A house, a vision

In Rome, between Villa Borghese and Via Veneto, the House of Dust designed by Antonino Cardillo encapsulates the life philosophy and architectural thought of its creator.

Antonino Cardillo, a Sicilian, is a young itinerant architect. Living in cyberspace makes owning a physical office obsolete, but requires constant learning, both curious and profound, to combat the homogenisation and fossilisation of language. A project must be nurtured, day by day, with presence. Cardillo filters cultures and traditions that become, in his buildings, subtle suggestions, interpretable by each individual according to their own mood and sensitivity.

A side entrance reveals a salon that, like a Greek mask suddenly worn by the visitor, projects and draws attention to two tapered windows: a pair of eyes on the world. An internal theatre to the theatre of life, through dust, a metaphor for journeys and distant lands, an imperceptible unifying element between space and time. Goethe said that one must recognise what others possessed before becoming aware of what one possesses. Thus, on a wooden carpet that becomes a stage, life takes place.

Building a domestic environment requires time and love. Others will know how to recompose images and translations that will help to reveal aspects of the work otherwise hidden, just as Schoenberg, concerned about criticisms of his music, said that routine leads to the fallacy of habit. Beauty pre-exists within the mind and the heart. Beyond the light, one must learn to see in the darkness, like Tiresias. Elegance, and not its tragic parody. Architecture that breathes light, transcends time, and is music, interaction, and projection of the many futures that await us.