Renato Arrigo is a Sicilian architect based in Messina, with a cosmopolitan practice that moves between Sicily and cities such as Paris, Barcelona, and São Paulo.
His work has received several recognitions, including the 2014 Selinunte national award for contemporary architecture installation, the Kafka career award in the architecture-art section, third place in the concept category of the 2012 PIDA hotel architecture award, and the 2010 G. B. Vaccarini “I Quadranti di Architettura” award for a work of clear architectural quality in Sicily.
As regional vice-president of IN/ARCH Sicilia, Arrigo’s practice connects built work, competitions, hospitality design, and a strong interest in communication.
Stromboli and the act of creation
The interview begins with a project on Stromboli, where an abandoned nightclub was transformed into a complex of nine seaside homes. Arrigo describes architecture as something imagined before it is built: the physical realization may be made of water, sand, cement, lime, wood, reeds, and ceramic, but the emotional charge of the project begins earlier.
On Stromboli, the island’s volcanic energy, isolation, and material atmosphere shaped the work. The project drew from local construction, dark timber and reeds, ceramic fragments, whitewashed dust, and the contrast with black volcanic sand.
Sicily, identity, and Made in Italy
Arrigo links his way of working to Sicily’s intensity: light, heat, history, impatience, and vitality. For him, authenticity is not nostalgia; it is a force that can turn a condition into an opportunity.
Speaking about his role on the jury of the Bar, Restaurants, and Hotel d’Autore award, he reflects on how judging architecture requires a different kind of attention from competing. The lesson he draws from Italian architecture is not a fixed style, but a language that keeps renewing itself.
Space is Luxury
The discussion also turns to Space is Luxury, a small Taormina home where a raised bed disappears into the ceiling to free the room for daytime use. The project treats space itself as the real luxury, especially where the apartment is very small.
The same idea runs through much of Arrigo’s work: architecture is not only about square metres, but about the intensity, flexibility, and emotional intelligence with which those metres are used.
Peter Dark
Anna Lohan
Theresa V. Adams
Yolande A. Bow
Taus Kishiev
