The year 1838 in architecture involved some significant architectural events and new buildings.

Buildings and structures

Buildings opened

• April 8 – The British National Gallery first opens to the public in the building purpose-designed for it by William Wilkins in Trafalgar Square, London.

Buildings completed

• Palazzo Gavazzi, Milan, Italy, designed by Luigi Clerichetti.^[1]
• Rideau Hall, Ottawa, Canada, built by Scottish architect Thomas McKay.
• Walton Hall, Cheshire, England, designed for Sir Gilbert Greenall, 1st Baronet, possibly by Edmund Sharpe.^[2]
• Chota Imambara, Lucknow.

Awards

• Grand Prix de Rome, architecture: Toussaint Uchard.

Births

• January 23 – John James Clark, Australian architect (died 1915)
• April 13 – J. D. Sedding, English ecclesiastical architect (died 1891)
• May 16 – Thomas Forrester, New Zealand plasterer, draughtsman, architect and engineer (died 1907)
• September 18 – Thomas Drew, Irish ecclesiastical architect (died 1910)
• September 29 – Henry Hobson Richardson, American city architect (died 1886)

Deaths

• September 5 – Charles Percier, French Neoclassical architect, interior decorator and designer (born 1764)
• October 16 – William Vitruvius Morrison, Irish architect, son and collaborator of Sir Richard Morrison (born 1794)