Text
Antonino Cardillo
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.
— Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts (1820)
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.
Data
- Time: Design (Jan 2015 – May 2015); Construction (Aug 2016 – Dec 2017); Photography, Text (Oct 2023)
- Place: Via Benedetto Croce 2a, Castiglione delle Stiviere (Mantua), Italy
- Area: 250 m² (two storeys)
- Typology: Semi-detached house
Anthology
2025 – 2023
Francesco Dal Co
Cardillo’s work occupies the interval in which the improbable becomes verisimilar, fiction stitches together the real and the unreal, appearance coincides with form, exaggeration unites means and ends.
Casabella, no. 970, Milan, June 2025, p. 96. (en, it)
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)
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 February 2024. (de, en, it)
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 February 2024. (en, it)
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 December 2023. (en)
