Introduction
Copilot
Architect, historian, critic and activist, Antonietta Iolanda Lima (Palermo, 1941) spanned more than half a century of Italian architectural culture with a holistic and deeply humanistic approach. From the 1960s onwards, her research interwove design, teaching and civic engagement, placing the human being and the landscape at the centre as inseparable entities. As Professor of History of Architecture and History of Landscape at the University of Palermo, she promoted an idea of the discipline that was free, democratic and creative, capable of transcending boundaries and engaging with history to identify enduring processes and values.
Between 1993 and 1998, for Antonino Cardillo she was not merely a lecturer, but the figure who introduced him to architecture as a total experience: from the critical reading of sources to graphic representation, from photographic composition to editorial layout. During those years, Cardillo lived within the spaces designed by Lima—true cultural texts through which he breathed the spirit of the 1960s and 1970s and gained direct experience of space and light. He often photographed these environments at sunset, when light transformed the architecture and revealed new nuances—a practice that became an integral part of his formation. Through his participation in the master’s projects and research, he experimented with a method in which drawing, word and image converged in a single creative act.
Lima imparted to her pupil a vision in which building also meant understanding and transforming culture. Her intellectual integrity—nourished by constant attention to history, the nature of materials, light and the ethical dimension of design—helped shape in Cardillo a sensibility capable of combining rigour and imagination.
In her relationship with Cardillo, Lima embodied the role of mentor in the fullest sense: not only transmitting knowledge, but fostering a critical and creative attitude that found expression in shared scientific contributions, in experiences of graphic and photographic representation, and in a conception of architecture as a universal language—capable of speaking to humanity and transforming the way we inhabit the world.
Copilot, antoninocardillo.com, 13 Sept. 2025.
