How to Make Classical Architecture Look Modern and Not Fussy

In October of last year, Caprice Holding Restaurants announced that they were hiring for a new position: London’s first Grape Feeder, to work in their new immersive restaurant cum social club Bacchanalia, which was set to open in late November 2022. Decked out with all the opulence of a Fellini set, Bacchanalia has frescoes, statues both airborne and at ground-level depicting deities, emperors, and mystical creatures, and, of course, a plethora of columns, arches, and alcoves. Starting in the Spring 2023, part of Bacchanalia will also host the private members’ club Apollo’s Muse, a lounge which is a vision of polychrome marble, highly ornate coffered ceilings, low-set sofas and statues, statues everywhere. And while Bacchanalia’s food is your expected Mediterranean fare, the space reached viral status on Instagram, where it has more than 110,000 followers only a few months after its opening.

"Classic style" regularly trends on Instagram and TikTok with its visually arresting display of ornate interiors and sprawling vistas from antiquity, the Renaissance, and the 18th century. And it’s easy to see how classical architecture and decor could worm its way into people’s brains: sure, we might be attracted to it because it’s trending, but underneath the ornamentation are timeless forms that can be used in a variety of ways. After all, classical architecture offers us a language of columns, posts, and beams that lends itself to infinite applications to divide spaces and rooms.

 While mid-century modernism and its discontents will likely always be in style, as will minimalism and all its various iterations ( Scandi, Japandi and other offshoots come to mind), in 2018, Architectural Digest predicted that the light of Modernism was starting to wane. But classical architecture never actually went away. Institutions such as ICAA and Notre Dame’s School of Architecture actively seek to further the studies and continuation of classical architecture, with the Driehaus Prize having actually been conceived as the classical equivalent to the Pritzker Prize. 

Classicism has reemerged in post-modern architecture as a reaction to the sterility of modernism, both earnestly and ironically. Think of Michael Graves, who cheekily incorporated classical elements in postmodernist designs, such as the Portland building or a Disneyland hotel combining classical architectural elements and Disney iconography, and the Louisville skyscraper Humana Building, which almost looks like an artifact from the Minoan civilization. In short: classical architecture is a classic for a reason and it’s easy to see why it resonates now.,

Even if you don’t live in a mansion that you can reconfigure to look like a 16th century Venetian palazzo, there are modern ways to incorporate architectural and decor elements in your home.

Order, not boredom  

"One of the principles of classical architecture is that it's very ordered," says the New-York-based architect Lillian Weinreich. "It's also very ordered in the way it directs you through the space, so a good resolution would be to be very direct in the way that your eye and you walk through the space."  

In the case of a client’s 1930s apartment on Park Avenue, Weinreich’s client wanted to maintain some of the original elements without making the space feel like a 1930s living diorama. Weinrich made some specific edits: "I took out all the fussy, silly hallways, the maid's rooms with bathrooms, and I made it a much cleaner space," she said. Instead of just aping the original style of the space, Weinreich modernized classical elements through form and proportion. A cased opening in the space would’ve felt dated with traditional molding, so the solution was to exaggerate the form. "We made this lovely center, we carved out the centerpiece so that the light would come and it would be very, very central, so we're using light and shape," she explained.

If you aren’t working with a space that already has decent bones, then there are other ways to impose order on what is essentially a blank canvas. "There are many ways to express transitions from one use or mood to another with the components of the classical," says Whitley Esteban, co-founder of Studio Tre and ICAA member, Esteban mentions how, in a temporary exhibition her studio designed at a contemporary art gallery in London, they used a truly modular system to create these divisions; construction scaffolding, with a kit of parts using other stock materials (acoustic insulation and fabric scrim), something that Esteban describes as "not overtly classical.. but certainly a nod to Moving the Obelisk." 

"An approach like this might be applicable for a more modern loft-like space," Esteban explains. If physical walls or barriers or strong post-and-lintel structures aren’t available as part of the "bones" consider something easier and just as elegant: "Great sacred traditions of drapery and tenting also come to mind – again for a level of flexibility and warmth," she added.

Should I just install a colonnade inside my home? 

Columns are a foundational element of classical architecture. Whether you’re thinking of a post-and-lintel structure, where columns support a beam, or a Roman arch, columns are always going to be in the picture, and are structural elements even in contemporary buildings. But just because they’re structural and therefore necessary, a column can still provide visual interest. "It depends on how you want to express that structural column," says Weinreich. "You can either choose to integrate it into a wall, which I often do, or you can actually modernize it." She mentions a current job where there is a structural column in the middle of the living room. "’We’re going to put it in a metal enclosure, with a brushed, satin finish: that's certainly not classical, but it is a classical element that we were modernizing."

Don’t just shove a column in the middle of your space, though. "I feel like columns, in most cases should not be added: if you add a column just anywhere, it might look awkward," warns architect and researcher Adrian Chan, whose work combines contemporary and classical elements, and Eastern and Western traditions in equal measure. "Unless you're really going for something really postmodern: then that’s the point."

There is an exception to the aimless use of columns, though. "There’s a potential frame to frame views," says Chan. If you install columns or create a column-like structure to mark the threshold between two different spaces (say, a living room and a dining area), you can frame views within your own apartment.

Marble, marble, everywhere

Unless they have a blatantly post-industrial look that relies heavily on glass and steel, kitchens and baths tend to have classical elements built in, thanks to the ample use of marble and marble-like material. While classical elements like free-standing tubs and hexagon tiles in a bathroom have been in vogue since the start of the post-modern era. kitchens generally prize utilitarianism over aesthetics, stone waterfall kitchen islands notwithstanding. Regardless, Calacatta Marble is one of the most prized materials for kitchens and bathrooms alike. But it’s not the only option.

New-York-based architect Lilian Weinreich suggests Venetian plaster too, valued for its ease of customization. "You can put all sorts of things in the plaster: you can make it a little shiny, glittery," she explains, using sheen and shimmer just an example among the myriads of possibilities. "It’s very hands-on and it looks very crafty without looking country." If you like color, don’t sleep on terrazzo, the combination of marble, quartz, granite, glass combined with a cementitious binder. Sure, it has been unjustly tied to the twee Millennial aesthetic especially when it employs light and muted colors, but it’s actually a mainstay of Art Deco and 20th-century Neoclassical design. Consider Bunny Williams’s richly colored terrazzo floor in her kitchen, these checkerboard-like forest-green and white Terrazzo tiles as seen in a Sydney home, or Mandy Moore’s light and airy terrazzo pattern, separated by fine metal stripes arranged in geometric combinations. 

Be cautious in the bedroom

Classical elements can be a bit stuffy and museum-like in common spaces, but especially so in a bedroom. Consider this suffocating description from Michael Gross’s 740 Park, a 2006 book about the inhabitants of 71 East 71 Street: "Electra’s neoclassical bedroom was a seventeenth-century Robert Adam-style room removed from Wenvoe Castle, Glamorgan, Wales with two new door frames, thirteen shutters, carved skirting, two pedestals with fluted columns, window architraves, and a carved pine chimney piece." 

If you want to focus on classical elements in a bedroom and aren’t working with a space that is already decked out, focus on furniture. If you decide to follow the rules of classicism in the bedroom, make the bed the focal point of the room. This calls for some degree of maximalism or grandeur, and a canopy bed is the ideal solution. You can choose one that’s highly ornate  or get one with a sleek canopy structure, either arched or angular, and customize its curtains and drapes.  

"Of all the places to embrace order over chaos and a pervasive feeling of calm and balance – this is it," says Esteban. "Symmetry then, that classical principle, is tantamount here. Pairs of objects, also bringers of good luck in feng shui, are a perennial move for us in a bedroom. The embedded principles of order in classical design —rhythm, arrangement, proportion, et cetera are deeply resonant and impactful in a bedroom."

Create an illusion of the outdoors

When living in a city environment, one has to take into account the fact that a room might be quite modest in size, and that a garden estate (or any outdoor space, for the matter) might not be part of the package.
In this case, you can incorporate pilasters( architectural elements that look like halved columns), intended for wall decorations, without any structural function. "You can make the space look bigger because it gives the illusion that there's something beyond the wall," says Chan, whose work references classical elements of architecture even in an otherwise contemporary aesthetic and setting.

When living in a city environment, one has to take into account the fact that a room might be quite modest in size, and that a garden estate (or any outdoor space, for the matter) might not be part of the package.
In this case, you can incorporate pilasters( architectural elements that look like halved columns), intended for wall decorations, without any structural function. "You can make the space look bigger because it gives the illusion that there's something beyond the wall," says Chan, whose work references classical elements of architecture even in an otherwise contemporary aesthetic and setting. 

De Gournay, for example, has the series Views of Italy, which depicts scenes and landmarks of the Bay of Naples, while Cole & Son created a series of idyllic, yet stylized garden views that create a pleasant trompe l’oeil effect, especially in more constrictive spaces. Using scent can also help heighten the experience of a classical-architecture-inspired dwelling. Given how closely classical art and architecture are associated with Mediterranean locales, aromatic scents such as bay laurel, rosemary, and orange blossoms conjure an olfactory landscape reminiscent of idyllic landscapes and nympheums. 

What about art? 

It’s tempting to faithfully match a classical-inspired environment with classical art . Luckily, contemporary artists have been approaching classicism in innovative ways: take Fabio Viale, a sculptor who tattoos classicized statues with both stylized and intricate patterns, such as the case of an Apollo bust adorned with a tattooed laurel wreath and an all-seeing eye. Barcelona-based Sergio Roger fashions sculptures and columns out of linen and dupioni silk, giving them a softer, perhaps more playful approach. Then there’s Luke Edward Hall, whose paintings combine the physical likeness of visages and physiques found in classical statuary with a fauvist color palette. Even an oversized work of Abstract Expressionism or a Gilded, Medieval triptych would work in the right space. 

Truly, the options are endless—just remember that ultimately, classical architectural elements are the ultimate blank canvas, so any other choices you make will look good in context. 

Photos originally found in How One Influencer Created a French-Chateau Vibe in Her Greenpoint Rental

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