This paper is an aesthetical analysis of a particular architectural case study - the refurbishment of an existing single-family house in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.  It will follow the dissection of certain conceptual narratives and aesthetic decisions. The requirement of the project was to bring a family-home built in the 1940’s up to date in terms of contemporary space requirements, technical equipment, and installations. The sensible part of the task was to do so whilst leaving room for memory and not harming the particular soft identity of the artefact. The article offers an intricate perspective on reuse, because contemporary, expressive materials such as cross-laminated timber, or fibre-cement ventilated cladding on the façade, were not only means of aesthetical desire, but also of necessity, given the constructive coordinates of the existing house. We propose a deconstruction and reflection on the original artifact’s aesthetic vocabulary, acknowledging the sensory quality of the architectural detail, for it represents, on an almost Proustian level, the foundation for memory and remembrance, akin to smell or taste. All proposed architectural details within the project serve a dual purpose, as they encompass both meaning, through their formal identity, and objective purpose, given their preventive or protective qualities. The overall intention was for the old and the new to form a two-part body, with the new parts of the house becoming juxtaposed glimpses into times past. In the spirit of Peter Eisenman’s writings, the refurbishment of the house seeks to add an architecture that „embodies an other fiction” (Peter Eisenman, “The End of the Classical: The End of the Beginning, the End of the End.” Perspecta 21 (1984): 166).

Keywords: existing architecture, transformation, Proustian, architecture details, identity