"An Order in architecture is a certain assemblage of parts subject to uniform established proportions, regulated by the office that each part has to perform". The
Architectural Orders are the ancient styles of
classical architecture, each distinguished by its proportions and characteristic profiles and details, and most readily recognizable by the type of
column employed. Three ancient orders of architecture—the
Doric,
Ionic, and
Corinthian—originated in Greece. To these the Romans added the
Tuscan, which they made simpler than Doric, and the
Composite, which was more ornamental than the Corinthian. The
Architectural Order of a classical building is akin to the
mode or
key of
classical music, the
grammar or
rhetoric of a written composition. It is established by certain
modules like the
intervals of music, and it raises certain expectations in an audience attuned to its language.