Cardillo

Off Club

Dahab ristorante, Via di Casal Bertone, 64, Rome,

The ‘Off Club’ (now Ottavio-Dahab Restaurant) is a transformative nightclub in Rome. Merging cinematic, ritual and primordial influences, the design reconfigures space through dual hospitality zones within a quadrangular enclosure, accented by twin black granite altars and a double grey façade

Text

Natural man is not a ‘self’—he is the mass and a particle in the mass, collective to such a degree that he is not even sure of his own ego. That is why since time immemorial he has needed the transformation mysteries to turn him into ‘something’, and to rescue him from the animal collective psyche, which is nothing but a variété.

 

— Carl Gustav Jung, Psychologische Typen (1921)


The restaurant and bar Off Club reunites the cinema of Kubrick and De Palma, Grand Theft Auto IV, Miami Art Deco District, the Escher’s perspectives, Byzantine iconostases, and Japanese folding screens.

This work continues the investigation of Primordial Images presenting an ambience that reunites the sensorial plane of tactility with the intuitive, which projects onto reality the psyche of the observer. The space between the elements recalls the pattern of a mandala and the last works of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe—the theme of the double and the one divided.

The two rooms devoted to hospitality form a raumplan six metres in height. Extending right round, a quadrangular enclosure sixteen metres wide unifies the duplex space framing the base of the Vault of the Golden Shadows.

The latter, covering the space within the enclosure, is excavated at the centre by a black apsidal shape. Beneath this centre, a false scale palazzo encloses the contents and functions of the two bars. Constructed of two twin altars 7.22 metres long in black granite, both the bars—mixology on the upper floor and sushi on the lower—counterpoint the opposing sides of the palazzo towards the two rooms.

With its double grey façade the palazzo carries out the apotropaic function of giving faces to the space. An iconostasis made from two twin black monoliths with elongated copper arches masks the face of the palazzo towards the road.

Through the fissure created by the separation of the monoliths a view of figures is revealed. Arches, rhombuses, triangles and discs seem to evoke archaic rituals. Here, ancient and modern syntaxes find conciliation.

Thus, this outline of physical and psychic scapes represents the idea of the architecture as transfiguration of the human.

Data

  • Time: Design (Feb – Oct 2017); Construction (Oct 2017 – Jun 2018); Photography (Jun 2018); Text drafting (Sep 2018); Off Club activity (Dec 2018 – Feb 2022); Anima Restaurant and Club activity (Sep 2023 – Oct 2024); Dahab-Ottavio Ristorante activity (Mar 2025 – ongoing)
  • Place: Dahab Ristorante, Via di Casal Bertone, 64, Rome, Italy
  • Area: 450 m² (three storeys)
  • Typology: Nightclub

Images



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Off Club logotype

Testimonial

2018


Well done, it is truly beautiful architecture.

[email], Wallpaper*, London, 27 June 2018. (en)

Anthology

2025 – 2018


An impression of theatricality emerges, as does spirituality (psyche), which the architect references—rich and intellectually demanding.

Architekturführer Rom, Stuttgart/London, 15 Feb. 2025, p. 368. (de)

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, April 2020, p. 44. (en, it)

Inspired by Swiss Psychologist Carl Gustav Jung, he is constantly reaching out for the ‘architecture of the unconscious’.

re-thinkingthefuture.com, New Delhi, 10 August 2019. (en, it)

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, dir. Paolo Portoghesi, Rome, June 2019, p. 38. (en, it)

(IT)

This is the most beautiful restaurant in Rome.

@radja_nainggolan_l4, Instagram, Rome, 4 March 2019. (it)

The Sicilian architect Antonino Cardillo just unveiled his latest masterpiece, the Off Club in Rome.

sightunseen.com, New York, 22 September 2018. (en)

A dark paradise of shadows, mirrors and symmetries.

DEAR Magazin, no. 4/18, Berlin, December 2018, p. 34. (de, en, it)

A long-time Wallpaper* collaborator, Antonino Cardillo’s latest work marks a defining moment for the Sicilian architect.

wallpaper.com, London, 17 September 2018. (en, it)

Exhibitions

2025 – 2019


C.G. Jung-Institut, Zurich, .

Antonino Cardillo will present the seminar ‘Depth architecture—The aesthetic nature of the psyche’ as part of the autumn 2025 Analytical Psychology Training Program curated by Julia Budai at the Carl Gustav Jung Institute of Zurich.

Off Club, Rome, .

At the invitation of curator Gaia Maria Lombardo, Andrea Paolo Massara guides the visitors through the Off Club project of Cardillo, part of the ‘Open House Rome 2024’ program.

Museo Pepoli, Trapani, .

After an introduction by the anthropologist Rita Cedrini, Cardillo presents his constructed projects during the conference ‘Anthropology in Architecture’, part of the cultural events series of the Agostino Pepoli Regional Museum in Trapani.

DIA, Bauhaus Campus, Dessau, .

After an introduction by Professor Johannes Kister, Cardillo interprets seven images of his architectural works during the conference ‘A Synchronicity of Cultures and Civilisations’, part of the Dessau Talks series at the Dessau Institute of Architecture, Bauhaus Campus.

Royal College of Art, London, .

At the invitation of the students of the Royal College of Art, Cardillo discussed his nightclub project during the conference ‘The Making of Rome’s Off Club’ in the Inside/Out conferences series curated by representatives Yara Boulos and Riccardo Rizzetto of the Interior Design department.

Publications

2025 – 2018 (selected)

Credits

  • Architecture, construction management: Antonino Cardillo
  • Clients: Massimo Di Persio; with Matteo Di Persio, Francesco Curcio, Remo Curcio

  • Building contractor: Roberto Federici
  • Masonry: Vincenzo Amato, Adrian Ciacan, Marius Ioan Frunzà, Emanuele Venturini
  • Logistics: Cristiano Massariello, Emanuele Zappone
  • Painting: Andras Marton Mihaly
  • Electrical system: Fabio Gabriele
  • Plumbing system: Stefan Minciuna
  • Granites: Ghirardi Stone Contractor
  • Windows: Claudio Carboni
  • Parquet: Gabriel Grama
  • Air system: Alessio Lanzani
  • Paintings: Sikkens (via Vito Caruso)
  • Curtains: Pasquale Lo Guercio
  • Mirrors: Nazzareno Garofani

  • Bar counter, tables, furniture design: Antonino Cardillo
  • Sofa design: Piero Lissoni, Living (via Mario Dejana)
  • Chair: Busnelli (via Luca Anzellotti)
  • Door handles: GIL (via Handles)
  • Balcony lamp: Armand Darot
  • Stair lamp: 1970s Murano glass from Palermo
  • Luminator: (via Giuseppe Picconi)

  • Photography, text: Antonino Cardillo
  • Translation: Charles Searson

  • Thanks to Klaus Mondrian