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
Antonino Cardillo
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.
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)
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)
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)
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.
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)
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)
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.
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)
Italian architect Antonino Cardillo used roughly textured plaster to create lumpy brown surfaces across the upper walls and ceilings of this apartment in Rome.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
Antonino Cardillo, ‘Simulazione come ermeneutica della realtà’, Artbox – Puntata del 5/3/2025[television programme], ed. Didi Gnocchi, La7, Milan, 6 March 2025. Transcript published on antoninocardillo.com, 6 March 2025.
Antonino Cardillo, ‘House of Dust’, Open House Roma, area 3, ed. Gaia Maria Lombardo, Rome, Sept. 2021, p. 16.
Antonino Cardillo, ‘A Synchronicity of Cultures and Civilisations’, paper presented to the Dessauer Gespräche ed. Johannes Kister, Hochschule Anhalt, Dessau Institute of Architecture, 13 Nov. 2019. Transcript published on antoninocardillo.com, 15 April 2023.
Antonino Cardillo, ‘Da Zak McKracken a House of Dust’, paper presented to the Rome Video Game Lab 2019, ed. Diego Grammatico, Istituto Luce Cinecittà, Rome, 11 May 2019. Transcript published on antoninocardillo.com, 4 June 2019.
Kerstin Schultz, Hedwig Wiedemann-Tokarz, Eva Maria Herrmann, ‘Inherent color and material color[abstract]’, in Thinking Color in Space, Birkhäuser, Berlin/Boston, Dec. 2018, pp. 342‑343.
Antonino Cardillo, ‘Vaults, Grottoes, Arches and Polychromy’, conference part of the ArchitekTOUR Kongress, Heinze, Station Berlin, 22 Nov. 2017. Transcript published on antoninocardillo.com, 27 May 2020.
Ecem Arslanay, ‘Mimarlık ve Toz’, manifold.press, Istanbul, 10 Oct. 2017.
Mrinalini Ghadiok, ‘Elemental’, Mondo* Arc India, no. 15, New Delhi, July 2017, pp. 6, 50‑51, 60‑63.
Beppe Finessi, ‘Storie di altre stanze’, in ‘Stanze. Altre Filosofie dell’Abitare’, exhib. cat., ed. Beppe Finessi, Marsilio, Milan, Sept. 2016, pp. 169, 283.
Carolin Höfler, ‘Hyper desire’, paper presented to the Wunsch, Technische Hochschule Köln, Cologne, 1 June 2016.
Carolin Höfler, ‘Modelle in Wirklichkeit. Die digitalen Bildversprechen von Antonino Cardillo’, paper presented to the Constructed Realities, ed. Chris Dähne, Frederike Lausch, Bettina Rudhof, Goethe‑Universität, Deutsche Architekturmuseum, Frankfurt am Main, 1 Dec. 2015. Transcript published on antoninocardillo.com, 24 Apr. 2022.
Antonino Cardillo, ‘Faked Reality’, paper presented to the Constructed Realities, ed. Chris Dähne, Frederike Lausch, Bettina Rudhof, Goethe‑Universität, Deutsche Architekturmuseum, Frankfurt am Main, 1 Dec. 2015. Transcript published on antoninocardillo.com, 12 May 2021.
Sophia Klinkenberg, ‘Body building: Second skin’, in Being in shape / shaping environments, thesis, Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten, The Hague, May 2015.
Francesca Gottardo, ‘Architettura di polvere’ [contents], Abitare la Terra, no. 37, dir. Paolo Portoghesi, Rome, March 2015, pp. 50‑53.
Antonino Cardillo, ‘House of Dust’, lecture as part of Intermediate Unit 2, ed. Alexandra Savtchenko-Belskaia, AA School, London, 20 Nov. 2013. Transcript published on antoninocardillo.com, 23 Nov. 2024.
