Robert Chitham

Who is Robert Chitham?

Robert Chitham is a British architect and writer. He is the author of The Classical Orders of Architecture published in 1985 discussing modern applications of classical orders and redefining and editing the orders as a way to understand them in a contemporary context. A revised edition was published in 2005. He draws from the diagramming and harmony of proportions of classical forms starting from Vitruvius, to Palladio, and foremost to James Gibbs. Chitham is the most recent architect to spell out extensively a more updated, modern, and refined version of classical architecture. In reply to criticism of classicism, Chitham wrote in 2002, "Classicism is not an architectural style but an architectural discipline based on criteria such as symmetry and axiality, and as such is timeless." Chitham is also the author of Measured drawing for architects, published in 1980.

Chitham is a consultant architect to Chapman Taylor, a London-based architectural practice. In this capacity he was responsible in the early 1980s for a scheme to save a large number of historic buildings in Bloomsbury, near the British Museum. He served as chairman of the Register of Architects Accredited in Building Conservation, and was head of the historic buildings division of English Heritage.