Styles compared

Classical, Renaissance, Baroque and Gothic Revival. Four traditions behind the world’s most loved places, and all four have been built in New Zealand before.

Ancient Greece and Rome

Classical

The foundation of almost everything that followed. Columns, pediments and a strict system of proportion called the orders, where every part of a building relates to the whole the way parts of a body do.

Classical buildings feel calm and permanent because they are balanced. It is the language of temples, parliaments and museums for a reason.

Italy, 15th and 16th centuries

Renaissance

A rediscovery of classical ideas in the cities of Italy. Architects such as Brunelleschi and Alberti brought back the column and the dome and arranged them with new clarity.

The result is symmetrical palaces, arcaded courtyards and facades divided into calm, legible storeys. It is architecture that explains itself to the street.

Europe, 17th and 18th centuries

Baroque

Classical language with the volume turned up. Curving facades, dramatic light, great domes and sculpture that seems to move.

Baroque was designed to stir emotion, and to make the squares and streets around it feel like a stage. Few styles have ever been so confident.

Britain and its colonies, 19th century

Gothic Revival

A revival of medieval Gothic: pointed arches, tall windows, spires and carved stone that draws the eye upward.

It became the style of choice for churches, universities and civic buildings across the Victorian world, including much of nineteenth century Christchurch.

Already built here.

New Zealand has fine examples of every one of these styles. They were designed here, built from local materials, and are still among the country’s most admired buildings.

Auckland War Memorial Museum

Classical, with a Greek temple front overlooking the Domain.

Dunedin Railway Station

Flemish Renaissance revival, in bluestone and Oamaru stone.

Auckland Ferry Building

Edwardian Baroque, on the city’s waterfront.

Is building like this appropriation? →

Everyone loves these buildings. Almost nobody builds them anymore.

Ask people to name their favourite buildings and the list is full of neoclassical, Gothic and Renaissance landmarks. Ask what is being built today and you get glass and render. The gap is not taste. It is habit, cost assumptions and rules that ask for nothing better.

Why we stopped →