Review
Matt Hussey
We’d all like a bit more space around the house. We’re not talking Changing Rooms-style wall hangings and naff trompe l’oeil—we mean golf club-swinging, echo-inducing caverns that make you wish you’d mastered acrobatic gymnastics whenever you walk into them.
This is precisely what Rome-based architect Antonino Cardillo was aiming for when he created the House of Convexities, which sits just outside Barcelona and was completed this May with a price tag of £1m. Inspired by his travels to Cuba and Spain. it’s a space that constantly changes perspective as you move through its rooms. The building is huge (its two levels are just under a mammoth 4,000 sq ft), but dividing walls have been forsaken for undisturbed space, which makes clutter almost impossible. The master bedroom is located inside the giant swirl dominating the living area. accessed by two separate staircases, while the kitchen is cunningly slotted on out on a right-hand limb, close to the dining area, seen in the distance.
Cardillo employs some illusory tactics, such as bringing light from unexpected corners of the house, to create different silhouettes throughout the day—which, we think you’ll agree, is hardly comparable to Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen hanging mirrors at jaunty angles.
“Morrissey, you know you said there was a light that never goes out…”