The 18th-century neoclassical style in Britain named after Scottish architects is the Adam style. It is also called Adamesque or the Style of the Brothers Adam, especially in discussions of interior design and furniture.
The style grew from the work of Scottish architect William Adam and, most famously, his sons Robert and James Adam. From the 1760s, the brothers promoted coordinated interiors in which architecture, plasterwork, fireplaces, furniture, fixtures and carpets formed a unified decorative scheme. Robert Adam’s studies of Roman antiquity, including excavated sites such as Pompeii and Herculaneum, helped give the style its distinctive light, refined classical character.
Adam style was popular in elite and middle-class homes in Britain and later influenced Federal design in the United States. It is often confused with Palladianism, which generally appears heavier and more strictly monumental. Georgian describes a broad period and design culture, while Regency became more prominent after about 1795. The style’s influence was revived in the late Victorian and Edwardian eras before Art Deco displaced it in popular taste after World War I.