Cardillo

architecture

works / residential / elogio-del-grigio /

Elogio del Grigio

Castiglione delle Stiviere,


Project for the villa Casa di Arianna near Lake Garda in the form of a miniature palazzo with a rectangular marble living room with a cuspidated ceiling




Elogio del Grigio


Work

When philosophy paints its grey on grey, then has a form of life grown old, and with grey on grey it cannot be rejuvenated, but only known; the Owl of Minerva first takes flight with twilight closing in. — G.W.F. Hegel


This house, built on the outskirts of Castiglione delle Stiviere, on the slope of a moraine hill to the south of Garda, is inspired by the image of the fog-bound lake. Its frontage appears in the form of a miniature palazzo, a symmetry of elongated openings, entrance arch and hipped roof. In the manner of an ancient pianura dwelling, this dominates the side of the building facing the sunset. According to Hegel, consciousness is a discernment of greys. And this architectural design is a journey around a truth. The Soul of this house, therefore, is arranged for listening to that which is unsaid. In the interior, a living room measuring 10.1x4.36x5.23 metres reunites distant echoes, extending the geography of a place in times seemingly far-off: the rectangular cuspidate rooms of Marrakesh, window panes somewhere between Venetian windows and the marble hammams of Istanbul crossed by hidden waters. The living room of the house of greys is thus a mutable constellation of imaginaries. Its idea-forms inhabit a diaphanous space. Tonal gradients link and distinguish in equal measure, conferring that psychological character of the Wagnerian leitmotiv that weaves subtexts. So, through the acquired faculty of a conversation, the virtue of the grey reconstructs an architecture of chromaticisms.


This text was first published on archdaily.com,[↗] Santiago de Chile, 21 Jan. 2024.




Data


  • Time: Jan. 2015-May 2015 (design), Aug. 2016-Dec. 2017 (construction), Oct. 2023 (photography, text)
  • Place: Via Benedetto Croce 2a, Castiglione delle Stiviere (Mantua), Italy
  • Area: 250 square metres on two storeys
  • Typology: semi-detached house


Elogio del Grigio

Elogio del Grigio

Elogio del Grigio

Elogio del Grigio

Elogio del Grigio

Elogio del Grigio

Elogio del Grigio



Credits


  • Architecture design, construction supervision: Antonino Cardillo
  • Construction management: Giampaolo Piva
  • Quantity surveying: Massimo Maggi
  • Clients: Paolo Beffa, Sara Zarantonello
  • Construction foremen: Andrea Pennati, Giovanni Lancini, Giovanni Locatelli
  • Masonry: Stefano Camozzi, Marco Fontana, Osmanaj Jeton, Giuseppe Lancini, Carmelo Piterolo, Ramqaj Vehbi
  • Marbles, granites: Daniele Ghirardi (Ghirardi Stone Contractor)
  • Windows: Bonazza Enrico (Wolf Fenster)
  • Railings: Marco Zanella (Gamma)
  • Plumbing system: Domenico Botturi (Idroter)
  • Electrical system: Pierluigi Zarantonello (ZL Impianti Elettrici)
  • Air system: Bonometti Graziano, Giacomo Averoldi
  • Doors: Oggetto Casa
  • Woodworker: Bertoli
  • Table, kitchen furniture design: Antonino Cardillo
  • Chair design: Kazuhide Takahama
  • Luminator design: Pietro Chiesa
  • Lamp: Armand Darot
  • Photography, text: Antonino Cardillo
  • English translation: Charles Searson
  • Reference to Hegel inspired by Michele Serra
  • Thanks to Ana Araujo for visiting the site during AA School Intermediate Unit 2 field trip in North Italy (Oct. 2016)




Reference


  • Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts, Berlin, 1820; En. tr. Hugh Barr Nisbet, Elements of the Philosophy of Right, Cambridge University Press, 1991, p. 24.






Anthology

2024–2023



Chiaroscuro composition

Reinette Roux


Belgian artist and surrealist René Magritte often took everyday, familiar objects and placed them in unexpected scenes, posing questions as to where the boundaries lie between what is real and what is representation.


yellowtrace.com.au, Sydney, 2 May 2024. (en, it)




Elegy in grey

Stephan Becker


Antonino Cardillo (from Trapani) does not mention Wittgenstein in his latest project. […] However, the residential house he has built for a family of three, with its angular and austere appearance, still evokes thoughts of the house in Vienna.


baunetz.de, Berlin, 26 Feb. 2024. (de, en, it)




A miniature palace, diaphanous and material, on the Garda

Elisa Zagaria


To narrate his latest work, […] the architect Antonino Cardillo begins with the fog that thickens over the lake’s surface, gently blurring the contours of objects.


elledecor.com, Milan, 14 Feb. 2024. (en, it)




Antonino Cardillo designs Elogio del Grigio house as "miniature palazzo"[↗]

Amy Frearson


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.


dezeen.com, London, 18 Dec. 2023. (en)







Exhibition

2024



History Theory Workshop

Elogio del Grigio, Castiglione delle Stiviere, 9 August 2024


At the invitation of Professor Thomas Di Santo, Cardillo guided the visitors in the house Elogio del Grigio, as part of California Polytechnic State University’s History Theory Workshop.







Publications

2024–2023