Rebuild the classical façade. How was it done back then?

Good day!

I really like a certain (attributed to Classicism) architectural style: strict symmetries, upright sash windows framed with stucco elements, and the surfaces between the windows and cornices are clad with brick slips.

Now I wonder: How was something like that realized back then? Is it always double-shell masonry? Were the window frames first attached or installed, for example by sliding them into the window reveal, and then the spaces in between were filled with masonry? Or do these (certainly also partly very heavy) elements rest on the stones?

And how would one replicate something like that today, considering current construction standards? For example, if the shell is made of prefabricated Liapor solid wall elements, would such profiled frames also be prefabricated from some stable material, slid into the reveals, and then the gaps covered and grouted with slips? You can have slips cut from any extruded or handmade brick...

Has anyone ever done that? A Classicist (or baroque, for that matter) façade on a house built today? A lot has happened in this direction during the reconstruction of the Berlin City Palace, but unfortunately I didn’t really catch how it was done in detail there.

Matthias

Does no one know anything about this? What is your general opinion of my idea to build a modern house with a historic exterior look? Or is that "yuck"? I think that something finely structured fits better into the existing stock here than a modern block with a green flat roof.

Matthias

First, a guess: No matter how it was done, it is likely to be unaffordable for the private builder. Then you might as well plaster your façades with [Muschelkalk] or build a glass pool cantilevered from the roof... But setting aside such unimportant pecuniary concerns, take a look around Dresden's old town near the Frauenkirche. There are one or two newly built buildings in this style, including a small five-star luxury hotel. You would just need to find out which architect is behind it.

I think it's a great idea and visually very appealing. But since I have no clue, I kept my mouth shut ;)

That's exactly how I feel too: I simply find it visually really great. In the past, even farmers used to have something like that built. So the biggest farmer in the village had such a house. You can still see that today in many Brandenburg villages. That's how you could build a house that one would think has always stood there. However, I really have no idea how to design the execution so that the costs remain manageable.

I also like purely classical plaster facades with decorative elements, but the long-term maintenance effort is probably greater there. With a facade made of clinker bricks and sandstone or whatever elements, you don't have to do anything for 100 years...

It's basically just the fundamental question of whether such things are dismissed as "Disneyland" or whether it is appreciated as an attempt to create a regionally typical building. The same discussion is constantly going on in Potsdam...

Matthias