He was a 2nd boy of William Adam (1689-1748) of Maryburgh, Fife, a mason & designer of a few note, appointed Surveyor of the King's Works inside Scotland within 1729 and Mason to the Board of Ordnance a year later.

Training

Robert deliberate at Edinburgh High School, then entered The University of Edinburgh in 1743 only for his studies to become interrupted by malady and a Jacobite Rising of 1745. Within 1746, he joined his older brother, John Adam, as an assistant to his father, & fallowing William Adam’s dying around 1748, them brothers became partners in the personal business, today called 'Adam Brothers'.

Their number one major commission was a decoration of the grand State Flat on the 1st floor at Hopetoun House, near South Queensferry west of Edinburgh, followed by projects at Fort George, Dumfries House and Inverary. Around 1754, Robert Adam placed remove for Europe on the Grand Tour of France & Italy, researching classical architecture and honing his drawing skills (his art private instructor involved French designer Charles Lois Clérisseau & architect and archaeologist Giovanni Battista Piranesi). When you took this journeying, he exposed intensively a ruins of Diocletian's palace at Spalato in Dalmatia, later publishing A Ruins of the Palace of Diocletian in 1764.

Business
He returned to Peachy Britawithin in 1758 and set up inside business around London with his brothers James and William, focused on designing complete schemes for the decoration & furnishing of houses. Palladian project was popular, however Robert evolved the recently, further flexible style incorporating elements of classic Roman design alongside influences from Greek, Byzantine and Baroque styles. the Adams’ profits can besides become attributed to the want to project all about down to the little detail, ensuring a feel of unity in their designs.

Projects

The Adelphi development, London screen ahead of the Old Admiralty, Whitehall, London Alnwick Castle, Northumberland Apsley House, London (1778) Ballochmyle House, Ayrshire Bowood House, near Calne, Wiltshire Charlotte Square (north side), Edinburgh (1791) Culzean Castle, south Ayrshire (1772-1790) Edinburgh University Old College Gosford House, near Longniddry, East Lothian (1790–1800) Harewood House, West Yorkshire Kedleston Hall, near Derby (1759-1765) Kenwood House, Hampstead, London (1768) Lansdowne House, Berkeley Square, London Luton Hoo, Bedfordshire (1766-1770) Mistley Towers Nostell Priory Osterley Park, west London (1761-1780) Paxton House, near Berwick-upon-Tweed (1758) Portland Place, London (1773) Pulteney Bridge, Bath (1770) Register House, Edinburgh (1774-1789) Saltram House, Plymouth, Devon Shardeloes, Amersham, Buckinghamshire Syon House interior, Brentford (1762-1769) Wedderburn Castle, Duns, Berwickshire (1770-1778)

Public life

Robert was elected the member of the Royal Society of Arts in 1758 and of the Society of Antiquaries in 1761, the equivalent season he was appointed Designer of the King’s Works (jointly by having Sir William Chambers). His immature brother James succeeded him inside that post whenever he relinquished a role in 1768 sequentially to devote other period to his elective professional when Parliamentarian for Kinross.

Robert Adam died suddenly at his residence, 11 Albermarle Street, London, fallowing the blood vessel inside his tummy burst. He was 64. He was buried within Westminster Abbey.