In the heart of Naples, near the Orto Botanico di Napoli, inside a 17th-century building, architect Antonio G. Martiniello has restored an apartment that had been abandoned for years, transforming it into his own home-studio: a space where living, working, and hosting merge into a single narrative.
Spanning approximately 400 square meters, the property was stripped and compromised, with many original elements lost or damaged. The restoration project included structural consolidation, system upgrades, and careful restoration of historic decorations, restoring dignity to the interiors while enhancing their remarkable spatial quality. Generous ceiling heights, sequences of light-filled rooms, and the constant presence of natural light have become the defining features of the intervention.
Where necessary, contemporary materials and additions were introduced with restraint, avoiding any form of stylistic imitation. The result is a free balance between memory and the present, where historic surfaces coexist with essential furnishings, collected objects, artworks, and design pieces.
The home is not conceived as a static interior, but as a living organism in continuous evolution. A five-meter-high library represents the social heart of the space: a dynamic environment open to gatherings, creative residencies, and cultural events.
More than a simple renovation, the project interprets restoration as a cultural act: bringing a forgotten place back to life and transforming it into a productive, poetic, and contemporary space—an example of how architecture can regenerate memory and project it into the future.
