The work of architect Antonino Cardillo has always seemed very cinematographic: His 2008 project His 2008 project [House of] Convexities for instance feels like a modern interpretation of David Lynch’s Dune, the work he did in Rome with House of Dust reminds us of the color palette from Paul Verhoeven’s Total Recall and with many other projects we instantly feel connected to films that have enjoyed great cult followings.
Interesting to know about the concept for this project is that the store for Sergio Rossi in Milan was actually inspired by David Lynch’s Inland Empire, a classic thriller that was deemed one of the most underrated movies of the 2000s. In the movie the main character Nikki is slowly falling into a schizophrenic state where she can not separate reality from fiction. This duality is the key inspiration to the design of this store. As with the lead in the movie, the store shows a confusing blend that Cardillo so rightfully describes as the insertion of a building into another. It’s a fine translation from the way main character Nikki couldn’t separate her roll as Sia.
Working with a similar color palette as House of Dust, this project has that same retro-futuristic feeling to it, as if we jumped into the movie set of a science fiction set in the 60ies. Again shapes seem very simplistic, variating from square to round structures for the inner interior to very triangular and square shapes for the exterior design, forming an interesting juxtaposing composition.
