ABSTRACT
The chapter is an investigation about the expression “good taste”, from the point of view of aesthetics. It focuses on the composition criteria that characterise the expression, where it identifies a set of parameters that govern artistic activity at the moment, notably the classicist patterns. This expression was initially used in the French social and artistic environment in the 18th–century, when a predominance of Classical Antiquity prevailed. Later it was adopted by the Portuguese and the Brazilian people, in the most diverse domains of the aesthetic, including the housing architecture and its interiors. The research will be directed to projects, their constituent elements and professionals when they use aesthetic standards that fit what was defined as good taste. Thus, complementing the collection of historiographical data concerning the origin and development of the expression in Europe, ten interviews with professionals working in the area of housing projects in Recife, Brazil, illustrate the understanding of the expression still in vogue in this city, opening space for research on a broader universe, in the sense of building a concept of classic in the current projects.
