Redesigns of 7 Iconic Buildings in Different Architectural Styles

Architectural changes are the shifts in form, materials, structure and ornament that turn one style into the next, driven by politics, belief, technology and money. A simple way to see them is to take a famous building and imagine it in another period’s style, which is what the travel company Expedia did with the seven computer-generated images on this page. This guide is for students and curious readers: it explains what an architectural style is, lists twelve major styles, shows the seven redesigns with the real facts about each original building, and adds a dated table and a recognition checklist.

Every place has its landmark, from the Eiffel Tower to the pyramids, and each was shaped by its own time. As our piece on how architectural styles express the architect’s personality argues, style also reflects the designer.

What are architectural styles?

An architectural style is a set of shared features that lets buildings from one period or region be recognised and grouped: overall form, construction method, materials, proportions and ornament. Styles emerge and change in response to politics, religion, wealth, available materials and new technology; for example, iron and steel frames and the lift made the skyscraper possible in the late nineteenth century, and reinforced concrete made the free plan of modernism practical.

The Louvre in Paris is a good example of architectural changes within one building: its medieval fortress survives only in the foundations, the Lescot Wing in the Cour Carrée (begun in the 1540s) shows French Renaissance classicism, and later wings added Baroque and nineteenth-century work, all on one site (Wikipedia, Louvre Palace).

What are the 12 architectural styles?

There is no official list, but these twelve are among the best known in Western architectural history, roughly in date order:

1. Classical (ancient Greek and Roman)
2. Romanesque
3. Gothic
4. Baroque
5. Neoclassical
6. Beaux-Arts
7. Art Nouveau
8. Art Deco
9. Bauhaus
10. Modern (International Style)
11. Postmodern
12. Deconstructivist

Many other traditions, from Islamic, Chinese and Japanese architecture to vernacular building everywhere, have their own styles that a Western list leaves out.

How to recognise a style: a defining-features checklist

When you look at any building, ask five questions; the answers usually place it within a style and period:

• Structure: load-bearing walls, arches and vaults, a timber frame, a steel or concrete frame?
• Openings: round arches (Classical, Romanesque), pointed arches (Gothic), horizontal ribbon windows (Modern)?
• Ornament: classical orders and mouldings, natural motifs (Art Nouveau), geometric motifs (Art Deco), or none (Bauhaus, Modern)?
• Materials: stone, brick, half-timbering, glass and steel, exposed concrete?
• Composition: symmetrical and axial, or asymmetric and free?

Diagram to draw (editor task): one façade bay drawn five ways (Classical, Gothic, Tudor, Bauhaus, Brutalist) with these five features labelled, matching the redesigns below.

Redesigns of seven iconic buildings in other architectural styles

The images below are digital redesigns published by Expedia; they are illustrations, not proposals by the original architects. Each entry gives the real facts about the original building and what the new style changes.

1. CN Tower in Ancient Egyptian style

Toronto’s CN Tower, completed in 1976, is 553.3 m tall and was the world’s tallest free-standing structure from 1975 until it was overtaken in 2007 by the Burj Khalifa (then called Burj Dubai) during its construction; the Burj Khalifa finished at 828 m (Wikipedia, CN Tower). The 2021 text said the Burj was only “30 centimetres higher”, which was wrong. The redesign turns the concrete mast into an Ancient Egyptian obelisk: a tapering, square stone shaft with a pyramidal tip, a form originally raised to honour gods and rulers.

2. Fallingwater in Classical style

Fallingwater, the house Frank Lloyd Wright designed for the Kaufmann family over a waterfall in south-western Pennsylvania, was built in 1936-1939 and opened to the public in 1964 after the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy took it over (Fallingwater, official site). In the Classical redesign the cantilevered concrete terraces become a symmetrical temple front with columns and a pediment, the opposite of Frank Lloyd Wright‘s horizontal, asymmetrical “organic” design.

3. Sydney Opera House in Tudor style

Jørn Utzon’s opera house opened in 1973 and is one of Australia’s most photographed landmarks. The Tudor redesign replaces the concrete shells with steep gabled roofs, exposed timber framing (half-timbering), tall brick chimneys and grouped windows, typical of English buildings of the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

4. The Louvre in Brutalist style

Home to one of the world’s great art collections, the Louvre began as a fortress built by Philip II at the end of the twelfth century, became a royal palace, and opened as a public museum in 1793. The Brutalist redesign turns it into a monolithic block of raw concrete, the 1950s-1970s style named after béton brut (raw concrete).

5. Petronas Towers in the Gothic style

The Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, designed by César Pelli, were completed in 1998 and are 451.9 m tall; they were the world’s tallest buildings until 2004 and remain the tallest twin towers. The Gothic redesign adds pointed arches, tracery, pinnacles and gargoyles, the vocabulary of medieval cathedrals.

6. Buckingham Palace in Bauhaus style

Buckingham Palace has been the London residence of the British monarch since Queen Victoria moved there in 1837. It has 775 rooms, including 52 royal and guest bedrooms, 188 staff bedrooms, 92 offices and 78 bathrooms (The Royal Household, Buckingham Palace). The Bauhaus school was founded in Weimar in 1919; the redesign strips the classical façade to flat white walls, horizontal windows and plain geometric volumes.

7. Niterói Contemporary Art Museum in a “sustainable” style

Oscar Niemeyer’s Museu de Arte Contemporânea in Niterói, across the bay from Rio de Janeiro, was completed in 1996; its saucer-shaped gallery sits on a single cylindrical base above the sea. Sustainable design is not a historical style, so this redesign is different from the others: it adds planting, solar panels and other features aimed at reducing energy use and emissions, rather than period ornament.

Images via Expedia.

Dated table of the original buildings

Architectural changes: summary

Architectural changes come from changing technology, materials, beliefs and power, and they are easiest to see when one building is pictured in another period’s dress. Use the five-question checklist (structure, openings, ornament, materials, composition) to place any building in its style. For a different view of where style is going, read Senseless and Style-less: the new trend in architecture.

This article is part of our guide to architectural styles.