Domestic spaces within historic contexts require a negotiation between structural permanence and the fluid demands of contemporary living rather than a total erasure of the past. In the Nomentano district of Rome, local practice Set Architects has rationalized an apartment within an early 20th-century building, replacing a rigid layout of isolated rooms with an interconnected spatial sequence. The intervention proves that historical memory does not have to be sacrificed to achieve spatial flexibility, offering a blueprint for modern family life inside a classical shell.\
Breaking the structural grid allowed the designers to challenge the typical early 20th-century plan characterized by four-meter-high ceilings and unyielding load-bearing walls. By selectively introducing two new openings within the living volume, the studio established a continuous system that links the kitchen, dining, and relaxation zones. This new structural permeability is activated by full-height folding panels and stainless steel sliding doors, giving the young family the agency to reconfigure their environment based on immediate functional needs.
Preserving identity elements ensures that this newfound fluidity remains grounded in Roman architectural history. Instead of clearing the canvas, the apartment renovation retains the original wooden doors with their colored glass inserts alongside the intricate decorative ceiling moldings. These historical fragments act as visual anchors, preventing the open-plan layout from feeling untethered or generic, creating a deliberate dialogue between classical proportions and modern geometry.
A unified material palette binds the old and the new through tactile continuity. A custom-designed oak parquet floor, laid in a continuous geometric pattern, runs uninterrupted across the entire footprint to dissolve room boundaries. Built-in, bespoke furnishings are finished in glossy lacquer with muted butter and grey-blue tones, presenting smooth surfaces that catch the light filtering through the tall, historic windows.
Reflective steel inserts introduce a sharp, industrial contrast to the warmth of the wood and historical glass. Stainless steel defines the kitchen worktops, the tracks of the sliding door system, and the custom washbasins in the bathroom, acting as a recurring mirror that bounces light into deeper parts of the floor plan. The cold, precise nature of the metal alters the sensory perception of the home, catching the shifting shadows of the Roman sun throughout the day.
This spatial strategy recalls previous successful overhauls of the city’s rigid housing stock, where structural boundaries are traded for programmatic versatility. In a similar vein, the recent renovation of a Rome flat by 02A Studio demonstrated how replacing internal masonry with functional furniture partitions can unlock an early 20th-century floor plan. Where Set Architects uses steel and lacquer to segment space, 02A Studio deployed active cabinetry to achieve an identical sense of domestic liberation.
Contrasting approaches to history can be observed across the capital’s contemporary residential landscape, showing that preservation takes many forms. For instance, the eclectic textures of Itaca House by Studio Strato rely on bold chromatic curation and expressive materiality to bridge eras. While Studio Strato uses color to celebrate architectural friction, Set Architects chooses a more reductive path, using reflective finishes and neutral tones to let the building’s original moldings speak for themselves.
Expanding beyond the apartment scale, Roman residential design frequently wrestles with the weight of context, whether in dense urban quarters or outlying landscapes. The transformation of a modernist villa in Castelli Romani by Studiotamat highlights how postwar structures can be opened up to embrace light and landscape. Whether dealing with a centuries-old urban fabric or mid-century rationalism, the current editorial consensus across Rome points toward opening up heavy architecture to the sky.
The success of this apartment lies in its rejection of the open-plan archetype in favor of a modulated, flexible interior that honors original boundaries. By relying on reflective steel and moving panels rather than permanent demolition, Set Architects suggests that the ideal contemporary Roman apartment should behave like a stage set—capable of shifting from public openness to total enclosure without losing its historical soul. This project argues that true luxury in historic renovations is found not in open space itself, but in the absolute control over how that space is partitioned.