About Buildings + Cities

140 — John Summerson's 'The Classical Language of Architecture'

July 31, 2026·1h 11m
Episode Description from the Publisher

In this episode, the first of a trilogy, we talked about John Summerson's best-selling 1965 book 'The Classical Language of Architecture', developed out of a series of lectures he gave to the BBC. We talk about Summerson, one of the titans of mid-20th century British architectural history, his attitude towards classicism and his patrician tone. In the next two episodes we will be discussing Bruno Zevi's 'The Modern Language of Architecture' (1978) and Charles Jencks's 'The Language of Post-Modern Architecture' (1977), which were both partly inspired by Summerson's rhetorical assertion of the linguistic character of classical architecture. Follow along with the images by watching this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/3JYroYY_wek Edited by Matthew Lloyd Roberts. Support the show on Patreon to receive bonus content for every show. Please rate and review the show on your podcast store to help other people find us! Follow us on twitter // instagram // facebook We’re on the web at aboutbuildingsandcities.org This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

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