---
title: Architectural Classicism
date: 2025-02-18
tags: []
categories: [general]
status: Published
main_title: "The Language of Architectural Classicism: From Looking to Seeing"
sub_title: 
speaker: Lecture By Dr Edward McParland
long_event_date: Tuesday 18th February 2025 6.30 pm – 8 pm
location: The Old Museum Building, 7 College Square North, Belfast BT1 6AR
notes: "Light Refreshments: 6.30– 7pm.   Lecture to start promptly at 7pm."
pricing: "Members: £12          Non-members: £15.          Students: £6"
map_ref: "https://maps.app.goo.gl/vtrXDApf9aBDYvDK9"
image: /events-images/language.png
sstatus: published
---

Based on his recent book of the same name, Dr. McParland’s lecture _‘The Language of Architectural Classicism’_ will examine the different ways in which we can ‘read’ classical buildings and therefore move ‘from looking to seeing’.

The lecture will deal with the difficulties architects have encountered in borrowing from, or departing from, the rules of classical architecture of antique Greece and Rome. 

The questions that the speaker will address include: 
- If you learn all your architecture from antiquity, is there room for invention? 
When you run into trouble at the corner of your building, how do you handle it? (Better, we hope, than the one at Lanyon’s old Northern Bank). 
- If we think of classical architecture as being all Doric, Ionic and Corinthian columns, is there such a thing as a classical wall?
- If we want to put an inscription on a building, where should it go? 

A further claim the speaker will make is that _“good architecture often involves making the best mistake”_.

All these points will be illustrated by buildings from Belfast – but Rome will also get a mention.

Edward McParland is a renowned Irish architectural historian, author and Emeritus Fellow of Trinity College Dublin. He is also Vice-President of Ulster Architectural Heritage. His earlier book, _Public Architecture in Ireland, 1680 – 1760_, is the authoritative work on Irish buildings from this period.