Reimagining heritage spaces

Positioned at the top of Rome’s famous Spanish Steps, Villa Medici was the familial home of the Medici dynasty before the 1666 acquisition by the French Academy; it has offered residencies to French creatives for over five centuries. To create Re-enchanting Villa Medici, Mahdavi worked alongside artisans to redesign six rooms including the Grand Duke of Tuscany Cardinal Ferdinando de’Medici’s original apartments, first designed in the late 16th century. The spaces, dubbed the Room of Elements, Room of the Muses, and Room of the Lovers of Jupiter, have been reimagined alongside the rooms now named Galileo, Debussy, and Lili Boulanger, after the first female composer to win the Prix de Rome. 

Throughout these historic spaces Mahdavi celebrated the patina of the classically painted ceilings and walls by introducing modern furniture alongside traditional pieces, reupholstered in luxurious velvets including a vibrant fuchsia pink. Modern pieces include the green and purple rug, designed to mimic the layout of the villa’s famous gardens, and the designer’s own plastic green stools which nod to the larger-than-life chess pieces. In one bedroom, an elaborate four-poster bed is decorated with geometric shapes in a 1970s inspired colour palette of chocolate brown and mustard, juxtaposing the decorative four-poster bed and antique tapestries present in another bedroom. Throughout the rooms the sharp lines of contemporary furnishings and bright upholsteries bring new life into the decorative, yet aging spaces and welcome a new generation of visitors inside.

Mirror Mirror: Reflections on design at Chatsworth brought contemporary furniture design into the expansive house and gardens. These pieces sit in conversation with antique furniture, wallcoverings, and artworks, disrupting the boundaries between past and present design sensibilities. Contemporary designs investigate modern applications of traditional materials, bringing sustainability to the fore in innovative ways, in an overtly opulent home. Fernando Laposse’s fluffy sisal armchair and wardrobe utilize a material traditionally used for weaving, while Max Lamb constructed chairs from a single beam of cedar, assembled without waste like a puzzle. Curator Glenn Adamson explains that the chairs “respond playfully to the woodcarvings here in the State Drawing Room … Lamb offers a ‘polite nod of respect to these precursors. Instead of skillful ornamentation, though, he emphasizes the potential contained in every piece of wood.”

In the music room hang Irish furniture maker and sculptor Joseph Walsh’s artworks. Walsh employed woodworking techniques historically used to craft bows to create organic curvature in the layers of wood which enhance the delicate eucalyptus moiré silk wallcovering, bringing the past and present together in harmony. In stark contrast, the stone works of Faye Toogood, including her famous Roly Poly chair, sit in Chatsworth’s marble-lined chapel alongside an imposing sculpture of Saint Bartholomew by Damian Hurst. 

The commitment to preserving heritage architecture requires creative thinking and the continued reimagining of what historic spaces can offer new audiences. Beyond the bounds of traditional museums, exhibitions staged within house museums open familiar (if awe-inspiringly opulent) spaces to visitors and bring them to life in unexpected ways, enabling them to maintain and adapt their value in modern society. These principles can be adapted to enhance our own homes and public spaces through the celebration of heritage with modern touches of colour, texture, and form.