Miniature palazzo

Italian architect Antonino Cardillo has completed a house near Lake Garda featuring steep ceilings, arched doorways and a palette of textured plaster and marble.

Located in Castiglione delle Stiviere, in Italy’s Lombardy region, the two-storey residence was designed by Cardillo in the spirit of “a miniature palazzo”.

Called Elogio del Grigio, which means “praise of grey”, the house combines classic proportions with a minimalist design aesthetic.

The building echoes the form of its red-walled neighbour, a typical northern Italian villa, but also incorporates references to traditional architecture from different parts of the Mediterranean.

The layout centres around a grand first-floor living room described as “the soul of this house”.

Cardillo drew on “the rectangular cuspidate rooms of Marrakech” and “window panes somewhere between Venetian windows and the marble hammams of Istanbul” for the design.

Elogio del Grigio is home to a couple and their young daughter.

After visiting Cardillo’s House of Dust, a Rome apartment featuring deep wall recesses and textured ceilings, the couple asked the architect to design them a family home.

The brief called for generous living and dining spaces on two levels, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a roof terrace and a garage with space for two cars.

The building’s exterior is relatively modest, with a cool grey render finish and door shutters painted in a slightly brighter green-toned grey.

Inside, the materials palette becomes more luxurious.

Slabs of Carrara marble cover the walls and floors in the first-floor living room and bathroom, with a book-matching technique to create subtle repetition within the surface patterns.

The steeply sloping ceilings are coated with a plaster mix that includes volcanic ash, which was applied with a hand trowel to create the lumpy texture.

The living room also features a custom-made granite table based on the one in House of Dust, created thanks to the support of stone contractor and previous collaborator, Daniele Ghirardi.

“Daniele had already supported my research by funding an exhibition of my sculptures at the Soane Museum in London a few years ago”, Cardillo said.

Bedrooms are also located on the first floor, which is wrapped on three sides by terraces, while the lower level houses an office, the garage and the second kitchen and living space.

Other projects by Cardillo include a textured all-green gallery interior and a Sicilian grotto.