Realism is the name now given to an approach to architecture by British architects from the 1840s onwards, who aimed to emphasise the 'real' nature of building forms and materials in the buildings they designed. Although the use of the term in architectural history dates from the 1980s, Victorian architects and writers are recorded as using the word 'real' to describe their intentions, and ‘unreal’ to describe architecture they disapproved of.
Realism is most closely associated with
Augustus Pugin
Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin ( ; 1 March 1812 – 14 September 1852) was an English architect, designer, artist and critic with French and Swiss origins. He is principally remembered for his pioneering role in the Gothic Revival architecture ...
and in particular with his 1841 book ''The True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture''. The message of this book was that the appearance of buildings and all their details should directly derive from their construction and use. As Pugin put it:
The effect of this message was that
Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...
architects responded to the then-prevalent low standards of construction by emphasising the constructional role and physical qualities of the materials they used. This meant in practice that brick and stonework replaced stucco or cement render in the design of quality buildings, and in the best cases details from
eaves
The eaves are the edges of the roof which overhang the face of a wall and, normally, project beyond the side of a building. The eaves form an overhang to throw water clear of the walls and may be highly decorated as part of an architectural sty ...
to door handles were especially designed to form a coherent set for each project. Realist houses, such as those designed by Pugin himself, were intended to make their essential construction method obvious through simple observation; the best example is Pugin’s rectory at Rampisham, Dorset, designed in 1845.
With the rapid spread of Pugin’s ideas through influential and prolific architects including
George Gilbert Scott
Sir George Gilbert Scott (13 July 1811 – 27 March 1878), largely known as Sir Gilbert Scott, was a prolific English Gothic Revival architect, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches and cathedrals, although he ...
,
George Edmund Street
George Edmund Street (20 June 1824 – 18 December 1881), also known as G. E. Street, was an English architect, born at Woodford in Essex. Stylistically, Street was a leading practitioner of the Victorian Gothic Revival. Though mainly an eccl ...
, and
William Butterfield
William Butterfield (7 September 1814 – 23 February 1900) was a British Gothic Revival architect and associated with the Oxford Movement (or Tractarian Movement). He is noted for his use of polychromy.
Biography
William Butterfield was bo ...
in the mid-nineteenth century, Realist architecture appeared in nearly every town and village in England, at least in the form of a restored (in fact, often largely rebuilt) parish church.
The architectural historian Chris Brooks first referred to Realism in his book ''Signs for the Times'' of 1984, and then again, offering the alternative 'reality', in his widely read ''Gothic Revival'' of 2000. Brooks compared Pugin’s concept of the 'real' to that of Victorian authors and painters:
In Brooks’ usage, the word also implies investing inanimate objects with real human characteristics, for example with 'honesty', an idea that was popular with late nineteenth-century arts and crafts architects. These architects sometimes believed that a realist approach to material had a "religious" approach to it comparable to that of Pugin fifty years beforehand.
[Aslet, Clive (2011). ''The Arts and Crafts Country House'', p. 128. Aurum, London. ]
Realism can be seen as a pragmatic, non-intellectualising British variant of the
Functionalism or Rationalism that was developing over the same period in European architecture.
References
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Architectural history