List of architectural styles

An architectural style is characterized by the features that make a building or other structure notable and historically identifiable.

A style may include such elements as form, method of construction, building materials, and regional character.

The dominance of the Church over everyday life was expressed in grand spiritual designs which emphasized piety and sobriety.

The Renaissance began in Italy and spread through Europe, rebelling against the all-powerful Church, by placing Man at the centre of his world instead of God.

The Baroque style was a florid development of this 200 years later, largely by the Catholic Church to restate its religious values.

A time often depicted as a rural idyll by the great painters, but in fact was a hive of early industrial activity, with small kilns and workshops springing up wherever materials could be mined or manufactured.

The Victorian Era was a time of giant leaps forward in technology and society, such as iron bridges, aqueducts, sewer systems, roads, canals, trains, and factories.

As engineers, inventors, and businessmen they reshaped much of the British Empire, including the UK, India, Australia, South Africa, and Canada, and influenced Europe and the United States.

These enabled a brave new world of bold structural frames, with clean lines and plain or shiny surfaces.