With its incredible wealth of ancient monuments, historical buildings and classic art, Rome is rightly viewed as one of the world’s most important heritage centres. What doesn’t get a lot of attention is the more modern aspects of the city’s culture, projects like the one housed in the former Lanificio Luciani woollen mill.

The building stretches from the Aniene river to Via di Pietralata covering 3,500sqm, and the space is far more multifunctional and versatile than its vast area suggests. Offering a music venue of the most contemporary kind, and a performing arts centre, the mill introduced the impressive Lanificio Cucina restaurant in 2011 and most recently unveiled an exhibition centre and an urban garden; the latter will feed back into the Cucina as part of its efforts to maximize zero-kilometre produce – even edible Roman flowers are being used in some dishes. Our pictures show that Lanificio, while boasting impressive modern design, has also not forgotten that sense of history and classic elegance which makes Rome such a special place.