“I’m very excited about the idea of making our new flat in Rome,” Ramdane Touhami, interior designer, DJ, creative director, and artist, wrote on Instagram last August. “Making a flat that looks like a museum could be fun!” In accordance with his own briefing, Touhami chose not to downplay the scale of his project. The resulting apartment—a grand residence in Rome’s Palazzo Borghese—is indeed an architectural work worthy of a museum.
A short history of the Palazzo Borghese
Designed by the celebrated mannerist architect Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, construction of the first sections of the late Renaissance Palazzo Borghese began in the 1560s. The Palazzo was among Vignola’s many other important projects (he became the principal architect for St. Peter’s Basilica following Michelangelo’s death). It was later expanded by Cardinal Camillo Borghese, who bought it in 1596 (in 1605, he was named Pope Paul V). The cardinal’s name then became permanently attached to the building. Today, in Touhami’s 3,014-square-foot F-shaped apartment, the soaring ceilings are still decorated with paintings and decorative frescoes from centuries past. Other intriguing details are the result of countless interventions, such as the B-shaped (for Borghese) handles on the dining-room doors which Touhami says date from the 19th century.
Touhami adds to the magic
This historic building is now the latest home of Touhami, his wife, Victoire de Taillac-Touhami, and their three children, ages 22, 20, and 18. The family has a penchant for nesting in storied builds—the couple’s Parisian apartment is in a former home of the writer Honoré de Balzac, after all. Back in Paris, the Touhamis made bold use of ebony panels, which give the illusion that a large section of burled wood is peeling away from the wall to expose decorative moldings below. While there isn’t the same sleight of hand in the palazzo, there are other magical elements. First, a surprise at the entrance: a long gallery-like atrium and hall, which Touhami has punctuated with geometric white oak furniture that he designed himself, and a group of statuettes and busts created by local art students. Along the floor and on the walls of the space are images from the book Roman Portraits, first published by Phaidon in 1940. “The faces are very contemporary,” Touhami says. “They could be people you see in the city today.”
In the formal dining room, two portraits flank the table and continue the thematic. The two men portrayed against a deep blue background are Andrea Costa and Pietro Nenni, founders of the Italian Socialist Party. “We bought them at a flea market,” Touhami says. Indeed, Touhami combines and overlaps different design eras throughout the apartment, from antiquity to midcentury modernism and more. In the principal bedroom, a richly decorated 19th-century Neapolitan metal bed feels very contemporary despite its age.
A Thonet bench, circa 1940, and a floor lamp by Audoux Minet from the 1970s stand guard nearby. In a relatively less formal but still striking dining room near the principal bedroom, Touhami continues to play with eras, pairing a 1917 De Stijl armchair, designed by Dutch architect Gerrit Rietveld, with pieces from the 1930s, ‘50s, and ‘80s. While the effect could come across like an academic study of 20th-century design, the mix instead feels casual—perhaps because finding a harmonious balance between different aesthetics was always central to the collaboration between Touhami and de Taillac. “Victoire and I have completely different tastes,” he says, explaining that the design of the private rooms in their homes is usually his wife’s responsibility. “We never step on each other’s toes.”
During a recent visit on a quiet holiday afternoon in Rome, Touhami passed quickly between rooms, then disappeared to make some video calls with partners in Japan, and then with a client in London. Jazz and funk from across the African diaspora resonated from a speaker on the floor of the gallery-like living room.
On his way out, Touhami stopped to identify one of his favorite features of the apartment, a small hidden window in the guest bathroom. The opening offers a view of the stairwell outside the apartment and an opportunity to eavesdrop on guests as they leave. “It’s funny, no?” says Touhami, with a smile. “I get to hear what people really have to say.” Even in his palatial apartment, Touhami can’t hide his irreverent side.
Ramdane Touhami’s Roman palazzo originally covered AD Italy’s January 2026 issue.
