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Carlo Scarpa (2 June 1906 – 28 November 1978) was an Italian
architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
, influenced by the materials, landscape and the history of Venetian culture, and by Japan. Scarpa translated his interests in history, regionalism, invention, and the techniques of the artist and craftsman into ingenious glass and furniture design.
Biography
Scarpa was born in
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...
. Much of his early childhood was spent in
Vicenza
Vicenza ( , ; ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region at the northern base of the ''Monte Berico'', where it straddles the Bacchiglione River. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and east of Milan.
Vicenza is a thr ...
, where his family relocated when he was 2 years old. After his mother's death when he was 13, he moved with his father and brother back to Venice. Carlo attended the Academy of Fine Arts where he focused on architectural studies. Graduated from the Accademia in Venice, with the title of Professor of Architecture, he apprenticed with the architect Francesco Rinaldo. Scarpa married Rinaldo's niece, Nini Lazzari (Onorina Lazzari).
However, Scarpa refused to sit the ''pro forma'' professional exam administrated by the Italian Government after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. As a consequence, he was not permitted to practice architecture without associating with an architect. Hence, those who worked with him, his clients, associates, craftspersons, called him "Professor", rather than "architect".
His architecture is deeply sensitive to the changes of time, from seasons to history, rooted in a sensuous material imagination. He was
Mario Botta
Mario Botta (born 1 April 1943) is a Swiss architect.
Career
Botta designed his first building, a two-family house at Morbio Superiore in Ticino, at age 16. He graduated from the Università Iuav di Venezia (1969). While the arrangements of spa ...
's thesis adviser along with Giuseppe Mazzariol; the latter was the Director of the
Fondazione Querini Stampalia when Scarpa completed his renovation and garden for that institution. Scarpa taught drawing and Interior Decoration at the "Istituto universitario di architettura di Venezia" from the late 1940s until his death. While most of his built work is located in the
Veneto
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, he made designs of landscapes, gardens, and buildings, for other regions of Italy as well as Canada, the United States, Saudi Arabia, France and Switzerland. His name has 11 letters and this is used repeatedly in his architecture.
One of his last projects, the Villa Palazzetto in
Monselice
Monselice (; vec, Monséłexe ) is a town and municipality (comune) located in northeastern Italy, in the Veneto region, in the province of Padua about southwest of the city of Padua, at the southern edge of the Euganean Hills (''Colli Euganei ...
, left incomplete at the time of his death, was altered in October 2006 by his son
Tobia. This work is one of Scarpa's most ambitious landscape and garden projects, the
Brion Sanctuary notwithstanding. It was executed for Aldo Businaro, the representative for Cassina who is responsible for Scarpa's first trip to Japan. Aldo Businaro died in August 2006, a few months before the completion of the new stair at the Villa Palazzetto, built to commemorate Scarpa's centenary.
In 1978, while in
Sendai, Japan
is the capital city of Miyagi Prefecture, the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,091,407 in 525,828 households, and is one of Japan's 20 designated cities. The city was founded in 1600 by the ''daimyō'' Date M ...
, Scarpa died after falling down a flight of concrete stairs. He survived for ten days in a hospital before succumbing to the injuries of his fall. He is buried standing up and wrapped in linen sheets in the style of a medieval knight, in an isolated exterior corner of his L-shaped Brion Cemetery at San Vito d'Altivole in the Veneto.
In 1984, the Italian composer
Luigi Nono
Luigi Nono (; 29 January 1924 – 8 May 1990) was an Italian avant-garde composer of classical music.
Biography
Early years
Nono, born in Venice, was a member of a wealthy artistic family; his grandfather was a notable painter. Nono beg ...
dedicated to him the composition for orchestra in micro-intervals ''A Carlo Scarpa, Architetto, Ai suoi infiniti possibili''.
Notable works
*
Gallerie dell'Accademia
The Gallerie dell'Accademia is a museum gallery of pre-19th-century art in Venice, northern Italy. It is housed in the Scuola della Carità on the south bank of the Grand Canal, within the sestiere of Dorsoduro. It was originally the gallery o ...
, Venice, Italy
* Padiglione del libro d'arte, Giardini di Castello,
La Biennale,
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...
, 1950–1952
* Palazzo Abatellis: La Galleria Di Sicilia, Palermo, 1953–1954
*
''Palazzo Ca'Foscari'',
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...
, Italy, 1935–1956
*
Venezuelan Pavilion, La Biennale, Venice, Italy, 1954–1956
* Veritti House, Udine, Italy, 1955–1961
*
Museo Canova
The Museo Canova is a museum established in 1833 at the birthplace of the Italian sculptor Antonio Canova (1757-1822) in Possagno in the province of Treviso in the Veneto, Italy. The museum is dedicated to the life and work of the sculptor and is ...
di
Possagno, Italy, 1955–1957
*
''Museo di Castelvecchio'',
Verona
Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city municipality in the region and the second largest in nor ...
, Italy, 1956–1964
* Negozio
Olivetti
Olivetti S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of computers, tablets, smartphones, printers and other such business products as calculators and fax machines. Headquartered in Ivrea, in the Metropolitan City of Turin, the company has been par ...
, piazza S. Marco, Venezia, Italy, 1957–1958
*
Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice, 1961–1963
*
Brion Tomb and Sanctuary, at
San Vito d'Altivole, Italy, 1969–1978
*Banca Popolare di Verona, Italy, 1973–1978
Carlo Scarpa Designer
Carlo Scarpa was a designer too. At the beginning of his career, he collaborated with glassmakers in Murano. He designed jars and chandeliers for MVM Cappellin & Co. and
Venini.
Furthermore, he joined the industrial design world in the 1960s after meeting Dino Gavina. Indeed Scarpa became the president of the eponymous company Gavina.
In 1968, after the founding of Studio Simon, Carlo Scarpa started to design industrial furniture.
He projected pieces for Simon and Bernini.
The Doge table (1968) and the Cornaro sofa (1973) are the most famous.
Bibliography
*
Francesco Dal Co
Francesco Dal Co (born 29 December 1945) is an Italian historian of architecture. He graduated in 1970 at the University Iuav of Venice, and has been director of the Department of History of Architecture since 1994. He has been Professor of Hist ...
; Giuseppe Mazzariol (1984). ''Carlo Scarpa: opera completa.''
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
: Electa.
*
Francesco Dal Co
Francesco Dal Co (born 29 December 1945) is an Italian historian of architecture. He graduated in 1970 at the University Iuav of Venice, and has been director of the Department of History of Architecture since 1994. He has been Professor of Hist ...
; Giuseppe Mazzariol (1985). ''Carlo Scarpa: The Complete Works.''
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
: Electa; New York: Rizzoli.
* Maria Antonietta Crippa, edited by Marina Loffi Randolin. (1986). ''Carlo Scarpa: Theory, Design, Projects.'' Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
* Nicholas Olsberg, et al. (1999). ''Carlo Scarpa, Architect: Intervening with History.''
Montréal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-p ...
,
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
:
Canadian Centre for Architecture
The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA; french: Centre Canadien d'Architecture) is a museum of architecture and research centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located at 1920, rue Baile (1920, Baile Street), between rue Fort (Fort Street ...
; New York: The Monacelli Press.
*
Sergio Los (1967). ''Carlo Scarpa: architetto poeta.''
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
: RIBA.
*
Sergio Los (1995). ''Carlo Scarpa: guida all’architettura.''
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...
: Arsenale.
* Carla Sonego (1995). ''Carlo Scarpa. Gli anni della formazione''. Venice: IUAV, (unpublished thesis, Professor Marco De Michelis, supervisor).
*Anne-Catrin Schultz (2007). ''Carlo Scarpa: Layers''. Stuttgart: Edition Axel Menges.
*Guido Beltramini, Italo Zannier (2007). ''Carlo Scarpa: Architecture and Design''. New York: Rizzoli.
*
Sergio Los (2009). ''Carlo Scarpa: 1906-1978: A Poet of Architecture.'' Köln:
Taschen
Taschen is a luxury art book publisher founded in 1980 by Benedikt Taschen in Cologne, Germany. As of January 2017, Taschen is co-managed by Benedikt and his eldest daughter, Marlene Taschen.
History
The company began as Taschen Comics, ...
.
*
Francesco Dal Co
Francesco Dal Co (born 29 December 1945) is an Italian historian of architecture. He graduated in 1970 at the University Iuav of Venice, and has been director of the Department of History of Architecture since 1994. He has been Professor of Hist ...
(2009). ''To Construct, to Compose: Carlo Scarpa and the Villa Ottolenghi''. Amsterdam: SUN.
*
Guido Guidi (2011). ''Carlo Scarpa's Tomba Brion.'' Ostfildern:
Hatje Cantz.
* Franca Semi (2010). ''A lezione con Carlo Scarpa.'' Venice: Cicero.
* Robert McCarter (2013). ''Carlo Scarpa''. London:
Phaidon Press. (2nd edition 2017)
Giunta, Santo (2020), Carlo Scarpa. A
uriousshaft of light, a golden standard, the hands and a face of a woman. Reflections on the design process and layout of Palazzo Abatellis 1953-1954. Foreword by Richard Murphy; Afterword by Giampiero Bosoni, Marsilio, Venice, .
References
Giunta, Santo (2020), Carlo Scarpa. A
uriousshaft of light, a golden standard, the hands and a face of a woman. Reflections on the design process and layout of Palazzo Abatellis 1953-1954. Foreword by Richard Murphy; Afterword by Giampiero Bosoni, Marsilio, Venice, .
External links
Digital Archive of Carlo Scarpa*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scarpa, Carlo
1906 births
1978 deaths
Accidental deaths in Japan
Architects from Venice
Accidental deaths from falls
Italian designers
Modernist architects from Italy
20th-century Italian architects
Olivetti people