Evocation
2023–2015
Writings by other authors mainly related to the architectural projects Specus Corallii and Off Club
Paolo Portoghesi
In all these years you have remained consistent with your vision of architecture. You did not give in, and your works possess an integrity that is very rare today. This makes you one of the few architects.
Calcata, 22 May 2023, p. 1. (it, en)
Rita Cedrini
We are not prepared to read the plans of the one who implements the future. This is the case of the architect Antonino Cardillo, a great eclectic.
Museo Agostino Pepoli, Trapani, 26 May 2023. (en, it)
Karin Van Opstal
The Sicilian architect Antonino Cardillo has been able, with his cutting-edge, almost archetypical work, to engage with centuries-old cultures and civilisations.
Villas, no. 107, Brussels, 6 Sept. 2021, p. 70. (en, fr, nl)
Tom Wilkinson
These hieratic forms create an atmosphere of slightly menacing mystery — one could expect a Mithraic rite to begin at any moment.
The Architectural Review, no. 1470, London, April 2020, p. 44. (en)
Eva Gründel and Heinz Tomek
In Sicily, in addition to ancient temples, Norman cathedrals and baroque palaces, exciting examples of modern architecture can now be admired, such as Antonino Cardillo’s Specus Corallii in Trapani.
Sizilien, DuMont Reiseverlag, Ostfildern, 5 Sept. 2019, media release. (de)
Evdoxia Karageorgi and Konstantina Vasileiadou
We cannot decide whether Specus Corallii looks more like emerging from the depths of the ocean or whether it is the image of the ocean itself which on the distant horizon coincides with the sky as if they are reaching their love-making peak.
Architecture and Eroticism. An Imaginary Wandering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, June 2019, pp. 80‑117. (el, en)
Akshaya Muralikumar
Inspired by Swiss Psychologist Carl Gustav Jung, he is constantly reaching out for the ‘architecture of the unconscious’.
re-thinkingthefuture.com, New Delhi, 10 Aug. 2019. (en)
Lucia Galli
This is a strong reference to the archetype, one which is considered as the need to return to the origin of things.
Abitare la Terra, no. 49, dir. Paolo Portoghesi, Rome, June 2019, p. 38. (en, it)
Radja Nainggolan
This is the most beautiful restaurant in Rome.
@radja_nainggolan_l4, Instagram, Rome, 4 March 2019. (it)
Monica Khemsurov
The Sicilian architect Antonino Cardillo just unveiled his latest masterpiece, the Off Club in Rome.
sightunseen.com, New York, 22 Sept. 2018. (en)
Tim Berge
A dark paradise of shadows, mirrors and symmetries.
DEAR Magazin, no. 4/18, Berlin, Dec. 2018, p. 34. (de)
Brianna Ruland
This space evokes love and loss, nostalgia, melancholy, and life’s most essential inaudible philosophies. Most importantly, this long dark cave can certainly be trusted.
[email], ed. Matt Edwards, San Luis Obispo, 29 March 2018. (en)
Jean-Marie Martin
The spaces he has designed make clear the endless distance that separates them from what they evoke — while the measurement of distance is the most proper meaning of the evocation.
Casabella, no. 879, dir. Francesco Dal Co, Milan, Nov. 2017, p. 30. (en, it)
Xia Shu
Sicily is a magical and wonderful place, where there are mafia, beautiful legends, large olive groves and sunshine scattered on towns and beaches. And… my favourite Italian architect, Antonio Cardillo?
zhuanlan.zhihu.com, Beijing, 3 Aug. 2017. (zh)
Mrinalini Ghadiok
Antonino Cardillo challenges the very norms of the architectural process as we have popularly come to know it.
Mondo*Arc India, no. 15, New Delhi, July 2017, p. 51. (en)
Francesca Gottardo
The wooden inlay in the oratory floor, […] represents the final destination in the journey and expresses the peaceful stability of a safe haven.
Abitare la Terra, no. 41, dir. Paolo Portoghesi, Rome, May 2017, p. 46. (en, it)
Andreas Kühnlein
Antonino Cardillo is dedicated to a design with centuries of tradition: the artificial grotto, which he translates into contemporary forms. Offshoots of his poetic spaces exist in London and Rome. The latest was now created in Sicily.
AD Architectural Digest, no. 178, Munich, April 2017, p. 163. (de)
Luigi Frudà and Sebastiano Costantino
Trapani has recently earned a new pearl for its historic centre. In 2016 the work of restoration and total architectural re-design of a very old and historic building located in Via Generale Domenico Giglio, 12, a stone’s throw from the Cathedral of S. Lorenzo Martire.
Strenna d’Agosto 2016, La Ragnatela, Rome, March 2017, pp. 305‑307. (it)
Jeanette Kunsmann
Antonino Cardillo masters the art of telling stories through spaces and materials: the world remains a labyrinth of memories, the architect is a time traveller — and architecture becomes stupefaction.
designlines.de, BauNetz, Berlin, 29 Nov. 2016. (de)
Mariza D’Anna
At the backdrop, a niche like a mihrab: ‘in the idea of architecture as a sacred and universal dimension.’
La Sicilia, Catania, 28 Oct. 2016, p. 13. (it)
Jessica Mairs
Italian architect Antonino Cardillo has coated the walls of a vaulted chamber-music and events space in lumpy coral-pink, grey and green plasterwork.
dezeen.com, London, 26 Oct. 2016. (en)
Peppe Occhipinti
The scabrosity of the pozzolana, used for millennia as a coating, cancels, with its chiaroscuro effects due to the particular technique of rinzaffo, the detachment of the corners of conjunction between the roof and the walls, evoking the aerial quality of the sacred place once had to possess.
[email], Trapani, 24 Oct. 2016. (it)
Ancestral images
2021–2013
Writings by other authors related to part of the series of architectural projects Grottoes: Colour as a Narrative, Crepuscular Green, and House of Dust
Valeria Maria Iannilli
It is a poem, an indelible experience that evokes powerful memories.
Retail and Service Experience Design for CCIs, DigiMooD MOOCs, Politecnico di Milano, 9 Feb. 2021. (en)
Kerstin Schultz, Hedwig Wiedemann-Tokarz, and Eva Maria Herrmann
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, Dec. 2018, p. 342. (de, en)
Annie Carroll
His understanding of space and balance has resulted in some of the most influential interiors of recent times.
atelierlumira.com, Sydney, 22 Jan. 2018. (en)
Monica Khemsurov
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)
Alice Morby
Antonino Cardillo looked to the colours and textures used in the opening scene of Richard Wagner’s Das Rheingold opera.
dezeen.com, London, 17 April 2017. (en)
Sipane K-Hoh
This architectural work, however unexpected, reflects a certain dualism where the ordered shapes of the container collide with the imperfections of the contents.
detailsdarchitecture.com, Paris, 28 Nov. 2016. (fr)
Eve
Successful architect, Antonino Cardillo has confirmed his place in contemporary design history with, among other things, a series of avant-garde aesthetic projects.
promostyl.com, Paris, 24 Nov. 2017. (en)
Pierre Yovanovitch
He is the most radical architect in my selection. It creates tension and a strong atmosphere. He has a sharp notion of interior design.
Bamboo, no. 61, São Paulo, Aug. 2016, p. 33. (pt)
Jessica Cooper
Somewhere on Dover Street, […] there lies a fairy tale grotto filled with tranquillity and calm.
Eclectic, no. AW15, Paris, Sept. 2015, p. 160. (en)
Achim Meissner
Perfumery Illuminum in London welcomes its customers in a shop that breaks with all the buying and viewing habits of the luxury class.
handelsjournal, no. 9/15, Düsseldorf, Sept. 2015. (de)
Ana Araujo
Egyptian? Greek? Roman? It doesn’t really matter, because once these ancestral images are deposited in our unconscious they are emptied of their historical specificity.
Design Exchange, no. 12, London, Aug. 2015, p. 109. (en)
Anna Winston
Italian architect Antonino Cardillo has created a multi-sensory space for experiencing and buying fragrance by coating a room inside an old London building with volcanic ash.
dezeen.com, London, 6 May 2015. (en)
Sophia Klinkenberg
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)
Beppe Finessi
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)
Francesca Gottardo
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. (it)
Jeanette Kunsmann
With 40 square metres rather manageable, the architect has transformed the gallery into a sacred space — and created a courageous change from the eternal white cube.
designlines.de, BauNetz, Berlin, 24 Feb. 2015. (de)
Francesca Taroni
Antonino Cardillo focusses on the potential of the ceiling.
Living, no. 1/2, Corriere della Sera, Milan, Feb. 2015, p. 13. (it)
Nacho Alegre
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, Oct. 2014, p. 64. (en)
Haim Capone
Cardillo breaks boundaries, shatters familiar patterns and infuses his works with a unique individual character with a new language based on classical principles. However, 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 different, in the way of groundbreaking works.
Trend, no. 141, Tel Aviv, March 2014, p. 180. (he)
Jenny Dalton
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)
Ana Araujo
Cardillo’s architecture promotes the sensorial mobilisation envisioned by Benjamin as a potential force for social / political transformation.
The Journal of Architecture, vol. 19, no. 1, RIBA, London, Jan. 2014, p. 15. (en)
Spencer Peterson
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 Dec. 2013. (en)
Riya Patel
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, Nov. 2013, p. 58. (en)
Sandra Bermudez
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, Oct. 2013, p. 42. (es)
Felix Mara
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, Oct. 2013, pp. 4, 50‑55, cover. (en)
Dana Tomic Hughes
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 Sept. 2013. (en)
Aleksandra Sheveleva
Architecture exists to build bridges between contradictions.
Grazia, no. 30, Moscow, 17 Sept. 2013, p. 70. (ru)
Mitchell Oakley Smith
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, Aug. 2013. (en)
Tim Berge
For the architect, architecture becomes exciting at the point where it becomes “invisible or hides something” and exists on the border “to the dream” — he has realised exactly that into reality with his house made of dust.
designlines.de, BauNetz, Berlin, 13 Aug. 2013. (de)
Amy Frearson
Italian architect Antonino Cardillo used roughly textured plaster to create lumpy brown surfaces across the upper walls and ceilings of this apartment in Rome.
dezeen.com, London, 5 Aug. 2013. (en)
Paolo Maria Noseda
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. (it)
Mirrors
2019–2012
Writings by other authors related to the simulated reality phenomenon of the series of architectural projects Seven Houses for No One
Kirsten Wenzel
Apart from the involuntary irony that Der Spiegel appears in both impostor stories, once as a prosecutor and once as an accused, they differ fundamentally.
competitionline.com, Berlin, 17 Jan. 2019. (de)
Jeanette Kunsmann with Stephan Burkoff
Cardillo has created a labyrinth of truths and illusions. It is a novella with multiple layers. […] There is no one truth — reality: it doesn’t exist. Antonino Cardillo has built it.
DEAR Magazin, no. 1, Berlin, April 2017, p. 84. (de, en, it)
Carolin Höfler
After the representations were revealed as desired pictures, he replied: “Just see it like a literary narrative, […] a fairy tale. It is also not important that things actually happened.”
Paper presented to the Wunsch, Technische Hochschule Köln, Cologne, 1 June 2016. (de)
Daniel Lordick
Once upon a time there was a young architect who went out to conquer the world. […] Its architecture existed only as a simulation.
Competition, no. 2, Berlin, Oct. 2012, p. 78. (de)
Carl Zillich
Cardillo, who meticulously lists all these press reports on his website, only holds up the mirror to the architectural media and refers to a fundamental problem: How should young architects get to a builder without having published beforehand?
bkult.de, Berlin, 10 Sept. 2012. (de)
Christian Holl
Or how we are constructing our reality from the material and the imaginary through the media today and what consequences this has. No simple questions, really. If the Cardillo case now served to seriously discuss at least one of these questions again, it might have done more for the architectural discourse than those who think they always have the answer to them.
german-architects.com, Stuttgart, 29 July 2012. (de)
Gabriele Detterer
Incidentally, architecture has always been ephemeral and virtual, he explains. From Palladio to Schinkel, from Sant’Elia to Mies van der Rohe, architects influenced architectural development and changed reality with ideas in the form of surrogates.
Neue Zürcher Zeitung, no. 164, Zurich, 17 July 2012, p. 40. (de)
Susanne Beyer
When Felix Krull was young, he thought for a long time about whether he should see the world small or big. According to his ‘nature’, he then respected the world for a great and infinitely tempting appearance in his later life. He became the happiest impostor in literary history.
Der Spiegel, no. 27/12, Hamburg, 2 July 2012, p. 121. (de, it)
Peter Reischer
Asked if the photos are real, there is the short answer: “I am an artist and as an artist I manipulate reality!”
Falter, no. 19/12, Vienna, 9 May 2012, p. 31. (de)
Wallpaper*
2021–2009
Writings by other authors related to the professional collaboration of the architect with the magazine that also include the commissioned architectural projects House for Wallpaper*, Akin to a Cinema Set, and Postmodern Cafe, Colours as a Narrative, and Memories for Cruising
Ellie Stathaki
The project had a limited budget, but what it may lack in scale, it makes up in creative ambition.
wallpaper.com, London, 7 Juy 2021. (en)
Suzanne Trocmé
A long-time Wallpaper* collaborator, Antonino Cardillo’s latest work marks a defining moment for the Sicilian architect.
wallpaper.com, London, 17 Sept. 2018. (en)
Emma Moore
Visitors can remove the cork stoppers to sample the fragrances, and in an environment stripped of colour, graphics, names, ingredients, the scents are able to capture their full attention, the essences being perceived purely intuitively.
wallpaper.com, London, 13 May 2015. (en)
Ali Morris
Fashion photographer Nacho Alegre’s highlights include a number of characterful residential projects, such as Antonino Cardillo’s House of Dust in Rome.
wallpaper.com, London, 16 Oct. 2014. (en)
London Design Festival
To complement the V&A’s keynote exhibition Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970–90, the LDF invites you to the specially commissioned Postmodern Cafe, designed by architect Antonino Cardillo.
The London Design Festival 2011, London, Sept. 2011, p. 183. (en)
Mitchell Oakley Smith and Alison Kubler
A marriage of the sacred and profane, the design was intended both to augment and disrupt the reverence with which fashion products are presented and viewed in shops.
Art / Fashion in 21st Century, Thames & Hudson, London, Oct. 2013, pp. 252, 254‑257. (en)
Massimo Locci
In the implementation phase there is a process of decanting of signs and a systematisation of the method so effective that the language appears to be clarified and strengthened.
L’Architetto Italiano, no. 42, Rome, April 2011, p. 31. (it)
Malaika Byng
Wallpaper* and luxury footwear brand Sergio Rossi stepped up the fashion game during the Salone del Mobile by launching an ephemeral men’s shoe boutique in Milan, designed by acclaimed Sicilian architect Antonino Cardillo.
wallpaper.com, London, 19 April 2010. (en)
Frédéric Martin-Bernard
If the fashion of pop-up shops can be perplexing, Sergio Rossi’s pop-up store […] aims to unveil new local design sizes.
‘La mode se pique de design’, Le Figaro, Paris, 17 April 2010. (fr)
Johnatan Bell and Ellie Stathaki
Rather than simply report on the newest firms to flash onto our radar, Wallpaper* has commissioned 30 of the finest young architects to design their ideal home.
Wallpaper*, no. 125, eic. Tony Chambers, London, Aug. 2009, p. 78. (en)
Remote places
2021–2007
Writings by other authors related to the series of architectural projects Seven Houses for No One
Nicole Lawrence
Each of his designs is both fierce and empowering as if he could turn each project into a living, breathing being. Truly a lifeforce to behold.
rugsociety.eu, Rio Tinto, 18 March 2021. (en)
Francesco Rocco Ruggeri
We present a few brief snippets of some modern architects and their work in Sicily.
Sicilian Visitors — Culture, vol. 2, Lulu, New Brunswick, July 2018, p. 324. (en)
Andrea Chiu
Since Antonino Cardillo is hailed as an impressionist architect, then we should indeed talk about Impressionism.
Ravenel, no. 6, Taipei City, Aug. 2013, pp. 70‑73. (en, zh)
Devyani Jayakar
Differently from the [William Morris’] Red House in London which represents the search for a national British identity, Purple House tries to recall the forgotten routes between Mediterranean and Britain shorelines.
Inside Outside, no. 315, Mumbai, Sept. 2011, pp. 147‑148. (en)
Vertica Dvivedi
Romance with space works when the architect locates and positions his thoughts not merely in the physical, but emotional, cultural and social space as well.
Surfaces Reporter, New Delhi, June 2011, pp. 36‑41. (en)
Lucie Červená
“In contemporary architecture, a lack of idea is often masked by the use of overwhelming materials. I am not interested in today’s architecture,” says the architect. “I am fascinated by old architecture that we cannot fully understand and thus stimulates our imagination.”
Projekt, no. 9/10, Prague, Sept. 2010, pp. 28‑37. (cs)
Judith Jenner
The traditional Andalusian flamenco has inspired many artists: Federico García Lorca on poems, Pablo Picasso on paintings and sculptures — and the young Italian architect Antonino Cardillo to a house.
H.O.M.E., no. 2/10, Berlin, Feb. 2010, p. 126. (de)
Lucy Foster
Whoever says that Australia lacks culture hasn’t met the client who commissioned this exemplary home.
ShortList, no. 109, London, Jan. 2010, p. 8. (en)
Ridhi Kale
So, if Homer had his Iliad and Odyssey, Rome based architect Antonino Cardillo has the homes he builds across the globe, interpreting his clients’ “most hidden and irrational wishes.”
Home, India Today, Mumbai, Jan. 2010, p. 47. (en)
Thomson Carpenter
The first to admit to being a dreamer, Cardillo concedes to inhabiting a virtual world, a parallel universe, moreover describing his fall into architecture as a chance happening.
DNA, no. 119, Sydney, Dec. 2009, p. 105. (en)
Rohan Yung
According to the Almanac of Architecture & Design, these are some of the world’s top new architectural wonders.
Going Places, Malaysia Airlines, Kuala Lumpur, May 2009, pp. 44‑45. (en)
Ramia Habchy
The play of light within the convex walls of this house create a romantic aura that envelopes visitors and transports them into a world of wonder at the inspired superiority that made this beautifully shaped structure possible.
Touch Decor, Beirut, Oct. 2008, p. 58. (en)
Matt Hussey
We’d all like a bit more space around the house. We’re not talking Changing Rooms-style wall hangings and naff trompe l’oeil — we mean golf club-swinging, echo-inducing caverns that make you wish you’d mastered acrobatic gymnastics whenever you walk into them.
ShortList, no. 52, London, Oct. 2008, p. 6. (en)
Devyani Jayakar
In a profession full of flamboyant empresarios, meet Italian architect Antonino Cardillo. Which is not to say, however, that his creations are not flamboyant. You can eulogise, criticise or analyse them, but you certainly can’t ignore them .
Inside Outside, no. 280, Mumbai, Oct. 2008, p. 119. (en)
Devyani Jayakar
His homes are more nearly temple than dwelling, and they reward aesthetic contemplation before they fulfil domestic necessity.
Home Review, vol. 7, no. 5, Mumbai, Sept. 2008, p. 72. (en)
Anna Krenz
The passing time, however, leaves the interiors the same, creating only a temporary spectacle during which the play of colours and light becomes a space in itself.
Vox Design, no. 8, Warsaw, Feb. 2008, pp. 54‑57. (pl)
Jordan Krosnakov
As soon as we step into the large-scale, serene spaces of buildings designed around him, it captures us and drags us into an extraordinary journey.
Мебелен Дизайн, no. 5/07, Sofia, Oct. 2007, pp. 104‑109. (bg)
Devyani Jayakar
Magnetising the eye from the very moment you view the enormous sweeping curves in the living room, the architecture appears to be the harbinger of an epochal change in Italy’s post imperial design history.
Home Review, vol. 6, no. 5, Mumbai, Sept. 2007, p. 60. (en)
Jana Martin
It functions as observatory. It makes slides of the moon. It considers the Earth’s place in the universe.
moli.com, New York, July 2007. (en)
Matt Hussey
This new house designed by Antonino Cardillo has stumped us good and proper.
thecoolhunter.com, Sydney, July 2007. (en)
