Cardillo

House of Dust

Rome,

The House of Dust is an experimental apartment in Ludovisi, Rome. The project juxtaposes classical orders and golden proportions with the metaphorical element of dust embodied by a grotto-vault, complemented by an enigmatic series of elongated arches and the ambivalence of the colours earth and pink

Text

Colour itself is a degree of darkness (σκιερόν).

 

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Zur Farbenlehre (1810)

In this house classical orders and golden proportions celebrate dust. A grey base supports a ceiling of rustic plaster of the colour of the bare earth: craving for primordial caverns, for Renaissance grotesques, for baroque nymphaeums in Doria Pamphilj, for faintly Liberty façades in the streets off Via Veneto.

A sequence of compressions and dilatations makes up the space of the house. On the walls, passages and windows appear, now dug out of the base, now like carvings in a baguette. A series of arches, memories of Trecento Italian painting, disguises doors and cupboards.

Among these, one studded with a pink glass doorknob introduces the intimate rooms, which too are distinguished by the palest pink on the walls: yearning for dawns and flowers, the colour of beauty, the colour of beauty that dies.

, London, .

Data

  • Time: Design (Mar – Oct 2012); Construction (Nov 2012 – Mar 2013); Photography (Mar – Apr 2013); Poem (May 2013); Text (June 2013)
  • Place: Ludovisi, Rome, Italy
  • Area: 115 m² (single storey)
  • Typology: Apartment

Images

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Poem

Architecture is dust.

Dust that becomes form,

Dust transfigured by the mind.

Dust is memory so dust is also death.

Ancestral memory of death,

Dust refers to the beginnings.

That modernity that disowns sediment,

That shaves walls, that sanitises space;

That modernity that disowns dust,

Disowns even death.

Deprived of memory,

And so slave to a credible youth,

Ignoring its end, it repeats itself;

Without end.

In this house classical orders

And golden proportions celebrate dust:

Angels and choirs have abandoned Heaven,

And Heaven has adorned itself with earth.

House of Dust, Rome, , p. 7.

Testimonial

2014


At the beginning I really thought that this could not, should not, be my house. [However, after a while,] that first sensation of mine has completely gone. Sometimes I find myself reclining on the sofa in the evening, watching the reflections of the purplish light above, hypnotised.

How to Spend It, Financial Times, London, March 2014, p. 71. (en)

Anthology

2018 – 2013


The alienation of the material using the devices of color and texture surprises and, at the same time, generates a feeling of security.

Thinking Color in Space: Positions, Projects, Potentials, Birkhäuser, Berlin/Boston, December 2018, p. 342. (de, en)

His understanding of space and balance has resulted in some of the most influential interiors of recent times.

atelierlumira.com, Sydney, 22 January 2018. (en)

Cardillo is the guy behind one of our favorite interiors projects in recent memory, the House of Dust.

sightunseen.com, New York, 22 April 2017. (en)

A jewel of contemporary architecture that captured the attention of his entire profession.

promostyl.com, Paris, 24 November 2017. (en)

I regard my work as an inquiry into forgotten significances of the past, akin to a codex primarily based on notions of protection and eroticism. […] Consequently, these archetypes continue to inhabit our subconscious, admonishing us that there is more than the commonplace visions imposed by society.

Ed. Carol Junqueira, bamboonet.com.br, São Paulo, August 2016. (en, it, pt)

A new author who has carved out a place entirely his own in the history of this discipline within just a few years.

Stanze. Altre filosofie dell’abitare [exhibition], XXI Triennale, Milan, April 2016. (en, it)

Cardillo links shadows and mysteries to the creation of a sense of eroticism.

Being in shape / shaping environments, thesis, Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten, The Hague, May 2015. (en)

A dimension seemingly out of time, which here seems to have stopped or never spent, suspended, immobile.

Abitare la terra, no. 37, dir. Paolo Portoghesi, Rome, March 2015, p. 50. (en, it)

Antonino Cardillo focusses on the potential of the ceiling: ‘now they install spotlights, but once there were frescoes’.

Living, no. 1/2, Corriere della Sera, Milan, February 2015, p. 13. (en, it)

It instantly brought back memories of the best postmodern, neoclassical architecture that I was revisiting at the time—Bofill, Moneo, Tusquets—but with a more personal and very contemporary view.

Room: Inside Contemporary Interiors, Phaidon, London, October 2014, p. 64. (en, it)

Cardillo breaks boundaries, shatters familiar templates, and pours a unique individual character into his works with a new language based on classical principles. All this being said, it is quite clear that this new aesthetic language is not easy to digest and understand and is not intended for everyone; it is very far from the mainstream, deep, different and other, as pioneering works tend to be.

Trend, no. 141, Tel Aviv, March 2014, p. 180. (en, he, it)

It is purposely reminiscent of all kinds of subliminal historical references, in particular the vault of very early architecture.

How to Spend It, Financial Times, London, March 2014, p. 71. (en)

 (DE)

The architect has managed to create a flat with solid materials […] that processes the history of architecture and the very particular history of the city of Rome in its own unique way.

AIT Magazin, No. 3/14, Leinfelden‑Echterdingen, March 2014, pp. 120‑125. (de)

It is a hopeful piece that suggests that architecture still holds the power to awaken our senses and emotions for a deeper, more intimate and fulfilling engagement with the world.

The Journal of Architecture, vol. 19, no. 1, RIBA, London, January 2014, p. 15. (en)

Doing a house up entirely in earth tones would be pretty ill-advised 99 percent of the time, but in the right hands the effect can be nothing short of arresting.

curbed.com, New York, 20 December 2013. (en)

The architecture creates a calm, almost alien atmosphere in Rome, with intimate rooms hidden behind barely visible doors and a play of texture and light that unfolds a sequence of unusual atmospheres.

thelavishworld.com, Antwerpen, 19 November 2013. (en)

In place of abundant natural light and designer furnishings are gloomy cavernous spaces characterized by a grainy ceiling of pozzolanic plaster, tinted the colour of dust.

Frame, no. 95, Amsterdam, November 2013, p. 58. (en)

The Sicilian architect uses colour to illustrate the path of humanity: “from the grotto to the rose” as the maximum expression of the sublime.

Folio, vol. 4, Mexico City, October 2013, p. 42. (en, es)

An apartment interior in Rome’s Via Veneto, glamorised by Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, the House of Dust serves as an ideal springboard for fanciful lighting effects and architectural narrative.

Architects’ Journal Specification, London, October 2013, pp. 4, 50‑55, cover. (en)

This is a courageous project with a fresh aesthetic and a unique vision. It’s the kind of interior that creates new trends, memes and movements.

yellowtrace.com.au, Sydney, 27 September 2013. (en)

As one of the world’s most exciting architects, Antonino Cardillo draws on classical and ancient architectural forms to create spaces that feel entirely new.

mroakleysmith.com, Sydney, August 2013. (en)

For the architect, architecture becomes interesting where it “becomes invisible or hides something” and exists on the border “to the dream”—with his House of Dust he has precisely realised this into reality.

designlines.de, BauNetz, Berlin, 13 August 2013. (de, en, it)

Using the geometric ratio of the golden section, Antonino Cardillo designed House of Dust with a horizontal division that separates living spaces and furniture from the coarse plaster walls and ceilings above.

dezeen.com, London, 5 August 2013. (en)

A side entrance reveals a hall that, like a Greek mask suddenly worn by the visitor, projects and draws attention onto two tapered windows: a pair of eyes on the world.

Casamica, no. 3/13, Corriere della Sera, Milan, June 2013, p. 77. (en, it)

Exhibitions

2023 – 2013


C.G. Jung-Institut, Zurich, .

Antonino Cardillo will present the seminar ‘Depth Architecture—The Aesthetic Nature of the Psyche’ as part of the autumn 2025 Analytical Psychology Training Program curated by Julia Budai at the Carl Gustav Jung Institute of Zurich.

Museo Pepoli, Trapani, .

After an introduction by the anthropologist Rita Cedrini, Cardillo presents his constructed projects during the conference ‘Anthropology in Architecture’, part of the cultural events series of the Agostino Pepoli Regional Museum in Trapani.

DIA, Bauhaus Campus, Dessau, .

After an introduction by Professor Johannes Kister, Cardillo interprets seven images of his architectural works during the conference ‘A Synchronicity of Cultures and Civilisations’, part of the Dessau Talks series at the Dessau Institute of Architecture, Bauhaus Campus.

House of Dust, Rome,  – .

At the invitation of curator Gaia Maria Lombardo, Cardillo guided the visitors through the House of Dust, part of the Open House Rome 2023 program. The work also celebrates the opening day of the Festival by also hosting the first of nine Nine by Night aperitifs.

House of Dust, Rome,  – .

At the invitation of curator Gaia Maria Lombardo, Alfredo Vattimo’s guided tours of the House of Dust, part of the Open House Roma 2021 program.

Istituto Luce Cinecittà, Rome, .

At the invitation of curator Diego Grammatico, Cardillo talked about his relationship between video games and architecture in the conference ‘From Zak McKracken to House of Dust’, part of a panel for the Rome Video Game Lab festival of the Istituto Luce at the Cinecittà Studios.

Palazzo dell’Arte, Milano,  – .

The curator Beppe Finessi exhibited the House of Dust among the fifty representative Italian interior architecture projects from 1925 to 2016, part of the Rooms. Novel Living Concepts exhibition at the Palazzo dell’Arte of the Triennale di Milano.

AA School, London, .

At the invitation of Professors Ana Araujo and Takero Shimazaki, and student Alexandra Savtchenko-Belskaia, Cardillo presents his recent project in Rome at the conference House of Dust and supervised the field trip to Sicily, part of the Intermediate Unit 2 course of the Architectural Association School of Architecture.

Publications

2025 – 2013 (selected)

Credits

  • Architecture, construction management: Antonino Cardillo
  • Patron: Massimiliano Beffa
  • Building contractor: Galliani & Giorgetti
  • Masonry: Ripan Michele
  • Plaster: Julian Paraschiv
  • Logistics: Giorgio Giorgetti
  • Painting: Petrica Rotaru
  • Electrical system: Luca Camai
  • Plumbing, clima system: Emiliano Proietto
  • Cement: Elio Martorana, Michele Martorana
  • Parquet: Style Maison
  • Marbles, stones: Daniele Ghirardi (Ghirardi Stone Contractor)
  • Curtains: Pasquale Lo Guercio
  • Tables design: Antonino Cardillo
  • Chair design: Kazuhide Takahama
  • Sofa design: Piero Lissoni
  • Bookcase design: Giuseppe Bavuso
  • Handle: GIL (via Handles Rome)
  • Lamps: Armand Darot
  • Photography, poem, text: Antonino Cardillo
  • Translation: Charles Searson
  • Thanks to Ana Araujo