Akin to a Cinema Set

Often cinema and architecture find a common denominator in allegory, as an abstract concept is expressed through an image. In the David Lynch film Inland Empire, Nikki, the protagonist, superimposes her own identity onto the role of the actress that she plays in the story. The narrative structures of the two lives blur. The more it goes on, the more difficult it becomes to discern where Nikki’s life finishes and Sue’s (the part played) begins. Simulation and reality overlap. And this act throws open perspectives to the perception at first concealed, which come to mutate the meanings of each of the two lives. The temporal production presented here attempts a transliteration of this structural idea in Lynch’s film: architecture for Sergio Rossi creates a game of returns between orders of ideal and reality, between interiors and exteriors. Exchanging dialogue, this architecture overlaps the diverse identities of the place: from the outline of the pre-existing 1980s shop, to the urban backdrop of the medieval Church of the Carmine, to the decorative Art Nouveau pieces of the palazzo in the alley nearby. So relationships, as well as happening in space, extend also into time, into dialogue, which is also critical interpretation, with signs already in existence. The idea of the insertion of a building into another, is above all a recurring theme in the architecture of the past. From the medieval schola cantorum of the Basilica di Santa Maria in Cosmedin in Rome, to Leon Battista Alberti, who, in the Tempietto in Florence, simulates a miniature of the Sacred Sepulchre in Jerusalem inside a large room, to the Baroque experiences of the chamber of light and of the theatrical stage set, up to the neoclassical canopies of John Soane which, inspired by the unfinishedness of the Roman ruins, seem to fluctuate in a space made of light. Suggested by the ephemeral canvases of scenography, this system of construction is set out again here according to an Italian metre mutated from the Milanese rationalism of the nineteenth century. But the rational nature of this enclosure, structurally independent of the existing space, is put into doubt by the contradictions that are determined among the diverse identities of the space: that of the installation and the other, residual and amorphous, that of the existing space made homogeneous by a grey-blue colour, and the urban landscape of Brera, time beaten by the episodic passage of the tramways. Thus the internal space is presented to the observer according to a progressive unveiling of different and partially hidden ambits, which suggests an alternative way to the conventional interior open-space which, as it often offers itself to view from the start, inhibits the imagination.

Testimonial

By Tony Chambers

Cardillo is one of the most significant architects of our time. Combine that talent with Russo’s modern take on classic footwear and you get an exceptional shopping destination experience. This is an exciting and significant collaboration for Wallpaper* and this is a must-see store.

Men’s footwear world tour, 2010.

Data

• Time: Feb.–Apr. 2010; demolished in 2013
• Place: Sergio Rossi, Via Ponte Vetero, 19, Milan, Italy
• Area: 60 m² (two storeys)
• Typology: shop

Credits

• Architecture design, construction management, and furniture design: Antonino Cardillo
• Clients: Sergio Rossi (via Suzanne Trocmé; director: Christophe Melard; art director: Francesco Russo; marketing: Xavier Rougeaux) and Wallpaper* (director: Tony Chambers; curator: Suzanne Trocmé)
• Project management: Miriam Romano
• General contractor: Buzzoni
• Floor lamp: Joe Colombo, Oluce

Publications

(selected)

• Mitchell Oakley Smith, Alison Kubler, ‘From boutique to gallery: fashion, art and architecture’ (pdf), in Art / Fashion in 21st Century, Thames & Hudson, London, Oct. 2013, pp. 252, 254‑257.
• Anonymous, ‘Sergio Rossi spring / summer 2013 men’s shoes’ [video], Fashion TV, Milan, 24 Sept. 2012.
• Antonino Cardillo, ‘Sergio Rossi store’ (pdf), in Commercial Display, 大连理工大学, Dalian, Aug. 2012, pp. 136‑143.
• Antonino Cardillo, ‘An ephemeral shop akin to a cinematographic set’, in Creative Commercial Space, ed. Aimee Wu and Anna Qu, Phoenix, Hong Kong, June 2012, pp. 234‑237.
• Helen Geng Haizhen, ‘印象派建筑师’ (pdf), Interior Architecture of China, Beijing, Nov. 2011, pp. 64‑67.
• Antonino Cardillo, ‘Frame story’, Design Today, vol. X, no. 9, ed. Mamta Upadhyaya, New Delhi, June 2011, pp. 44‑48.
• Massimo Locci, ‘Sperimentazioni di Antonino Cardillo’ (pdf), L’Architetto Italiano, no. 42, Rome, Apr. 2011, pp. 32‑33.
• Antonino Cardillo, ‘Gioco di rimandi: Shop in Milan’ (pdf), L’Arca, no. 264, Milan, Dec. 2010, pp. 92‑93.
• Anonymous, ‘Negozio temporaneo Sergio Rossi progettato da Antonino Cardillo’ (pdf), AN, no. 100, Varese, Nov. 2010, pp. 74‑75.
• Antonino Cardillo, ‘Akin to a cinema set’ , worldarchitecturenews.com, ed. Samy Mansour, London, 14 Sept. 2010.
• Lucie Červená, ‘Stejnost a jinakost podle Antonina Cardilla’ (pdf), Projekt, no. 9/10, Prague, Sept. 2010, pp. 28‑37.
• Anonymous, ‘Men’s footwear world tour by Sergio Rossi’ [video], Fashion TV, Milan, 12 Aug. 2010.
• Antonino Cardillo, ‘Values transcending time’ (pdf), build Das Architekten-Magazin, no. 4/10, ed. Ralf Ferdinand Broekman and Olaf Winkler, Wuppertal, Aug. 2010, p. 47.
• Dan Logan (dir.), ‘Sergio Rossi ‘POP UP’ store’ [video], ed. Ellie Stathaki, Logan Productions‑Wallpaper*, London, 24 May 2010.
• Malaika Byng, ‘Wallpaper* and Sergio Rossi unveil an ephemeral boutique in Milan’ , wallpaper.com, London, 19 Apr. 2010.
• Frédéric Martin-Bernard, ‘La mode se pique de design’ , Le Figaro, Paris, 17 Apr. 2010.
• Matteo Persivale, ‘La moda suona il rock (di saturnino)’ (pdf), Corriere della Sera, Milan, 15 Apr. 2010, pp. 40‑41.
• Tony Chambers, Men’s footwear world tour (pdf) [media release], Sergio Rossi‑Wallpaper*, Milan, March 2010.