Cardillo

architecture

Colour as a Narrative

London,

Project for the perfume shop Illuminum Fragrance on Dover Street in Mayfair ward with grey rough plaster grotto and silk carpet plus olfactory glass bowls

Colour as a Narrative

Interpretation

Has it been observed to what extent outward idleness, or semi-idleness, is necessary to a real religious life, […] I mean the idleness with a good conscience, the idleness of olden times and of blood, to which the aristocratic sentiment that work is diskonouring—that it vulgarises body and soul—is not quite unfamiliar? And that consequently the modern, noisy, time-engrossing, conceited, foolishly proud laboriousness educates and prepares for ‘unbelief’ more than anything else? — Friedrich Nietzsche

Behind a portal on a Georgian street in London, lives a small grey grotto. Its rugged walls, imprinted with gestures of the mason’s trowel reveal the eroticism which was conveyed in the act of construction by the ancients. The pozzolanic ash echoes the volcanic topography from where it was quarried. As ‘chambers of light’ the three tall openings facing the street orchestrate the light and shadow. Onto a rough wall: the backdrop for a sweeping semi-circle of thirty-seven irregular glass forms each suspended by a black thread. Enclosed are colours. Invisible colours revealed only by the nose.

Reference

Data

  • Time: Feb 2014–March 2015 (design), March–April 2015 (construction), April 2015 (photography), 2017 (demolished)
  • Place: Illuminum Fragrance, 41 Dover St, Mayfair, London, UK
  • Area: 27 m² (one storey)
  • Typology: shop
Colour as a Narrative
Colour as a Narrative
Colour as a Narrative
Colour as a Narrative

Credits

  • Architecture, construction management: Antonino Cardillo
  • Olfactory glasses concept: Asakala Geraghty
  • Client: Illuminum Fragrance (director: Keith Hamilton; art director: Asakala Geraghty)
  • Construction company: Italian Art Design Ltd.
  • Masonry: Adrian Paiunui Mihai, Fabio Di Monte, Gianmarco Di Monte
  • Carpet: Natural Elements Flooring
  • Glass making: Elliot Walker
  • Photography, text: Antonino Cardillo
  • Translation: Antonino Cardillo, Morgan Ferrar, Asakala Geraghty
  • Thanks to Suzanne Trocmé

Anthology

2021–2015

New retail scenarios

It is a poem, an indelible experience that evokes powerful memories.

Retail and Service Experience Design for CCIs, DigiMooD MOOCs, Politecnico di Milano, 9 February 2021. (en)

Lumira favourite works

There’s a nostalgic sense of the future about this structure, as if it had been envisioned for today’s world some time ago. It’s decidedly contemporary and abstract, but unlike the empty voids of other modern architecture, Colour as a Narrative is primitive and rich with the markings of human labour.

atelierlumira.com, Sydney, 22 January 2018. (en)

Architecture is a dream (FR)

This architectural work, however unexpected, reflects a certain dualism where the ordered shapes of the container collide with the imperfections of the contents.

detailsdarchitecture.com, Paris, 28 November 2016. (fr)

A shop with no products in sight

Somewhere on Dover Street, […] there lies a fairy tale grotto filled with tranquillity and calm.

Eclectic, no. AW15, Paris, September 2015, p. 160. (en)

Beguiling simplicity (DE)

Perfumery Illuminum in London welcomes its customers in a shop that breaks with all the buying and viewing habits of the luxury class.

handelsjournal, no. 9/15, Düsseldorf, September 2015. (de)

Scent and texture[↗]

Italian architect Antonino Cardillo has created a multi-sensory space for experiencing and buying fragrance by coating a room inside an old London building with volcanic ash.

dezeen.com, London, 6 May 2015. (en)

Publications

2021–2015 (selected)