As the intrinsic relationship between theory, analysis and design will be addressed in each publication, the ‘analysis’ part presents the research that implements the theoretical concepts and starts the process towards formulating the basic issues the design intends to address. The methodological set-up of the spatial analysis is of particular interest here, as this will determine to a large extent the to-be-proposed architectural intervention. In this case, based on the idea of the obsolesce in the context of any production site- including that of knowledge- the city of Trieste is analysed as a contested territory, shifted between various sovereignties, ideologies and identities. Such obscurity is embraced in the reading of the city as an ever-expanding terminal port of The New Silk Road and hence claiming its international presence as a city of knowledge and science.