Schiattarella Associati presents SHELL in Rome’s Trieste district, a space that brings together a bookshop, a bistro, and a workplace, offering a concrete reflection on the role of architecture as a cultural device open to the city. Conceived as a direct extension of the studio’s practice, the initiative questions the traditional separation between the professional realm and public space.
The project occupies a disused building on the edge of Rome’s historic center, formerly a workshop and furniture storage facility overlooking Villa Paganini. The context—defined by the presence of the park and by a historical stratification legible in both architectural and landscape elements—becomes an active component of the transformation. The intervention does not merely refunctionalize an unused space; it treats memory as a design material, working through addition and continuity rather than replacement.
SHELL takes shape as a hybrid environment in which the studio’s operational dimension coexists with functions of hospitality, encounter, and cultural production. The bookshop, bistro, exhibition area, and workplace are arranged without rigid hierarchies, forming a fluid system capable of adapting to different uses throughout the day. The physical and conceptual permeability of the spaces encourages movement, informal encounters, and the overlap of publics and practices.
From a programmatic perspective, SHELL positions itself as an independent cultural outpost, hosting exhibitions, talks, temporary installations, performances, and moments of interdisciplinary exchange. Architecture here becomes relational infrastructure, supporting a cultural production that brings together the visual arts, design, music, philosophy, literature, science, and practices related to food and contemporary life. The convivial dimension of the bistro is not ancillary but integral to the project, understood as a tool for sociality and exchange.
In this sense, SHELL reflects a vision of architecture as a service to the community and as a practice capable of generating meaning and participation. Opening the space to the city marks a further step in Schiattarella Associati‘s ongoing research into the relationship between design, territory, and society, reinforcing the idea of a studio that becomes a cultural and social infrastructure—a ground for exchange between design and the city, between intellectual production and everyday use.
CREDITS
Project: SHELL bookshop | bistro
Architects: Schiattarella Associati
Location: Rome (RM), Italy
Year: 2024
