Living Heritage: Modern Interiors In Old-Town Homes text by Victorine Lamothe | teNeues
In an era defined by constant change, the impulse to find permanence and soul in our spaces has never been more urgent, a quest brilliantly captured in Living Heritage. This exquisite volume explores what it feels like to breathe new, modern life into ancient walls, honoring the profound journey that extends far beyond architecture and restoration to an almost spiritual connection with the building’s centuries-old identity.
Guiding this sentiment is a foreword by Countess Stephanie Bruges von Pfuel, a figure whose own dedication to preservation is profound: born in Munich, she took over the management of Tüßling Castle and its estates. The book unveils extraordinary transformations that redefine how heritage can dance with the contemporary.
Among them, the Alamo Square Residence in San Francisco stands as an architectural palimpsest, its 1889 Victorian facade meticulously restored in a subtly metallic silver while its rear unveils an unapologetically modern composition of glass and laser-cut aluminum. Similarly, the former factory in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district, titled ‘The Village Within,’ cleverly carves out privacy for a family with freestanding wooden boxes arranged like houses within a house. On the coast of Colombia, the Casa de Los Barcos in Cartagena preserves its maritime soul in stone, revealing a hidden visual chronicle of over 200 historic ship drawings beneath layers of lime wash, transforming the colonial masterpiece into a living palimpsest where architecture, art, and history are intertwined across centuries.
This book is a manifesto for the loving preservation of the old, demonstrating that true beauty lies not in the gleam of the new, but in carrying the energy of the past into the future with passion and confident design.
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