A Young Couple Enliven a Viennese Apartment With Vivid Tile and Clever Cabinetry

It was no small feat to hoist 6,000 pounds of zellige into this rooftop home—but the result was worth the lift.

Apr 15, 2022 - 21:00

A Young Couple Enliven a Viennese Apartment With Vivid Tile and Clever Cabinetry

It was no small feat to hoist 6,000 pounds of zellige into this rooftop home—but the result was worth the lift.

A wooden staircase with built-in cabinetry connects to

Art director Gioia Zloczower and her husband, Jonathan Evens, a project manager, were looking for comfort in the midst of profound global and personal shifts. "I was five months pregnant when we decided to move back to Vienna from San Francisco," Gioia says. "We wanted to be close to my family, and to have a safe place for our daughter to call home."

"We definitely wanted to live in an old Viennese building, and always loved this neighborhood," Gioia says.
Photo by Melanie Kuglitsch

"We definitely wanted to live in an old Viennese building and always loved this neighborhood, — The apartment was newly finished, but it needed more personality and storage.
Photo by Melanie Kuglitsch

They were several months into the pandemic and their first pregnancy when they decided to return to Austria and seek out a place near Gioia’s childhood neighborhood. "Like so many others who moved during this time, we initially wanted a house with a garden in the 19th district, which is very green," she says. "But when we heard of this apartment and saw that it had a rooftop terrace, we needed to see how we could make our own garden in the city."