If you’re Eliana Treggiari and you’ve hit a stone wall, well, you’re likely to be working in your kitchen.
And if that stone wall dates back to the 13th century, well, let’s just say you’re not in a kitchen in Berks County.
Treggiari, an architect and interior designer, is one of many homeowners in Reutlingen, Germany, whose houses are literally built out of the city’s original town wall.
Reutlingen, Reading’s bustling sister city located in the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg, traces its first human settlement back to 10,000 B.C. Comparatively, Treggiari’s kitchen wall is almost new. Yet it, too, literally tells the story of its town’s life.
Constructed between 1220 and 1240 when Reutlingen achieved city status, the wall served as a fortification for centuries through numerous invasions and wars. Its strength of construction was most tested when, in 1726, an intense fire lasting more than three days laid waste to Reutlingen, leaving an estimated 1,200 families homeless.
With scarce resources and with ingenuity borne of need, many families constructed homes using that old city wall as a base.
In the 293 years since, generations of homeowners have built, rebuilt and renovated homes constructed out of the wall fronting what is now known as Jos-Weiss-Strasse.
Treggiari has made her mark on that history by renovating her cozy, three-story home located in the middle of a row of lovely, well-maintained structures. Just down the narrow cobblestone street is a tower built as a part of that wall and used as the city ice house until 1906.
Italian Influences
Treggiari is a native of Milan, Italy. Her family hails from Sicily and, for generations, has included painters, architects and tailors. Their artistic touches, she says, can be seen in many Italian churches.
She knows about dealing with the sort of disaster Reutlingeners faced way back then in 1726. Earthquakes in Italy destroyed buildings in areas where her family resided, necessitating either rebuilding or relocating homes. A grandmother moved about in Sicily and set up shop in its far northeast province of Messina. Treggiari was born and raised in Milan.
While in university in Italy in 1985, she made a detour. Having met someone, she followed her heart and took up architecture and archeologic research in Germany. She also delved into environmental studies at universities in Tubingen and Freiburg and served an internship in an architect’s office.
“In those years, this was a relatively new field,” she says. “At the time, these were the most important places for these studies.”
By 1992, armed with additional academic research and experience, she had graduated from the Polytechnic University of Milan.
Since then, she’s worked internationally, generally in Europe. Her sister, a doctor based on the West Coast, recruited Treggiari’s expertise to renovate a Seattle home. Treggiari travels to the U.S. a couple of times yearly, but she now heads to Portland, OR, where her sister and family relocated.
Honoring the Past
Treggiari’s passion for architecture and archeology encourages a specialty in antiques and restoration.
Several years ago, the property which would become Treggiari’s home became available. It is one of a dozen or so houses in a designated park area bordered by the cobblestoned Jos-Weiss-Strasse and a pedestrian walkway that was once the moat fronting the old town wall. Conveniently nearby, but obstructed from view by the park gardens, is the Lederstrasse, a main Reutlingen thoroughfare.
Treggiari took to the renovation of the house with zeal, honoring the history of its past residents and of the home itself. She speaks with respect of the very poor generations of original residents of the property, when multiple families lived within the small confines. In the last 150 years or so, her home and those nearby were generally occupied by skilled crafts folk who paved the way for the beautiful Reutlingen of today. Immigrants were among those living in her residence. An Italian family rented the home for part of the 20th century. Most recently, a Greek family lived in what was then still a two-family home.
Working with the government of Reutlingen, Treggiari acquired the house and got to work.
The architect in her conceived the plans to de-convert the structure to a single-family home. Most of the interior walls were removed to open the once-cramped rooms. The renovator in her found ways to maintain important historical characteristics and infrastructure. The decorator in her worked her magic to lighten the small house by employing white as the dominant wall color; adding simple, modern furnishings with shots of vivid colors; and warming it with hardwood floors, some reclaimed and some newly installed.
Holding up Through the Years
Among the historical features maintained through the home were thick oak beams. Many, still sturdy, bear the patina of long centuries of exposure to smoke and human life. New ones replaced unsalvageable ones. Old and new, side by side, also speak to the age and the restoration of the house.
The small home is actually more or less four stories: basement, first and second floors, and third floor with access to a loft.
While the weathered wooden entrance door fronts the cobblestone-paved Jos-Weiss-Strasse, Treggiari and most of her guests enter via the door that leads to the main-floor kitchen area. Her professional business sign is next to that door.
As is the case in older structures throughout old Europe, the door frames can seem a bit low, as can the ceilings. Upon entering the kitchen area, it’s impossible to miss the stone wall directly across the room.
While the existence of the wall was no surprise to her, its condition was. As Treggiari and her contractors worked on the house and removed a first-floor interior wall, they found the 13th century wall in nearly perfect condition. The exposed interior plaster wall, subject to the wear and tear of human life, including cooking and heating, had absorbed years and years of humidity.
A Kitchen that Works
The kitchen is the heart of her home. Soft accent lighting hidden by exposed beams highlights the unique irregularities of the stone surface. Other accessories, from pottery to wall hangings, increase the visual interest of the floor-to-ceiling wall.
A long white table, large enough to seat seven and complemented by clear and white Lucite chairs, functions both as a dining spot and a work area where she can share large blueprints and sketches with clients.
The actual food preparation area is a tiny galley with a small sink, cooking appliances, and utensil and plate storage utilizing every available square inch.
To the left of the entry is a sitting area with just enough space for a comfy chair and side table. Two large windows, which can be flung open during warm weather, invite lots of natural light into the kitchen and provide a double sill for thriving plants and kitchen accessories. The windowpanes, she notes, are specially insulated by a local craftsman, now in his 80s, who has expertise in historical preservation.
Since the kitchen also serves as the place where clients are first greeted, Treggiari displays impressive “before and after” photos with extensive description of the kitchen restoration. There is no little irony that the pictures telling the story of past time revealed are placed directly under her kitchen clock.
Stepping Up
Treggiari’s professional office is a careful walk up an old flight of stairs whose worn and steep wooden steps offer visual testimony to the scores of residents who have trod them over many generations.
Her workspace occupies the entire second floor of the house, directly above the kitchen. A full wall of shelves provides sufficient storage for her copious collection of books, files and work plans. A large white work desk topped by her computer monitor faces two large windows into the common outside gardens/park area shared with the adjacent row homes. A large white round table serves as a conference space for clients. Here, as in the kitchen, large clear Lucite chairs make the area seem larger.
Another twisting, even more narrow flight of stairs delivers family and friends to Treggiari’s personal quarters, which include a living room and modern bath. A ladder leads to a cozy sleeping loft created under the roof’s eaves.
The living room, just off the small stairwell, has a modern flair. Sunlight pours in through two large windows. A bright red sofa and companion chairs are anchored on a leopard-print area rug centered over hardwood floors. Two simple rectangular white console cabinets provide storage, one placed behind the chairs and the other along the window wall, which provides a setting for her flat-screen television.
Less is more when it comes to decorating the living room. A small round white table holds a few keepsakes as does the console fronting the windows. A dozen treasured books share a small white shelf with a reading lamp, conveniently located next to the sofa.
On the wall between the windows is a portrait of a woman unknown to her but painted by Treggiari’s great uncle. Wording under the portrait notes the woman’s name as Agata Luis; her parentage; and the date of her birth, Nov. 4, 1839; and her death, Nov. 27, 1905.
“She looks very serious, don’t you think?” asks Treggiari.
Lofty Spaces
The portrait subject, should she live now, might grow even more serious contemplating the ladder she’s staring at, which leads to the sleeping loft. The stairs of the simple wooden ladder are actually a bit wider than those original to the house. Yet despite the handrails, it’s a bit daunting to consider climbing them at the end of a long day or descending them in the middle of the night when nature calls.
But Treggiari voices little concern about that; it’s just a part of her routine.
In the loft, she proudly notes another exposed section of that 13th century wall, this one including the sizeable pavers which topped the battlement. While those pavers constitute a portion of the floorspace in the loft, she’s installed hardwood over them, but has left two exposed to showcase the history at foot.
A sizeable white wardrobe topped with stylish fabric baskets and two large chests of drawers hold her clothes and other necessities. The double bed, dressed in white, is tucked under the eaves looking over the living room.
Treggiari’s sleeping area occupies one side of the loft; on the other is “Dolce’s Room.”
Dolce, an assertive wire-haired dachshund, is Treggiari’s constant companion, the current love of her life, and the mascot (check out her professional sign by the door, her letterhead, or her website eliana-treggiari.com) for her architecture and interior design business. Dolce exults in his own designated space with comfy mattress.
When faced with two American visitors on a sunny late September Sunday morning, Dolce made it clear that no one was going to do much talking until he had his treats and a short walk.
Treggiari and Dolce live a sweet life among neighbors for whom historic preservation is both a mission and a lifestyle. The public walkway is dotted with benches and small table and chair sets where residents and friends can share a nice meal or beverages while savoring the harmonic beauty of architecture and nature.
Ulrike Hotz, Reutlingen’s mayoress for construction and city development, is a friend of Treggiari’s and a fan of her passion for historic preservation.
“Here there are many architects and artists,” she says of Treggiari and her neighbors. “Their hearts burn for this. You need to deeply love these houses for those living here to do the work.”
