Architectural Styles

Architectural Styles is an incomparable guide to the histories and characteristics of building traditions across the centuries and around the globe. Modelled on an architect’s plein air sketchbook, it features hundreds of meticulous drawings by esteemed architectural illustrator Robbie Polley alongside detailed descriptions by Margaret Fletcher. It begins with the earliest styles of the ancient civilizations – Egypt, Greece and Rome – before travelling through Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque and into the modern world via the panoply of 19th century revivalist styles. Also covered is the traditional architecture of China, India, Japan and Pre-Columbian America. A final section gathers together key architectural elements from different periods – columns, towers, doorways, windows.