antonino cardillo rewrites history with the purple house

‘purple house’ by antonino cardillo
image © antonino cardillo

the ‘purple house’, a home made of ‘stone, cement, and purple’ designed by london-based italian architect antonino cardillo transcends form and utilizes architecture as the catalyst that presents an honest and unbiased image of history. inspired by pembrokeshire, a place rooted in byzantine explorations similar to sicily, england, and ireland, history has been slowly rewritten throughout the years to accommodate the desires of the dominant culture. in the architect’s own words, the purple house ‘represents an unconscious and personal language trip into the Norman legacy: exploring diverse elements, following paths empirically, re-evoking remote visions, aiming to find a common lost sense: what were the forgotten exchanges between england, wales, ireland and sicily?’ the monolithic forms articulate a duplicitous nature, carefully absorbing and filtering the different qualities of light throughout the day to illuminate the various spatial conditions while expressing itself with thick walls and hard edges that intrude, intersect, support and avoid each other. during the day, the home is a light-filled prism, a canvas where unique shadows paint themselves across curved surfaces and vaulted ceilings. at night, when the residence has emptied itself of natural light, the weight of the forms becomes evident as the interior becomes a cavernous return to prehistoric times where the primal sense of shelter and warmth are recalled as the universal elements that unite the people of every culture.

(left) view from the site
(right) living area
image © antonino cardillo