In 1910, the Prussian entrepreneur and patron Eduard Arnhold acquired the 36,000 square metre site of the former Villa Massimo at the gates of Rome. By 1913, Arnhold had the architect Maximilian Zürcher build a spacious, representative main building as well as ten studios with associated apartments. The garden was redesigned as a landscape garden, incorporating the historic park. Arnhold donated the equipped facility to the Prussian state as an academy for artists. Villa Massimo was the first foreign property in the Federal Republic of Germany to be commissioned by the German Academy in Rome as part of a research and development contract to plan an exemplary energy-efficient refurbishment. The aim of the project was to convert Villa Massimo into an annual zero-energy property. All interventions were planned with regard to the listed building. In the scientifically supported pilot project, an optimised interplay between energy efficiency, room comfort and monument protection was developed. In addition, the seismic strengthening of the studio buildings was part of the planning.