides a light-hearted dose of color and whimsy. This style is exemplified in many of the mansions he remodeled for the nobility, most notably the Kenwood House and Syon House. English people of the 18th century would have known Adam from anyone.
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