Model House
committed by Wallpaper*

Years ago, around Marrakech, spread out over the arid plains, I saw some large fences. From the outside, I could not understand what lay beyond, but I believe that they were lodgings. What could be within those walls? What was life like there? These questions stimulated my imagination for some months.

Model House (Marrakech 2009) designed by Sicilian architect Antonino Cardillo in occasion of the 2009 Wallpaper* Architects Directory. Photography by Antonino Cardillo.

Today, in the project commissioned by Wallpaper* magazine, I tried to imagine a possible solution. From the palace of Akhenaton to the projects of Mies, history is full of examples of courtyard houses. This mode of living fascinates me because it brings into question the need to define an ‘external’. So, rather than identify itself with its shell, the building finds its true essence within, where the parts of the composition can speak to each other inside the ‘empty heart’ of a patio, creating a dialogue that recalls the cities of a pre-modern Mediterranean.