In colonized areas, the nostalgia felt by expatriates for their homeland reflected itself in a growing romanticism and meticulous concern for form, symbolism, and detailed embellishment in the external appearance of the buildings they constructed. This came to be known as the "Imperial" mode, a mode which became increasingly fashionable in European academic circles after the mid-19th century.
然而，殖民者的懷鄉心態，使得他們在殖民地築起的建築，逐漸變成浪漫的、講求形式象徵和細節裝飾的外在表現，也就是所謂的「帝國風格」，在十九世紀中葉以後，進入歐洲的學院並開始流行。