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House for Wallpaper*

Marrakech, Wallpaper*,

The detached model house project Lime and Limpid Green was commissioned for the Wallpaper* Architects Directory 2009. Inspired by early impressions from Marrakech and historical examples of courtyard houses, the project questions the boundary between exterior and interior, evoking the ambience of a pre-modern Mediterranean

Genres work
Themes enclosures forms gold vaults
Typology detached house
Intervention types new construction
Stages unbuilt
Places marrakech

Work

Antonino Cardillo

He realized suddenly that it was one thing to see the past occupying the present, but the true test of prescience was to see the past in the future.

— Frank Herbert, Dune (1965)

Years ago, around Marrakech, spread out over the arid plains, I saw some fences. From the outside, I could not understand what lay beyond, but I believe that they were lodgings. What could be within those walls? What was life like there? These questions stimulated my imagination for some months.

Today, in the project commissioned by occasion of the ‘Wallpaper* Architects Directory 2009’, I tried to imagine a possible answer. From the palace of Akhenaton to the projects of Mies, history is full of examples of courtyard houses.

This mode of living fascinates me because it brings into question the need to define an ‘external’. So, rather than identify itself with its shell, the building finds its true essence within, where the parts of the composition can speak to each other inside the ‘empty heart’ of a patio, creating a dialogue that recalls the cities of a pre-modern Mediterranean.

House for Wallpaper*
Golden model from outside, with a vault springing from an enclosure facing arid plains
House for Wallpaper*
Room open to the patio: vault lunette on three pillars; sunken basin in the foreground
House for Wallpaper*
Wall facing the patio, with square openings; narrow doors in the rooms beyond

Data

  • Time: Design (Feb – Mar 2009); Neues Museum photo shoot (6 Apr. 2009); Chabot Museum exhibition (Sep 2009 – Jan 2010)
  • Place: Marrakech, Morocco
  • Area: 100 m² (single storey)

Credits

  • Architecture: Antonino Cardillo
  • Patron: Wallpaper* (editor-in-chief: Tony Chambers; architecture editor: Jonathan Bell; assistant architecture editor: Ellie Stathaki)
  • Berlin golden model: Solido 3d Print, Rome
  • Rotterdam white model: DMC, Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, London
  • Photography, text: Antonino Cardillo
  • Translation: Charles Searson

Historiography

2009

,

As if an annual sweep of the world’s most promising young architects wasn’t ambitious enough, for 2009 we’ve decided to add a new twist to the directory. 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. The concept was to create a practical house for tomorrow; a sustainable, functional and elegant residential prototype adaptable to any plot.

Wallpaper*, no. 125 (August issue), eic. Tony Chambers, London, July 2009, p. 78 (en, it)

Exhibitions

2009

Wallpaper*

The House for Wallpaper* model was exhibited in the Wallpaper* Future 30 exhibition at the Chabot Museum, part of the IV International Architecture Biennial in Rotterdam, curated by journalist Ellie Stathaki.

Chabot Museum, Rotterdam, – (en, it)

Publications

2009

Work texts

  • , ‘’, worldarchitecturenews.com, ed. Niki May Young, London, 13 Aug. 2009.

Bibliography

2016 – 2009

Reception in press and internet