The Design of the White House as a Villa

1981 Words4 Pages

This paper looks at monographs and villas and concentrates on the design of the White House as a villa. The idea of villas in based on ancient Roman culture and traditions and specifically on the upper class country house in ancient Roman Empire. Since the origin of this ideology, the idea of villa and its function have considerable evolved over the years. After the Roman Republic fell, villa developed to become small farming compounds. These small farming compounds increasingly fortified later in the Late Antiquity. They were sometimes moved to the Church in order to be reused as a monastery. Through the middle ages, villas re-evolved once again into country homes for the upper class. Today villas are attributed to different types as well as sizes of residences, which range from suburban to urban constructions and residential building. The architect and design of the White House are considered to have taken the idea of villas.
The White House in Washington D.C. is both the official residence as well as the workplace of the US President. The house is located at Pennsylvania Avenue NW within the city of Washington D.C.
Description of the Building
The White House was particularly designed by James Hoban who is an Irish-born architect. It was built between the year 1792 and 1800. The main material used to construct it were Aquia Creek sandstones that were painted in white. The design was mainly the neoclassical style. Neoclassical style is an architectural style that was produced by neoclassical movement mainly after the mid-eighteenth century. This style is principally derived from Classical Greece and Roman architecture. A clear term to describe the style here is the idea of villas, which has a strong historical root from Ro...

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...by most other ancient villas, especially those served as palaces. The building has remained to be the symbol of power for the US government since the country became independent.

Works Cited

Ackerman, James S. The Villa: Form and Ideology of Country Houses. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990.
Dal Lago, Adalbert. Villas and Palaces of Europe. Paul Hamlyn, ISBN 600012352. 1969.
Skurman, Andrew. Contemporary Classical: The Architecture of Andrew Skurman. Princeton : Princeton Architectural Press, 2012.
Thacker, Christopher. The History of Gardens. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979.
The Cultural Landscape Foundation. White House Grounds. 2014. http://tclf.org/landscapes/white-house-grounds (accessed May 9, 2014).
The White House Museum. The White House Residence. 2014. http://www.whitehousemuseum.org/residence.htm (accessed May 14, 2014).

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