Perhaps this is a new one, but I don't think so. Is it a new idea to want to have things as simple as possible? Is is a twentieth century idea? The Victorians seemed to want to have everything as fussy and over-decorated as possible.
But the truth is this was only ever a bastardisation of the best of Victorian taste. Even Victorian commentators railed against it. I worked for some years in the Palace of Westminster, arguably the pinnacle of high-Victorian, over the top, over-decorated rooms. And there was no doubt that some of it was.
But where it worked best was where it was most in sympathy with the medieval aesthetic it was trying to imitate. In the large spaces. The huge vaulted central lobby does not feel fussy, just glorious as the space is largely free from any other distractions; or was certainly designed to be so that the statuary and the mosaics on the walls speak for themselves. But to allow that sort of high decoration to work you need vast soaring spaces, leave it to palaces and cathedrals.
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