What is Victorian Architecture?

The definition of a Victorian house is any house that was built

during the reign of Queen Victoria of England. Queen
Victoria reigned from June 20th, 1837 to January 22, 1901.
During the Victorian era, many styles of houses were
popular. In Great Britain and former British colonies,
a Victorian house generally means any house built during
the reign of Queen Victoria. During the Industrial Revolution,
successive housing booms resulted in the building of many
millions of Victorian houses which are now a defining feature
of most British towns and cities.

Although there were many different types of Victorian

houses, they all shared many of the same detailed
architectural features. Here is a list of Victorian Style
Architectural features:

a. Bay Window- A bay window is a glass-sided recess in the home that protrudes
outwards from the house.

b. Clapboard Siding - Wood siding used on a house.

c. Column - A round or square shaped post usually holding up the roof.

d. Cornice - The piece that runs along was the roof and wall meets.

e. Dentils - A molding going around a house with rectangle holes in it.

f. Dormer Window- A window that sticks out from the roof that has a roof of its own.
g. Entablature -The upper part of a wall or story. the structure consisting of the part of a
classical temple above the columns between a capital and the roof.

h. Gabled Roof - The triangular part at the

end of a building formed by the two sides of a
sloping roof.

i. Lintel - A post that goes across the top of a window or door.

j. Mansard Roof - A roof with two slopes, and often it is flat on top.
k. Pediment - The piece that comes out from the roof and covers the porch.

l. Portico - A porch with a roof.

m. Transom Window - A window or panel, usually operable, above a window or door.

 n. Turret - A small, skinny tower usually at the corner of a building.

There are 6 Victorian house features both exterior and interior:

1. Stained Glass windows - Stained

glass features heavily as part of
Victorian architecture, both in
residential property and Gothic
Revival religious architecture. This
house features an intricate porch
screen with unique stained
glass. Victorian housing are excellent
for maximizing natural light, and
stained glass in a doorframe often
means that natural light is able to
illuminate the house’s frontage.
2. High Ceilings and Ornate
Lighting - Along with wonderful
glass features, Victorian-style
houses feature grand, high ceilings
that often make rooms appear larger than they truly are, and this works particularly well for
smaller terraced houses.
 3. Striking floor tiles - inside a Victorian house many will have an original geometric tile design
running through the hallway. Such designs have been replicated time and time again, but
nothing quite beats restoring the original tile that is often hidden away under floorboards and
carpet in many Victorian period properties. As a result, it is a common restoration project
undertaken by contemporary interior designers looking for Victorian terraced house ideas.
4. Decorated bargeboards
5. Iconic bay window features
6. Colored Brickwork

Example of Victorian Architecture in the Philippines:

1. Silliman Hall - is the oldest standing American structure in the Philippines.

Its architecture is reminiscent of the Stick style type of architecture that characterizes
American buildings in the late 19th century.

Stick Style - Style of residential design popular in the U.S. in the 1860s and 1870s,
a precursor to the Shingle style. The Stick style favored an imitation half-timbered effect, with
boards attached to the exterior walls in grids suggestive of the underlying frame construction.
Other characteristic features included attached open stick work verandas, projecting square
bays, steeply pitched roofs, and overhanging eaves. Angular and vertical elements were
emphasized. The style also marked the beginning of greater openness of the floor plan. Charles
S. and Henry M. Greene succeeded admirably in reinterpreting the style in the early 20th
century.

This may be specifically called as “stick style” but it has a significant style of a Victorian style
because of its turret tower and dormer windows that are related to Victorian style features.
What is Bauhaus Architecture?

Architect Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany, in 1919,

seeking to unite all forms of fine arts, crafts, and industry. He wanted to level any
distinction between “artist” and “craftsman,” believing, instead, that all artists must
work as craftsmen, and vice versa. In fact, he wanted to break down many different
hierarchies—like those between high and low art, or teacher and student —as a new
order of society for the modern age.

He wrote in his 1919 Bauhaus manifesto: “Together let us desire, conceive, and create
the new structure of the future, which will embrace architecture and sculpture and
painting in one unity and which will one day rise toward heaven from the hands of a
million workers like the crystal symbol of a new faith .”

It was a utopic vision for the future. Gropius’ ideas came at a time when he and others
were grappling with the rise of industrialization. And for him, uniting art and functional
design would result in good design for mass production, bringing beauty to everyday
objects.

His school became a laboratory, where students could experiment with different media
and methods and forms, all with an eye toward building the future. They studied all
forms of media—painting, sculpture, weaving, furniture design, typography,
bookbinding, carpentry, and metalwork—although architecture wasn’t added to the
curriculum until 1927.

The teachings of the Bauhaus school emphasized form and materials. Every element of
a design was to serve a purpose. There should be nothing extraneous, nothing
unnecessary, no ornamentation. Just the bare essentials. “An object is defined by its
nature,” Gropius once stated. The resulting aesthetic was one that was simple,
austere, and efficient. The style became synonymous with modernity.

But ultimately, the Bauhaus school was short lived, closing after 14 years of
operation. In those 14 years, the school relocated twice, saw three different directors
at its helm, and faced mounting political pressure from the Nazi party for its left -
leaning, socially progressive views, and for its simple, pared-down aesthetic, which
was seen as going against Germany’s cultural traditions.

Bauhaus art, architecture and design by these 5 characteristics:

1. Form follows function

The American architect Louis Sullivan was the first to use the famous expression ‘form follows
function’. This became one of the fundamental ideas of modernism and Bauhaus. It means that
in design, a form should always be applied because of its function instead of its aesthetic
appeal. Utility came first and excessive ornamentations were avoided.

2. True materials

According to the teachers at Bauhaus, materials should reflect the true nature of objects and
buildings. Honesty as a designer was most important. This meant they didn’t modify or hide
materials for the sake of aesthetics. There was no need to hide the construction of an object or
building, such as steel or a beam, because it was just an integral part of the design.

3. Minimalist style

The minimalist style of Bauhaus art, architecture and design reflected these ideas of
functionality and true materials. Influenced by movements such as Modernism and De Stijl,
Bauhaus artists favored linear and geometrical forms, while floral or curvilinear shapes were
avoided. Only line, shape and colors mattered. Anything else was unnecessary and could,
therefore, be reduced.

4. Gesamtkunstwerk

Walter Gropius, the founder of Bauhaus, was the first to apply the notion of ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’
(translated as "total work of art", "ideal work of art", "universal artwork", "synthesis of the arts",
"comprehensive artwork", "all-embracing art form" or "total artwork") is a work of art that makes
use of all or many art forms or strives to do so. Gesamtkunstwerk combines multiple art forms
such as fine and decorative arts unified through architecture in the case of Bauhaus. A building
was not just an empty carcass for the Bauhaus school; it was just one part of the design, and
everything inside added to the overall concept.

5. Uniting art and technology

In 1923, Bauhaus organized an exhibition that shifted the Bauhaus ideology. This exhibition was
called ‘Art & Technology: A New Unity’. From then on, there was a new emphasizes on
technology. Bauhaus workshops were used as laboratories in which prototypes of products,
suitable for mass production and typical for their time, were carefully developed and improved.
The artists embraced the new possibilities of modern technologies.

Bauhaus has been a revolutionary movement, changing art, design and architecture forever.
Important Bauhaus objects can be still found on the market today, whether you are looking for
the famous Wassily chair by Marcel Breuer, the Barcelona chair by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
or Josef Hartwig’s iconic Chess Piece. Bauhaus objects, as important pieces of art history, still
look surprisingly contemporary today. Find your very own piece of Bauhaus furniture in
our Design Auction.
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