A TAG Talk by Robert Adam. A journey with politics and economics out of the orthodox and back again.

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Free for members, £5 plus booking fee for non-members.

Classical architecture was revived in the 1970s and has continued to the present day. Looking at the key period up to the end of the twentieth century, the fortunes of classicism changed with the times. We can see how it began with a return to the Georgian, became associated with Post-Modernism and returned to a kind of orthodoxy.

Architecture was never an isolated social or artistic phenomenon and we can gain an insight into how it fitted in with broader political and economic trends. Defining the late twentieth century from the crises of the 70s to the Great Recession of 2007, during this time classical architecture changed from being an isolated curiosity to gaining (and then losing) wider support, finally becoming an established minority.

The aesthetic background to classical architecture changed and, at the end of the period, while still very much a minority, the foundations were laid for its growth and acceptance in the last twenty years. This history explains the current culture of classical architecture and poses a question about the way forward.

Robert Adam won a Rome Scholarship in 1973. He founded Robert Adam Architects in 2000 and now practices as Robert Adam Architectural Consultancy.

Projects include major private houses, conservation and public and commercial buildings. He has 30 years’ experience in masterplanning and has pioneered objective coding.

Robert is a major figure in the development of traditional and classical architecture, a pioneer of contextual urban design, a designer of furniture, an author and a scholar. His work is widely published, broadcast and exhibited.

He has written numerous historical, critical and theoretical papers. His books include: Classical Architecture, a complete handbook; The Seven Sins of Architects; The Globalisation of Modern Architecture; and Time for Architecture.

Robert founded the International Network for Traditional Building Architecture and Urbanism (INTBAU) in 2001 and the Traditional Architecture Group (TAG) in 2003. Many awards include the ICAA Arthur Ross Award in 2005 and the Richard H. Driehaus Prize in 2017.