He then moved to Trapani, pursuing the idea of connecting the anthropology and archaeology of the island of Sicily to the architecture of the present. In the summer of 2016, he completed construction of Specus Corallii, the oratorio of Trapani Cathedral, commissioned by the chief priest, Gaspare Gruppuso. Jean-Marie Martin of the magazine Casabella notices: “Antonino Cardillo, an architect who deservedly earned the attention of international critics, has created a space similar to a telescope aimed at the past of the place”. This work, the fourth in the series of ‘Grottoes’, was selected to open the architecture section of the issue dedicated to Italy in AD Germany and the final chapter of the volume Thinking Color in Space (2018)—a history of colour from Titian to the present day, published by the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences. According to Annie Carroll from Melbourne, these grottoes “are some of the most influential interiors of recent times”. Mrinalini Ghadiok from New Delhi said:
Antonino Cardillo challenges the very norms of the architectural process as we have popularly come to know it. His works transcend the course to deliver moments that are sublime, experiences that are intangible, and spaces that are overwhelmingly immersive.
Specus Corallii (ex Sala Laurentina)
In the winter of 2017, Jeanette Kunsmann and Stephen Burkoff journeyed to Italy to visit Cardillo’s architectural works in Rome and Trapani, spending three days with the architect. Their investigation became the DEAR magazine cover story ‘Architecture and truth’.
Cardillo has neither a fixed office address, nor even an office in the classic sense. And he has no employees: the Sicilian designs and plans all his projects alone. […] One might, therefore, suppose that Cardillo is one of a number of minor, lesser-known architects. But that isn’t the case. Very few architects outside the three superstars of the industry (Libeskind, Hadid and Koolhaas) have attracted as much attention from the international press and trade magazines as Antonino Cardillo.
Ana Araujo from Windsor added:
I think Antonino is a designer trying to work in his own terms, and refusing to comply with the way designers tend to operate today. I think he relies on an idea of what it meant to be an architect in the past to shape his professional attitude.
Antonino Cardillo for the DEAR Magazin shooting
In the summer of 2018, he completed the construction of the restaurant-bar Off Club in Rome, commissioned by Massimo Di Persio. This project explores the concept of the ‘Shadow’, a central aspect of analytical psychology, representing the hidden and unacceptable parts of the human psyche. Suzanne Trocmé unveiled it, saying, “A long-time Wallpaper* collaborator, Antonino Cardillo’s latest work marks a defining moment for the Sicilian architect”. Tom Wilkinson wrote in The Architectural Review magazine:
These hieratic forms create an atmosphere of slightly menacing mystery—one could expect a Mithraic rite to begin at any moment.
Sight Unseen co-founder Monica Khemsurov defined Off Club as “his latest masterpiece”. Tim Berge from Berlin noted: “His works are a conglomerate of myths, fairy tales, and mental images from different epochs and cultures. He wants to create an architecture of the unconscious, inspired by one of his great masters, the Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung”. Lucia Galli of Paolo Portoghesi magazine Abitare la Terra added: “This is a strong reference to the archetype, one which is considered as the need to return to the origin of things”. Seven years later, Stefan Grundmann will select Off Club in his volume Architekturführer Rom, among the three recent projects that reflect Rome’s ability to regenerate within its tradition of interior space. He states: “A series of interior designs of older buildings have attracted attention over the past five or ten years, impressively shaping this genre, which fits so well into the multilayered, millennia-old texture of Rome”.
Off Club
In the year 2019, he was invited to talk as part of the Inside/Out Lecture Series by the students of London’s Royal College of Art and the Bauhaus Campus Dessauer Gespräche by Johannes Kister.
The Royal College Art and Bauhaus Campus lectures