Paolo Emilio Pisano: An Island of One’s Own. A Brief History of Holiday Houses in Sardinia

In this talk, Paolo Emilio Pisano will speak about a series of holiday homes built on the island of Sardinia between 1963 and 1998. Designed by different architects during the wider colonisation of the Northern part of the island, these houses sought validation by referencing and distilling a series of local archetypes. At the same time, providing temporary shelter in the mild Mediterranean summer, they represent case studies of how to push the limits of inhabitation. The lecture discusses the houses in the wider context of the rising and falling trajectory which brought them into being – promising every owner a little ‘island all of [one’s] own: not necessarily to be alone on it, but to make it a world of his own.’

Paolo Emilio Pisano is an architect at Takero Shimazaki Architects in London and is a tutor in Unit 8 at London Metropolitan University School of Art Architecture and Design. He studied in Italy and at the Architectural Association. Between 2015 and 2018 he collaborated with t-sa Forum x AA; a long-established visiting school run at the Architectural Association by Takero Shimazaki Architects. Since 2019, Paolo co-runs an Architectural Association Visiting School in Asinara (Sardinia) exploring the pedagogical possibilities for a de-colonising inhabitation of the territory through tourism.