Second Empire
セカンド・エンパイア様式 / 1852–1880s / Style / Historical Styles
A nineteenth-century style originating in the opulent public architecture of France's Second Empire and spreading to civic buildings, hotels and houses in Europe and the United States. A mansard roof enclosed a useful upper story, while dormers, a central pavilion, bracketed cornices and quoins turned that added floor into urban prestige.
A double-pitched mansard roof with a regular line of dormers / Central or end pavilions projecting from the front / A deep cornice carried on repeated brackets / A symmetrical facade layered with quoins, pediments and iron roof cresting
Dictionary entry
- Best used for
- Concentrating a hotel's or apartment building's status at the roofline while gaining a usable attic story · Ordering a long historic facade into central, wing and roof hierarchies during renovation
- Type
- Place serif capitals once on the central axis above the entrance or within a pediment; do not introduce a new face on every floor.
- Composition
- Build symmetrically around a central pavilion, align the window bays, and close the top with a repeated rhythm of mansard roof and dormers.
- Material
- Layer cut stone or pale stucco, a dark slate roof, cast-iron cresting and timber or stone brackets as clearly separated systems.
- Caution
- Do not stop at adding a mansard roof. If window bays, central pavilion, cornice and dormers do not share one axis and hierarchy, the roof reads as a detached addition.
- Further study
- French Second Empire architecture, 1852–1870 / mansard roofs and dormer hierarchy / Second Empire civic architecture in Europe and the United States
Related entries
- Beaux-Arts (ボザール様式)Same Historical Styles lineage.Compare Second Empire and Beaux-Arts
- Gothic Revival (ゴシック・リヴァイヴァル)Same Historical Styles lineage.Compare Second Empire and Gothic Revival
More from Historical Styles
Continue through styles in the same Historical Styles family, prioritised by shared effects.
- Baroque (バロック)Shared effects: Exhilaration / Luxury / Trust.
- Art Deco (アール・デコ)Shared effects: Luxury / Exhilaration.
- Palladianism (パッラーディオ主義)Shared effects: Trust / Luxury.
Browse all Historical Styles entries
Cite this entry
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- https://indexstyle.org/styles/second-empire
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