“Building with History” - Georgian Style

[Music] hi I'm Brent ho welcome to building with history today we're gonna be talking about the georgian style the style that my company hull historical is very familiar with the reason this series is called building with histories because as we look back to the past their secrets to the lost art of building that helped us build better today [Music] what is Georgia what does that mean well in 1740 King George was on the throne in England and we were essentially an English colony at that time so it's called a Georgian period it lasts from 1740 into 1776 why the American Revolution after that we enter a period called the federal period now where'd the inspiration come from because we're an English colony we're naturally looking back and remembering the houses that we saw in England well in England they were very enthralled by a guy named Andrew Pilate Oh Claudio is an Italian stonemason in the late Renaissance who wrote a book called the four books of architecture he was basically studying classical elements in classical details meaning Greek and Roman details applied to a new style of poem probably one of the greatest examples of a Georgian style architecture and early America's Drayton Hall it's in South Carolina and John Drayton used Pilate and stylings to build his home that's why there's columns on the front porch that's why we have what's called graduated fenestration with the windows interestingly just like John Drayton was inspired by Pilate oh I was inspired by Drayton Hall this home that we're gonna go look at the way we've used the bricks the way we organized the moldings all are an inspiration from the past so let's go take a look so here we are standing in front of this traditional Georgian house that was inspired from Drayton Hall Drayton Hall was a classically styled home meaning that was very symmetrical okay meaning that it was laid out very balanced you'll see that inspiration in the porch detail all picked up from this Georgian period also notice that the front porch the windows and the first floor are bigger than the second-floor windows this is called graduated fenestration versus layering there's this balance that takes place with these windows that was all part of the way they designed back then one of the other things you'll notice about this house and great traditional houses because their symmetrically balanced and laid out you have an order okay there's this calm there's this balance that happens with their house the scale okay the classical scale is built on a human scale we are symmetrical right and my hands are proportionate to my head in my body all the parts and pieces are proportionate that scale translates throughout the house there's these small details that end up making a big difference for instance in the brickwork what we've done is this English bond where every fifth course okay one two three four five is a header course kind of the magic of this is that when you stand back from the house the bricks read a little bit different when you stop and look at it and you go others there's a rhythm there right there's a pattern there the same thing is true with this grapevine joint there's these little lines inside the mortar joint and you see that it kind of moves in curves where the arm of the mason actually would have moved through this thing there is a human element to this that speaks to us [Music] so we're standing in the entry hall and in a traditional house you have a very formal entry which is pretty typical you also have an access okay so we actually oriented the house this way so we could be looking down and seeing this beautiful view at the back the mouldings are really important they organize the space arterial is about 32 inches and notice that it unifies the height of the windowsills and it pulls the architectural elements together typically Georgian stairs have this kind of scale and proportionately balusters in this case are two and a quarter inches big okay a Federal stair might have a balusters that's an inch and a quarter this is a heavier pilaster it is a Georgian pilaster it's kind of bigger and thicker and bolder which is part of that tradition [Music] one of the key features would have been the dining room the details in here are richer and nicer we've got the wainscoting in here as well and notice how it two unifies the parts and pieces of the room it is the windowsill and then as it goes down farther into the china hutch that same line we also have what's called an over mantel okay and over mantel is basically pediment built up like this on top of your mantel George and detail that's not done as much in the federal period notice the top two we have this arched pediment on either side over the china cabinets and then we have a broken pediment there it adds interest it adds kind of variety this is a very successful mantel of successful composition that we've copied from past designs where you have this cornice a pull the native frieze an architrave this element okay this detail right here is really important if you want to get this classical building system right all very big and thick and bold that communicates those ideals that were seen at Drayton Hall [Music] hopefully now you understand kind of the joy of the georgian-style that the classicism the cemetery the balance the human scale the way the parts and pieces need moldings are organized to make you feel and experience the house in a certain way thanks for watching building with history I'm Brent Hall [Music]

Channel: Brent Hull

Views: 10,425

Rating: 4.9856114 out of 5

Keywords: Georgian Style, Hull HIstorical, historical architecture, Brent Hull, Building with History

Id: L2z5RRJqFso

Length: 6min 21sec (381 seconds)

Published: Tue May 28 2019