A structural stone wall separates the social and private spaces within this two-storey family apartment in the old town of Vilnius, Lithuania, designed by local studio 2XJ.
Located in the city's U?upis neighbourhood, the 140-square-metre apartment occupies the second and third-floor attic space of a three-storey apartment building.
2XJ designed the apartment around the structural stone wall at its centre
The apartment, which belongs to a young family who split their time between Vilnius and Vienna, previously had a "complex" layout dominated by a structural stone wall that ran the length of the apartment.
Punctuated by three arches on the ground floor, this wall reminded the architects of the Colosseum in Rome.
"It became a bit of a humorous point," 2XJ architects told Dezeen. "This complicated and immovable wall became known as the Colosseum." The studio chose a neutral palette of white, natural wood and travertine
As it was one of the apartment's main structural walls it could not be removed so the studio decided to turn it into a central feature by cladding it in slabs of Italian travertine "just like the real Colosseum".
This is also what led the architects to give the project its tongue-in-cheek name: Greetings From Rome.
2XJ clad the central wall in slabs of Italian travertine
"Our main goal was to enhance the feeling of the old town in the interior by modern means, and the arch motif and the stone wall served this purpose...