The second instalment in the ‘For No One’ collection, this tower-like dwelling embarks on a journey into the realm of silence and sound. It engages with light to manipulate perception, proposing an exploration of the mutable architecture articulated by the passing time
Text
Antonino Cardillo
The light, before entering the central space, is forced to filter and cool down in the void of the corner towers, light chambers similar to those used by the masters of the Baroque.
— Paolo Portoghesi, La Luce nell’Architettura Moderna (1969)
The three zones of working, living and resting are represented in sequence along an axis by juxtaposed edifices: a trapezoidal polyhedron, an ample rectangular hall and a tower articulated on two levels.
On the inside, openings and pathways weave a possible dialogue between each cavity. Silences are not all alike. The silence of a large nave is different from that of a room. And the outdoor sounds of the countryside perceived through a great silence can be yet more diverse.
So, in a hall, modulated in plan on three squares six metres wide the heart of the design is formed. The flooring in travertine and a covering of Venetian stucco spread on the ample side developed lengthways, create, via a chromatic homogeneity, a continuous ribbon which, enveloping the observer, offers a sort of blank page on which to write his or her own experience.
At the same time, the light, coming from the long sides of the room, has the possibility to interpret the space. On the south side the position of the windows welcomes in the winter sun and, through a thick wide cement lunetta, screens the sun in summer.
Below, in the centre, a block of travertine is excavated from a low cavity. Inside it a block functions as a work surface for the kitchen, occupying the centre; in the background a door leads to the pantry and two windows mark the corners of the room leading towards the outside.
On the opposite side of the hall, to the north, the windows shrink towards the corners, becoming vertical. From floor to ceiling, the openings pick up the fleeting light of the sun at dawn and at sunset in summer which, penetrating the room diagonally, colour the space with new meanings.
Finally, moving between the hall and the tower of the rest, an azure light, concealing its origins, slips from above along the wooden and cemented walls of the walkways and the stairs accessing the tower, forming an iridescent stage, a picture in perspective in mutation.
Apart from the involuntary irony that Der Spiegel appears in both impostor stories, once as a prosecutor and once as an accused, they differ fundamentally.
competitionline.com, Berlin, 17 January 2019. (de, en, it)
Cardillo has created a labyrinth of truths and illusions. It is a novella with multiple layers. […] There is no one truth—reality: it doesn’t exist. Antonino Cardillo has built it.
DEAR Magazin, no. 1, Berlin, April 2017, p. 84. (de, en, it)
After the representations were revealed as desired pictures, he replied: “Just see it like a literary narrative, […] a fairy tale. It is also not important that things actually happened”.
Konstruierte Realitäten, Goethe‑Universität, Deutsche Architekturmuseum, Frankfurt am Main, 1 December 2015. (de, en, it)
In fact, Cardillo is right here at its core, because as this essay also wanted to show, images of unrealised and utopian architectures can become an integral part of architectural history and not insignificantly influence it.
IACSA Newsletter, vol. 4, no. 1, Basel, May 2013, p. 11. (de, en, it)
Cardillo, who meticulously lists all these press reports on his website, only holds up a mirror to architectural media and points out a fundamental problem: How can young architects find clients without having been published?
How do we construct our reality from the material and the imaginary through the media today and what are the consequences? […] If the case of Cardillo now serves to at least seriously discuss one of these questions again, he may have done more for the architectural discourse than those who think they have always known the answer.
german-architects.com, Stuttgart, 29 July 2012. (de, en, it)
Incidentally, architecture has always been ephemeral and virtual, he explains. From Palladio to Schinkel, from Sant’Elia to Mies van der Rohe, architects influenced architectural development and changed reality with ideas in the form of surrogates.
Neue Zürcher Zeitung, no. 164, Zurich, 17 July 2012, p. 40. (de, en, it)
When Felix Krull was young, he pondered for a long time whether he should view the world as small or large. According to his “nature”, he later in life “considered the world to be a great and infinitely alluring phenomenon”. He became the happiest impostor in literary history.
Der Spiegel, no. 27/12, Hamburg, 2 July 2012, p. 121. (de, en, it)
An email inquiry pointing out that the architectural photos depicted or submitted are not photos but renderings, receives the terse response: “I am an artist and as an artist I manipulate reality! That’s it!”
Falter, no. 19/12, Vienna, 9 May 2012, p. 31. (de, en, it)
This 3,982 sq ft property in Parma, Italy, was born out of Cardillo’s trip to Marrakesh, Morocco, where he was fascinated by the 19th century Bahia Palace.
Home, India Today, Mumbai, January 2010, p. 47. (en, it)
At the invitation of musician John Foxx, exhibition of a print of Ellipse 1501 House and the video ‘Tales of Light’ on four projects (later called ‘Houses for No One’) part of the exhibition on the artists he inspired at The Horse Hospital in London.
The Horse Hospital, London, – .
Publications
2025 – 2008
(selected)
Antonino Cardillo, ‘Simulazione come ermeneutica della realtà’, Artbox – Puntata del 5/3/2025[television programme], ed. Didi Gnocchi, La7, Milan, 6 March 2025. Transcript published on antoninocardillo.com, 6 March 2025.
Liliana Adamo, ‘FAKEcollage. Non credo ai miei occhi!’, in Dossier Collage, cur. Fabio Cappello, Rossella Ferorelli, Luigi Mandraccio, Gian Luca Porcile, Università di Genova, July 2022, pp. 35, 39.
Carolin Höfler, ‘Hyper desire’, paper presented to the Wunsch, Technische Hochschule Köln, Cologne, 1 June 2016.
Carolin Höfler, ‘Modelle in Wirklichkeit. Die digitalen Bildversprechen von Antonino Cardillo’, paper presented to the Constructed Realities, ed. Chris Dähne, Frederike Lausch, Bettina Rudhof, Goethe‑Universität, Deutsche Architekturmuseum, Frankfurt am Main, 1 Dec. 2015. Transcript published on antoninocardillo.com, 24 Apr. 2022.
Antonino Cardillo, ‘Faked Reality’, paper presented to the Constructed Realities, ed. Chris Dähne, Frederike Lausch, Bettina Rudhof, Goethe‑Universität, Deutsche Architekturmuseum, Frankfurt am Main, 1 Dec. 2015. Transcript published on antoninocardillo.com, 12 May 2021.
Carl Zillich, with Fabrizio Gallanti, Lars Krückeberg, Volkwin Marg, Wolfram Putz, Peter Reischer, Andreas Ruby, Tobias Walliser, Thomas Willemeit, ‘Causa Cardillo: “Geht’s noch ohne Hochstapelei?”’, bkult.de, Berlin, 10 Sept. 2012.
Peter Reischer, ‘Grandiose Luftschlösser’, Am Sonntag, no. 32, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich, 5 Sept. 2012, p. 35.
