The Revival Of Traditional Architecture

The traditional classical architect is a lonely figure at the start of the 21st century. Despite the attempts during the 1980s to instil a new classical fervour among architects, the few buildings that emerged - a spate of country houses for the City rich - were little better than those that could be bought off the peg from housebuilders' catalogues and remain the stock-in-trade of Middle English housing developments... "We've already contacted architects working in Japan and New Zealand as well as Europe and the United States," says Matthew Hardy, an Australian architectural historian who runs the organisation's website. "They feel like renegades because they believe in traditionalism. Perhaps some of the revived classical architecture of recent years has been a little clumsy. It's early days yet, and perhaps it's been connected in some people's minds, particularly in Britain, with old-fashioned snobbery."