Anthology

Collection organised into periods of writings related to Architect Antonino Cardillo’s projects

Cruising

2021

Writing related to the architectural project Mammacaura

Where you sit

By Antonino Cardillo

Architecture is often a representation of Evil.

Casabella, no. 925, Milan, Sept. 2021, p. 11.

Darkness

2020–2018

Writings related to the architectural project Off Club

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.

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.

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.