Anthology
Collection organised into periods of writings related to Architect Antonino Cardillo’s projects
Darkness
2021–2018
Writings related to the architectural project Off Club and Mammacaura
Where you sit
By Antonino Cardillo
Architecture is often a representation of Evil.
Casabella, no. 925, Milan, Sept. 2021, p. 11.
Typology: Nightclub
By 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, Apr. 2020, p. 44.
Off Club
By 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, Rome, June 2019, p. 38.
@offclubrome
By Radja Nainggolan
Questo è il ristorante più bello di Roma.
@radja_nainggolan_l4, Instagram, Rome, 4 March 2019.
Saturday selects
By Monica Khemsurov
The Sicilian architect Antonino Cardillo just unveiled his latest masterpiece, the Off Club in Rome.
sightunseen.com, New York, 22 Sept. 2018.
Die Symmetrie der Nacht
By Tim Berge
Ein dunkles Paradies aus Schatten, Spiegeln und Symmetrien.
DEAR Magazin, no. 4/18, Berlin, Dec. 2018, p. 34.
Roman empire
By Suzanne Trocmé
A long-time Wallpaper* collaborator, Antonino Cardillo’s latest oeuvre marks a defining moment for the Sicilian architect.
wallpaper.com, London, 17 Sept. 2018.
DEAR
2017
Architecture and truth
By Jeanette Kunsmann with Stephan Burkoff
Antonino Cardillo is a lone warrior — though the term warrior is already misleading.
DEAR Magazin, no. 1, Berlin, Apr. 2017, p. 69.
Evocation
2021–2015
Writings mainly related to the architectural project Specus Corallii
Brave new Italian world
By Karin Van Opstal
Rond zijn monumentale, haast sacrale ruimtes — een grot, een labyrint of een oratorium — hangt steevast een mysterieus aura.
Villas, no. 107, Brussels, 15 Sept. 2021, pp. 70, 74.
Kammermusik
By Eva Gründel and Heinz Tomek
Auf Sizilien sind neben antiken Tempeln, normannischen Domen und barocken Palazzi inzwischen auch spannende Beispiele moderner Architektur zu bewundern wie z.B. Antonino Cardillos Specus Corallii in Trapani.
Sizilien, DuMont Reiseverlag, Ostfildern, 5 Sept. 2019, media release.
Architecture and eroticism
By 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.
‘Specus Corallii’, in Architecture and Eroticism. An Imaginary Wandering, thesis, Tutor Apostolos Kalfopoulos, School of Architecture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, June 2019, pp. 80‑117.
Reflection
By 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.
Evocazione astrazione illusione
By Jean-Marie Martin
Gli spazi che ha progettato rendono palese l’incolmabile distanza che li separa da quanto evocano — essendo peraltro la misurazione della lontananza il significato più proprio dell’evocazione.
Casabella, no. 879, Milan, Nov. 2017, p. 30.
建筑是为了表达我对光的热爱
作者：夏漱香菜
西西里岛是一个神奇而美妙的地方，那里有黑手党，有美丽传说，有大片的橄榄树林和撒在小镇和沙滩上的阳光。以及……我最喜欢的意大利建筑师——Antonino Cardillo?
zhuanlan.zhihu.com, Beijing, 3 Aug. 2017.
Elemental
By 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.
The haven of memory
By 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, Rome, May 2017, p. 46.
Architektur als Rausch
By Jeanette Kunsmann
Antonino Cardillo beherrscht die Kunst, durch Räume und Materialien Geschichten zu erzählen: Die Welt bleibt ein Labyrinth aus Erinnerungen, der Architekt ist ein Zeitreisender — und Architektur wird zum Rausch.
designlines.de, BauNetz, Berlin, 29 Nov. 2016.
Un’anima per la Sala Laurentina
By Mariza D’Anna
A fondale, una nicchia come un mihrab: “nell’idea dell’architettura come dimensione sacra ed universale.”
La Sicilia, Catania, 28 Oct. 2016, p. 13.
Coarse coral-pink plaster
By 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.
Punta Tipa
By Antonino Cardillo
My youth was populated with symbols which came from an ancient past. My imagination was also moulded by the desires of people that inhabited the island long time ago.
‘Antonino Cardillo’, Odda, no. 11, ed. Zurain Imam, New York, Sept. 2016, pp. 426‑427.
False friend
By Antonino Cardillo
Any act of beauty is a shard of love en route for a stranger.
Baunetzwoche, no. 403, ed. Kristina Herresthal and Lisa Kadel, BauNetz, Berlin, March 2015, p. 25.
Ancestral images
2021–2013
Writings related to part of the series of architecture projects Grottoes (Colour as a Narrative, Crepuscular Green, and House of Dust)
New retail scenarios
By 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.
Inherent color and material color
By 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‑Basel, Dec. 2018, p. 342.
Lumira favourite works
By 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.
Saturday selects
By 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 Apr. 2017.
All-green gallery
By 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 Apr. 2017.
L’architecture est un songe
By Sipane K-Hoh
Cette œuvre architecturale aussi inattendue soit-elle traduit un certain dualisme où les formes ordonnées du contenant se heurtent aux imperfections des contenus.
detailsdarchitecture.com, Paris, 28 Nov. 2016.
Stanze
By 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, Apr.‑Sept. 2016.
A shop with no products in sight
By 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.
Da nobis hodie incantum quotidianum
By 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.
Scent and texture
By 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.
Being in shape / shaping environments
By 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.
Architettura di polvere
By Francesca Gottardo
Una dimensione apparentemente fuori dal tempo, che qui sembra essersi fermato o mai trascorso, sospeso, immobile.
Abitare la Terra, no. 37, Rome, March 2015, p. 50.
Götterdämmerung in Rom
By Jeanette Kunsmann
Mit 40 Quadratmetern eher überschaubar, hat der Architekt die Galerie in einen sakralen Raum verwandelt — und eine mutige Abwechslung zum ewigen White Cube geschaffen.
designlines.de, BauNetz, Berlin, 24 Feb. 2015.
Postmodern room
By 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.
לא הולך בתלם
מאת: חיים קפון
קרדילו פורץ גבולות, מנתץ תבניות מוכרות ויוצק לעבודותיו אופי אינדיבידואלי יחודי עם שפה חדשה המבוססת על עקרונות קלאסיים. עם כל זאת, ברור למדי ששפה אסתטית חדשה זו אינה פשוטה לעיכול ולהבנה, ואינה מיועדת לכל אחד, היא רחוקה מאוד מהמיינסטרים, עמוקה, שונה ואחרת, כדרכן של יצירות פורצות דרך.
Trend, no. 141, Tel Aviv, March 2014, p. 180.
Decorative ceilings
By 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.
Feeling through sight
By 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.
Domestic philosophy
By 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.
Morada de lo efímero
By Sandra Bermudez
El arquitecto siciliano se sirve del color para ilustrar el camino de la humanidad: “de la gruta a la rosa” como expresión máxima de lo sublime.
Folio, vol. 4, Mexico City, Oct. 2013, p. 42.
A courageous project
By Dana Tomić 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.
Primordial caverns
By 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.
Haus aus Staub
By Tim Berge
Für den Architekten wird Architektur an der Stelle spannend, wo sie „unsichtbar wird oder etwas verbirgt“ und an der Grenze „zum Traum“ existiert — mit seinem Haus aus Staub hat er genau das in die Wirklichkeit umgesetzt.
designlines.de, BauNetz, Berlin, 13 Aug. 2013.
House of Dust
By 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.
Una casa una visione
By Paolo Maria Noseda
Un ingresso laterale svela un salone che, come una maschera greca improvvisamente indossata dal visitatore, proietta e attira l’attenzione su due finestre rastremate: un paio di occhi sul mondo.
Casamica, no. 3/13, Corriere della Sera, Milan, June 2013, p. 77.
Architecture is dust
By Antonino Cardillo
Architecture is dust.
Dust that becomes form,
Dust transfigured by the mind.
House of Dust, Rome, May 2013, p. 7.
Fulcrum
2013
Architecture as entertainment
By Antonino Cardillo
Architecture regresses into entertainment. Thus contemporary architecture celebrates the power and becomes itself the power.
Fulcrum, no. 77, AA School Press, London, 18 Nov. 2013, p. 1.
Der Spiegel
2019–2012
Writings related to the scandal of the series of architecture projects Seven Houses for No One
Der Architekt als Maerchenerzaehler
By Kirsten Wenzel
Abgesehen von der unfreiwilligen Ironie, dass in beiden Hochstaplergeschichten der Spiegel auftritt, einmal als Ankläger und einmal als Beschuldigter, unterscheiden sie sich allerdings fundamental. […]
competitionline.com, Berlin, 17 Jan. 2019.
Hyper desire
By Carolin Höfler
Nachdem die Darstellungen als Wunschbilder enthüllt waren, entgegnete er: „Sehen Sie es einfach wie eine literarische Erzählung, […] ein Märchen. Da ist es auch nicht wichtig, dass die Dinge tatsächlich passiert sind.“
Paper presented to the Wunsch, Technische Hochschule Köln, Cologne, 1 June 2016.
Über die mediatisierte Repräsentation von Architektur
By Gérard Houllard
Tatsächlich hat Cardillo hier im Kern Recht, denn wie auch dieser Aufsatz zeigen wollte, können Bilder von unrealisierten und utopischen Architekturen zum festen Bestandteil der Architekturgeschichte werden und diese nicht unwesentlich beeinflussen.
iacsa.eu, vol. 4, no. 1, Basel, May 2013, p. 11.
We are mirrors of one another
By Stefano Mirti and Gioia Guerzoni
But if you are a mirror, and we then bring a second mirror, what happens?
Opere, no. 32, Florence, Oct. 2012, p. 54.
Die Entkoppelung von Entwurf und Darstellung
By Daniel Lordick
Es war einmal ein junger Architekt, der auszog, um die Welt zu erobern. […] Seine Architektur existierte lediglich als Simulation.
Competition, no. 2, Berlin, Oct. 2012, p. 78.
Alles nur Gerendert und Jetzt?
By Christian Holl
Oder die, wie wir uns über die Medien heute unsere Realität aus dem Materiellen und dem Imaginären konstruieren und welche Konsequenzen das hat. Keine einfachen Fragen, wahrlich. Wenn der Fall Cardillo nun dazu diente, wenigstens wieder eine dieser Fragen ernsthaft zu diskutieren, hätte er vielleicht mehr für den Architekturdiskurs getan, als die, die meinen, immer schon die Antwort auf sie zu haben.
german-architects.com, Stuttgart, 29 July 2012.
Phantasie und Wirklichkeit
By Gabriele Detterer
Im Übrigen sei Architektur schon immer auch ephemer und virtuell gewesen, erklärt er. Von Palladio bis Schinkel, von Sant’Elia bis Mies van der Rohe hätten Baukünstler mit Ideen in Form von Surrogaten die Architekturentwicklung beeinflusst und die Realität verändert.
Neue Zürcher Zeitung, no. 164, Zurich, 17 July 2012, p. 40.
Hochstapler: Romische Ruinen
By Susanne Beyer
Als Felix Krull jung war, dachte er lange darüber nach, ob er die Welt klein oder groß sehen solle. Seiner „Natur gemäß“ habe er dann in seinem späteren Leben „die Welt für eine große und unendlich verlockende Erscheinung geachtet.“ Er wurde der glücklichste Hochstapler der Literaturgeschichte.
Der Spiegel, no. 27/12, Hamburg, 2 July 2012, p. 121.
Schöner Klonen
By Peter Reischer
Gefragt, ob die Fotos echt seien, gibt es die knappe Antwort: „I am an artist and as an artist I manipulate reality!“
Falter, no. 19/12, Vienna, 9 May 2012, p. 31.
Postmodernism
2011
Style and subversion
By 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.
Takarazuka
2010–2011
Sperimentazioni
By Massimo Locci
Nella fase realizzativa si attua un processo di decantazione di segni e una sistematizzazione del metodo così efficace che il linguaggio appare chiarito e rafforzato.
L’Architetto Italiano, no. 42, Rome, Apr. 2011, p. 31.
野村工務店
By Kenji Nomura
アントニオさん と協議を重ねて作り上げたものなので、我々の最も思い入れ深い作品の一つになって います。そして、アントニオさんの魅力が引き出された住まいになっていると思いま す。今回、アントニオさんのこだわり、デザイン性等、本当に勉強になったと感じて います。
[email], Nomura Construction Co., Ltd., Osaka, Dec. 2010.
Wallpaper
2010–2009
Men’s footwear world tour
By Tony Chambers
Cardillo is one of the most significant architects of our time.
Men’s footwear world tour [media release], Sergio Rossi‑Wallpaper*, Milan, March 2010.
Wallpaper* architects directory
By 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, London, Aug. 2009, p. 78.
Remote places
2013–2007
Writings related to the rise of the series of architecture projects Seven Houses for No One
The memories within architecture
By 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.
印象派建筑师
耿海珍对Antonino Cardillo的采访
Antonino Cardillo 的建筑体块巨大，仿佛来自遥远的异乡与古国，美丽而桀骜不驯 慷慨、狂热，节奏深沉而激昂，光影的瞬息万变令建筑展现着千变万化的容貌，仿佛作着灵魂最深处的展现 对抗，迸发出令人震撼的美，矛盾，产生稳固的和谐。
Interior Architecture of China, Beijing, Nov. 2011, p. 30.
Purple House
By 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.
Romance with space
By 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.
Antonino Cardillo
By Roberto Santoro
He designs space as if he composed music.
Slurp, no. 8, Milan, Aug. 2010, p. 59.
Ein Haus wie ein Tanz
By Judith Jenner
Der traditionelle andalusische Flamenco hat viele Künstler inspiriert: Federico García Lorca zu Gedichten, Pablo Picasso zu Gemälden und Skulpturen — und den jungen italienischen Architekten Antonino Cardillo zu einem Haus.
H.O.M.E., no. 2/10, Berlin, Feb. 2010, p. 126.
Poetry of space
By 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.
Physical poetry
By 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.
Architecture and reverberation
By Antonino Cardillo
Sometimes architecture is all the more interesting, the more invisible or concealed it is.
Tasarim, no. 194, Istanbul, Aug. 2009, p. 91.
弗拉明戈式建筑
丹尼爾邱对Antonino Cardillo的采访
这些房子就像一个个星球观 测站，不停地在它们的墙上记录着天气的万千变化。
The Outlook Magazine, no. 82, Guangzhou, Feb. 2009, p. 44.
House of Convexities
By 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.
Vaulted House
By 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.
Celestial vision
By 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.
My concrete heart
By 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.
Ellipse 1501
By Matt Hussey
This new house designed by Antonino Cardillo has stumped us good and proper.
thecoolhunter.com, Sydney, July 2007.
A total eclipse
By Antonino Cardillo
Near a rocky slope, behind a thick blanket of pines, lives a house in the shape of a tower.
worldarchitecturenews.com, London, 2 July 2007.
Blueprint
2011–2007
James Stirling
By Antonino Cardillo
At a certain time on his creative path, though, Stirling swapped part of his modernist vocabulary for more historical references.
Blueprint, no. 299, London, Feb. 2011, pp. 58.
Comment
By Antonino Cardillo
The history of man has developed through continuous interaction between different cultures. It often happens that the dominant take possession of the submissive, managing to disguise the process by rewriting history.
Blueprint, no. 256, London, July 2007, p. 58.
Ulisse
2007
Egypt and immortality lost
By Antonino Cardillo
“Every eye beholdeth thee confronting it
Thou art the Aten of the day at its zenith
At thy departure thine eye […]
Thou art in my heart”
Ulisse, no. 279, Alitalia, Rome, Nov. 2007, p. 15.