The master thesis deals with the topical issue of the return of Fabiani’s Narodni dom in Trieste to the Slovenian minority. The square in front of the Slovenes’ palace was soon occupied by the new building, depriving it of its original grandeur. Today, it houses the College of translators and interpreters. Dark corridors, boarded-up windows and impenetrability of the building are the result of inadequate alterations and are slowly erasing the memory of the Narodni dom as it used to be. The renovation redefines the building’s connection to the urban fabric in which it is embedded. The void in the central part of the house is filled by a volume that forms a new structural core. The ground floor becomes a Slovenian display window to the city centre, its transparency directing visitors to the central public space of the rooftop, opening up views of the multi layered city of Triest. The purified volume of the house suggests the hierarchy of spaces in bands as originally envisioned by Fabiani. The renovated contents of the house with a Slovenian information and media centre, museum, library, reading room, a multipurpose hall, residences, café and a restaurant, enrich the city centre. New hybrid programme highlights Trieste’s multiculturalism, encourages cooperation between different communities and facilitates knowledge exchange. A new multicultural hub is created in the Theresian Quarter.
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