Several pieces in the collection emerge from the same source: a 1950s Italian vitrine whose components have been reinterpreted into multiple designs. Among them is Trono Rosso, which transforms the vitrine’s upper wooden body into a throne-like seat incorporating a monumental red marble base and a brushed stainless-steel support. In contrast to the original object, whose ornament once signalled authority through decorative craftsmanship, the new composition foregrounds structure and weight, allowing the relationship between materials to articulate the piece’s presence in space.

Fragments of the same vitrine reappear in Ponte Rosso and Portico, the former a horizontally extended seating element, the latter an elegant console. Marble and stainless steel also play key roles in these pieces: in Portico, a red marble top rests above the antique wooden body, separated by cubic stainless-steel supports; in Ponte Rosso, preserved wooden elements are connected by a minimalist stainless-steel plane, with a vertical block of red marble acting as an anchor.

The collection’s layered sensibility is echoed in its photographic setting. The pieces were shot inside the historic Zülfaris Synagogue in Istanbul’s Karaköy district, a 19th-century structure whose weathered surfaces and architectural grandeur carry traces of the city’s cosmopolitan past. Once a place of worship and now a cultural venue, the synagogue embodies the coexistence of different historical moments within a single space, an atmosphere that also resonates with GLIF’s exploration of memory, continuity and reinterpretation.

In this context, the Altered Heritage collection reads less as a series of furniture pieces than as a study in transformation. By embracing adaptive reuse rather than preservation, and swapping creativity for nostalgia, GLIF frames design as a process of dialogue, one that allows inherited forms to acquire new meaning without erasing the stories embedded within them.