The Layering of a home

For its December 2025 installation, ANTIQUA presents a curatorial project reflecting on the value of domestic stratification. The inspiration comes from historical models published in Domus magazine: Alberto Ponis’ villa in Palau (Alberto Ponis, House in Palau, Sardinia, Domus, n. 419, October 1964) and Bruno Morassutti’s “house without walls” (Bruno Morassutti, A house without walls, under two rib vaults, Domus, n. 423, February 1965). Following these examples, the gallery has been conceived not as a sequence of isolated objects, but as a layered, fluid space, where materials, forms, and different histories coexist in equilibrium. In this vision of a stratified home each element finds its voice within the visual and sensory continuum of the installation. Each work carries its own history, provenance, and formal grammar; yet it is in their coexistence that the meaning of the curatorial project emerges, creating a coherent dialogue across time and style. This is precisely the challenge: historic design is not invention, but the ability to select, juxtapose, and create dialogue. The gallery thus becomes an environment, more than a display, where forms, materials, and colors are the true protagonists, collectively generating a continuous visual narrative. As in the houses of Ponis and Morassutti, what appears heterogeneous recomposes into a coherent unity, produced not by homogeneity but by the quality of relationships. ANTIQUA presents an installation in which stratification is not accumulation, but a form of visual knowledge: a delicate equilibrium of eras, materials, and poetic sensibilities interacting with one another, offering visitors an experience of harmony and continuity, where each historic object communicates with the others and with the surrounding space.

Works by:

Jacques Adnet
Tommaso Barbi
Barovier & Toso
Pietro Chiesa
Corrado Corradi dell’Acqua
Martin Eisler & Carlo Hauner
Bruno Gambone
Max Ingrand
Vittorio Introini
Vico Magistretti
Carl Malmsten
Bruno Mathsson
Sergio Mazza
Gio Ponti
Carlo Scarpa
Stilnovo