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Classical architecture, an expression of history 

Everyone relates architecture with money, with construction, with amazing buildings. But architecture is more than that. Along history, we can find several cultural movements. But, why does this movements existed? Well, history has a big relationship with the way of thinking of citizens. This is why we can find very diverse cultural movements. Each one of the cultural movements wants to express something. We can find for example the classics. Classics are related to power. When we see a bureaucratic building, like an embassy, a mayor, a government building, a palace, we will see that this kind of buildings are classical or neoclassical. The classical movement represents power, hierarchy, order, greatness. This is why all these buildings are very big and hierarchical. These buildings are symmetric, they always have one floor very different from the others, to empower that floor, while the rest of floors are equal, are exactly the same. 

Classical buildings use to have also several ornaments, it is another symbol of power. Almost all palaces have this kind of architecture. Well in fact, if we look at the government offices or embassies, we will see that they also have this kind of architecture. And it is normal, because a lot of today's bureaucratic buildings were palaces or houses of rich people in the past. In the case of the United States, which is a country that has not been influenced by the several European cultural styles, it has been influenced a lot by the classical one. When Europeans arrived to the American Continent, that tried to implant their culture and they reach the power in the American Continent. We can see that today. For example, in Washington D.C., we can see The White House, where the President lives and make its work. The White House was based on the project of the Villa Rotonda de Palladio. It is neo-classical or neoclassical Renaissance style of America, which was designed by George Washington and was built in 1790. 

Well, The White House is a very different building with those we can see in New York. However, there are not as different buildings as we can think. In fact, skyscrapers are hierarchical buildings, with a lot of order, they are a symbol of power. In this case, not a symbol of nobility power, but a symbol of economic and political power. Skyscrapers have a lot of classical elements and they are also huge buildings, like the palaces. 

But in the United States, there is a City very related to history, it is Boston. It is an amazing city, because we can see tall skyscrapers, located next to low historical buildings. Those buildings were big manors in the past. These kinds of buildings represent not only the history of the United States, also the relation of Boston, with the creation of this new country. 

There we can see several neo-classical buildings. In 1630, Puritan settlers from England founded the city on the Shawmut Peninsula. During the late 18th century, Boston was the place where several important events occurred during the American Revolution, such as the Boston Massacre and the Tea Mutiny. Several battles at the beginning of the Revolution, such as the Battle of Bunker Hill and the Boston Site, occurred in the city and surrounding areas. Through the recovery of land and municipal annexations, Boston has expanded beyond the peninsula. After the independence of the United States, Boston became an important seaport and manufacturing center, and its rich history now attracts 16.3 million visitors a year. 

In conclusion, classicism is an expression of power. The Romans used that, all the European aristocracy used that on the architecture of their buildings and houses. And today, big enterprises are using classical elements on the construction of their skyscrapers and office buildings. So, in the XXI Century, classicism, still, is an expression of power. So even if we can see very different buildings between today’s ones and those built in the past. We always see that buildings related to power are built on a classical sense. This is why Neoclassicism was born. 

Neoclassical architecture rejects the ornamentation of the Rococo and is inspired by the Greek, Etruscan, Roman and even Egyptian arts. The religious architecture progressively disappears and civil buildings are built: libraries, museums, porticos, etc. Neoclassical architects know that a new social order demands a new order of the city, and all their projects are part of a plan for urban reform. The new city will have to have, like the old one, its monuments; but the architect will also have to worry about social and functional development. Churches are built in the form of classical temples, but also schools, hospitals, markets, customs, ports, streets, squares. 

So, there are not many differences between classical architecture and neoclassical ones, both movements try to represent the same, with the only difference, that each of the movements has a relation with the time. Today, it won’t be normal to build a Palace in the Center of a big City, but it is normal to build a skyscraper, with a very hierarchic geometry and with a huge and symmetric geometry. The power is always represented by the same ways, but their materials and ornaments are different according to the time, it is represented. 

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