November Kick-Off: Antonino Cardillo

I couldn’t think of a better way to kick off November than with the amazing work of Antonino Cardillo.

Cardillo is young in age as compared to many other fine architects but vastly talented — his work is seriously awe-inspiring to me. There’s a lot to his bio but here are some quickie stats; He attended courses in Modern History and Contemporaneity by Antonietta Iolanda Lima, contributing to various publications between 1994 and 2001 then produced photographic reports for the review “L’Architettura Cronache e Storia” by Bruno Zevi. Later (not too much later) he worked with the studio Nonis Maggiore in Milan and then briefly with the equally awe-inspiring Manfredi Nicoletti before opening his own architectural studio in Rome.

Cardillo is a kind fellow to boot. He recently nicely sent me some photos of his work that fit perfectly here at Offbeat; I think you’ll agree.

This first house is the Ellipse house in, “the hills near Rome” and it’s breathtaking. This house was created for warmth with geometric positioning towards the east and west to bring in sunlight both at dusk and dawn.

Much of the magic of this house is in the way colors play off the outdoor environment, vs. the sunlight, vs. the actual concrete double walls. At first it seems stark — much starker than my normal house obsessions. What makes this special and more alluring is that the interior colors change due to weather and of course the weather associated light and shadows. In the photos below I think this design play is really clear.

What might look cold in fact looks stunning. I would love to see it in the rain to see the change.

More after the jump.

My favorite is the area below. I’m usually not a fan of clear dividers of any sort in home. Not on balconies, not as walls, but I like how the loft areas in this home turned out. Without the clear panels I think it would have looked so much more closed up and part of the charm of this home is this wide open feeling you get.

You can read a full description in this article and view the floor plan — you really need to see see the floor plan it gives you the actual ellipse experience.

I’ve read at least one review that felt the Ellipse to be too cold (although they were torn on their final feelings). I don’t think it’s too cold or too concrete. It’s hardly static. The texture and light is what I think drew me in. Also, the entire ellipse shape is so clever and unique that I find it hard to believe it would fail to draw offbeat home lovers in.

Partly too is that the rest of Cardillo’s work is so creative and clean that you just fall for all of it no questions asked. I have one more Cardillo home lined up for later but for now you can tell me what you think…

Also in the meantime you can visit the Antonino Cardillo website to see more amazing work.

[many thank to Antonino Cardillo for the wonderful photos]