Aprtment in Historic Trieste

Location: Trieste, Italy

Project year: 2020-2021

Status: Completed

Photography: Teodor Hribovšek

This 60-square-meter apartment is located in the heart of Trieste, in the Barriera Nuova district — an urban expansion area developed between the 18th and 19th centuries. The building, constructed in the early 1900s near the Hospital Ospedale Maggiore, sits within a historically rich residential block shaped by the city's transition from rural outskirts to bourgeois neighborhoods.

Originally approved in 1902, the project is documented in the Trieste City Archives and is linked to architect Gino Weiss and builders like Silvio Malossi.

Layers of Time

Inside, the apartment had retained only a few original elements — high ceilings, the original layout, and partial wooden flooring in the living areas. Many details had been replaced during past renovations.

Our goal was not to restore the apartment to a single era, but to celebrate its layered history. We preserved the custom-built wooden wardrobes, wooden doors, the parquet flooring in the bedroom and living room. Other areas, like the kitchen and bathroom, were redesigned more extensively to suit contemporary living.

A Living, Evolving Home

The result is an eclectic interior where each room tells its own story.

The kitchen serves as a central gathering space, the living room is open and adaptable, furnished with movable pieces the owners can rearrange as life evolves, the bedroom features calming natural tones, the bathroom is a bold contrast in monochrome — black and white.

Rather than a “finished” interior, the owners wanted a flexible canvas — a home with room to grow. A place where future travels, experiences, and objects can gradually find their place.