culzean castle
on a cliff edge overlooking the firth of clyde about 15 miles south of ayr in south west scotland, culzean was originally a rambling fortified l-shaped tower house. it had been built by the kennedy family in the late 1500's, and was already nearly 200 years old when sir thomas kennedy succeeded to the title earl of cassilis in 1762. rather than move from his outdated and old-fashioned boyhood home to cassilis house, he chose to stay put, and set about repairs and renovations to make it more comfortable.
but it was his brother david (thomas died in 1775 and he succeeded to the title) who decided to be more thorough and drastic. he commissioned the foremost architect of the time, robert adam, to transform culzean from a dowdy fortress to a grand, romantic and fashionable castle.
in 1754 the young robert adam had embarked on the grand tour of europe. he had visited rome, befriended piranesi, and met his rival the scottish architect william chambers (who designed the pagoda in kew gardens). exposure to the new wave of eclecticism and free-thinking in rome was tempered by his disciplined study of drawing and the antique. on his return he began gradually but confidently to combine the classical with the romantic, evolving a grand style incorporating elements from greek, roman, gothic, and even egyptian architecture.
in common with other 18th century architects, for robert adam, interior decoration was of equal importance to the structure. for years the delicate plasterwork on the round ceiling had been whitewashed, until the discovery of a watercolour drawing, by adam himself, of its original colour scheme. in the late 70's, after paint scrapes where taken, the ceiling was repainted as adam had intended it to be. the old eating room downstairs also has an adam ceiling with roundels painted by antonio zucchi.
卡尔津城堡位于苏格兰艾尔（ayr）往南15英里的一座悬崖边上，它俯瞰克莱德河峡湾（firth of clyde），最初是一个不规则的l型塔楼式建筑。它由肯尼迪家族始建于16世纪，至托马斯.肯尼迪爵士（sir thomas kennedy）1762年继承卡西里斯伯爵（earl of cassilis）的头衔时，已经具有200年的历史。伯爵并没有从少年时代起居住的已经老旧不堪的住宅搬到卡西里斯的住宅（cassilis house），而是选择了留下，并着手维修及翻新卡尔津城堡，使其变得更加舒服。
不过彻底地修葺城堡的人是他的兄弟大卫（david）（托马斯死于1775年，然后大卫继承了头衔）。他委任当时第一流的建筑师罗伯特.亚当将卡尔津城堡从一个寒酸的堡垒改建成为一个宏大的，浪漫的和时尚的城堡。
1745年，年轻的罗伯特.亚当已经开始了巡游欧洲的教育旅行。在游览罗马（rome）时，他受到柏拉尼西（piranesi）的礼遇, 并遇见了他的竞争对手，苏格兰建筑师威廉.钱伯斯（william chambers）——丘园（kew gardens宝塔的设计者。亚当深受罗马折衷主义浪潮和自由主义的影响，但被其所接受的关于制图和古风的系统性学习所调和。在他回归祖国后，他开始逐渐自信地将古典与浪漫相结合,综合希腊式，罗马式，哥特式甚至埃及式建筑中的元素，开创了一种伟大的风格。
与18世纪其他建筑师一样，罗伯特.亚当也认为内部装潢和建筑结构同样重要。很多年以来，圆形天花板的抹灰泥工作都是使用白色涂料(右图) ，直到亚当在其原创的颜色设计中发现了水彩图画。在70年代后期, 在刮去从前的涂料后，对天花板按照亚当的意志进行了重新粉刷.
楼下古色古香的饭厅也有亚当式的天花板，上面的圆形饰物由安东尼奥.祖奇（antonio zucchi）粉刷而成。
british council