In 2005, David Griffin and James Ferrara hosted a weeklong house party at a restored villa in Italy’s northeastern Veneto region. Villa Saraceno, built in 1545, is one of 20 or so surviving estates designed by Andrea Palladio, one of the greatest Italian architects of the Renaissance. During their stay, Griffin and Ferrara became smitten with the villa’s high ceilings and classically proportioned, symmetrical rooms.

Despite its voluminous spaces constructed of solid stone, the house proved to be a surprisingly comfortable place to relax and entertain. This was no coincidence — Palladio often used a classical mathematical ratio, sometimes referred to as the golden mean, to create aesthetically pleasing spaces.The Greeks used it to build the Parthenon. Palladio appropriated the calculation for the temple-like country homes he created for Italy’s gentry.