Why is the Classical So Essential for the Future of Humanity?

School of Architecture

Available on-demand

Step into a realm where built environments echo your deepest human need for connection and belonging. Immerse yourself in timeless urban traditions that shape living, walkable communities. Encounter an enduring architectural language designed to harmoniously adapt through dynamic cultural change, ensuring civic spaces continuously elevate and enrich your daily life.

Want more Restoring Reason, Beauty, and Trust in Architecture? Click here to check out the full series.

As modern cities contend with acute social fragmentation, environmental degradation, and urban alienation, classical urbanism provides a durable framework for crafting human-scaled, enduring civic environments.

The Driehaus Recognition & The Nature of Classicism

The presentation celebrates John Simpson receiving the 2026 Richard H. Driehaus Prize, honoring his lifelong contributions to traditional architecture and urbanism. Simpson defines classicism not as an obsolete historicist style or superficial costume, but as an evolving cultural language, shared human inheritance, and regional dialect. Rather than resisting adaptation, classical architecture functions as an evolutionary filter. It provides a consensus-driven discipline through which societal change can be tested, refined, and absorbed into an accepted cultural canon without sacrificing civic continuity.

This evolutionary mechanism directly counters 20th-century modernism, which sought to eradicate traditional building cultures through ideological dictate, industrial standardization, and economic reductionism. Ideological slogans like “less is more” and “ornament is crime” systematically marginalized human craftsmanship and long-term durability. In an era increasingly dominated by rapid technological flux, artificial intelligence, and spatial alienation, classicism provides the essential tectonic and spatial framework required to absorb change while preserving human identity and civic continuity.

From Counter-Schemes to Built Reality (Paternoster & Poundbury)

A crucial inflection point in modern traditionalism occurred during the public exhibition of the Paternoster Square counter-scheme near St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. When Simpson and his colleagues presented a human-scaled, mixed-use counter-proposal alongside modernist schemes, the public responded with overwhelming enthusiasm, revealing that traditional urbanism remained deeply rooted in collective memory. Demonstrating extraordinary institutional endorsement, the London Evening Standard newspaper funded the official planning application for Simpson’s traditional scheme to be submitted to the City of London authority.

Recognizing that public advocacy alone could not alter administrative mechanisms, Prince Charles and Leon Krier spearheaded the physical development of Poundbury in 1993. Building real-world classical developments proved vital in transforming regulatory frameworks, demonstrating commercial viability to financial institutions, and establishing new design precedents for highway engineers and municipal planners. Poundbury catalyzed a global renaissance, inspiring projects such as Nansledan in Cornwall, Dickens Heath in Birmingham, and urban infill developments across Europe and the United States.

Storytelling in Stone: Institutional Case Studies

Simpson demonstrates how classical architects deploy historical iconography and exact typological precedents to construct nuanced, multi-layered civic narratives:

95th Street Townhouse (New York): An extension to Trumbauer’s Carhart Mansion featuring a windowless pedimental attic story that references Roman compositions on the Palatine Hill.
Gonville & Caius College (Cambridge): The transformation of an 1850s library into a fellows’ dining room. Replicating the internal cella proportions of Iktinos’s Temple of Apollo at Bassae, Simpson incorporated engaged Ionic columns (referencing C.R. Cockerill’s university library), installed direct plaster casts of the Bassae frieze obtained from the British Museum, designed the first-ever stackable Klismos chairs, and framed the servery with a solitary Corinthian column.
Lady Margaret Hall (Oxford): Integrations across contexts previously shaped by Reginald Blomfield and Raymond Erith. Simpson designed Doric gate pavilions decorated with relief roundels depicting ancient Roman bread-kneading machines from the Tomb of Eurysaces the Baker (as documented by historian Mary Beard). This composition extends Erith’s aqueduct-inspired entrance (modeled on Rome’s Porta Maggiore), establishing a symbolic narrative sequence where an arriving student transitions from an uninitiated apprentice at the Doric gate to a learned scholar entering a temple precinct.
The King’s Gallery (Buckingham Palace): A public civic propylaea utilizing the archaic Doric order from Paestum, a Vitruvian open pediment exposing internal roof tectonics, and relief friezes sculpted by Alexander Stoddard depicting Queen Elizabeth II’s reign through scenes from the Iliad and Odyssey. The entrance features twin Geni statues carrying torches of Renaissance and Enlightenment, leading to an imperial staircase that references Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s Altes Museum and Leo von Klenze’s New Hermitage—complete with gilded dressing gown cords added to satisfy modern building codes.
Eton College (McRumm Yard): A three-department academic quadrangle anchored by a debating chamber inspired by the Bouleuterion at Priene and a museum fronted by the Doric order from the Temple of Isis at Pompeii with sphinx acroteria.

The Revival of the Stoa & Building for the Future

At Notre Dame’s Walsh Family Hall, Simpson placed a traditional Greek Stoa at the physical and pedagogical heart of the School of Architecture. Simpson highlighted that the Stoa occupies a unique position in architectural history: despite its centrality to civic life in the ancient Greek agora, it was completely forgotten and un-revived through Roman, Renaissance, and Neoclassical times. By reviving this dormant building type, the design places the classical orders and communal gathering at the center of architectural education. Civic architecture functions as an immersive stage for public life—a physical time capsule ensuring that present craftsmanship remains a forward-looking commitment to future generations.

How does classical architecture differ from temporary architectural styles?
Classical architecture functions as an evolving cultural language and consensus-driven discipline rather than a short-lived, arbitrary style. While temporary architectural trends operate like fleeting costumes, classicism represents an accumulated canon of reference works embodying time-tested tectonic practice. It provides a structured framework through which society can absorb technological and social changes incrementally without losing spatial continuity, regional character, or collective identity.

Why did traditional urbanism temporarily disappear in the 20th century?
Traditional urbanism was systematically marginalized in the 20th century through aligned political, economic, and industrial pressures. Politically, traditional design was branded as elitist while modernist ideologues promoted doctrines like “less is more” and “ornament is crime.” Economically, lowered building standards favored short-term, low-cost assembly over durable masonry construction. Industrially, rapid prefabrication marginalized human craftsmanship and civic street paraphernalia—such as Giles Gilbert Scott’s iconic K2 telephone kiosk—temporarily pushing classical practice underground until public counter-movements demonstrated its enduring necessity.

Why is it necessary to physically build traditional designs rather than just publish plans?
Physical construction is essential because architecture must be experienced firsthand through spatial scale, acoustic quality, and material detail to be evaluated and integrated into the public consciousness. Unbuilt drawings remain theoretical exercises; realized structures establish indispensable administrative, financial, and civil engineering precedents. Projects like Poundbury proved to developers, highway engineers, and municipal authorities that walkable, traditional, mixed-use developments are economically viable and highly valued by the public.

How do classical architects use historical precedent to tell new stories?
Classical architects utilize historical precedents like precise literary citations, employing specific orders, moldings, and iconography to communicate spatial hierarchy and institutional purpose. By integrating accurate historical references—such as the Bassae Ionic order at Cambridge, Roman bread-kneading motifs at Oxford, or archaic Doric details at Buckingham Palace—architects create multi-layered narrative environments that educate occupants, honor contextual history, and cultivate deep emotional resonance with the public.

What role does the ancient Greek Stoa play in modern civic design?
The ancient Greek Stoa historically served as a covered, open-air gathering space at the heart of the agora, facilitating philosophical discourse and civic life. By reviving this noble building type—which had remained dormant and un-revived across Roman, Renaissance, and Neoclassical history—at Notre Dame’s Walsh Family Hall, modern civic design re-establishes the classical orders and communal interaction as the focal point of architectural education, preparing future practitioners to design human-centered cities that foster social cohesion.

“It’s not change that’s bad; it’s indiscriminate change that destroys any continuity between people and their environment, and that’s what’s so devastating.” — John Simpson
“Classicism does not keep tradition alive by resisting change; it does quite the opposite. It ensures the survival of our traditions by giving it the means to absorb change without losing its individuality and identity.” — John Simpson
“Architecture needs to be built; otherwise it can’t be experienced, judged, and proven worthy.” — John Simpson
“A book can only get across so much, but to get across the power, scale, depth of embellishment, and sculptural quality of a piece of architecture, you can’t compete with firsthand experience.” — John Simpson
“So far from being preoccupied with the past, classical architecture is ultimately all about the future, and we build our buildings to last in the assumption that once they’re erected, they might indeed last forever.” — John Simpson