Carlo Alberto Scarpa, famous and important Venetian architect of the 20th century Italy, was born and studied in Venice at the Accademia. He began a flourishing activity as a designer at the Venini furnace, taking on its artistic direction in 1932. The beautiful Murrini, beautiful glass vases shaped by combining bright colors and minute geometric shapes, are born from the partnership with the Murano furnace.
Throughout his career and since its beginnings, Scarpa frequented the artistic and intellectual circles of Venice and began to think about his professional philosophy according to the principles of harmony, reaching the mature age with a very personal conception of architecture as it refers to the concepts of language and mystery.
Materials such as wood, marble, stone, iron, mosaic, and even Murano glass worked with great skill are the choices that the architect prefers in designing spaces. However, the main element of Scarpa’s designs is water, allowed to enter the architecture and therefore used as a living element interacting with the immobile matter.
There are many works that should be listed to convey the importance of the contribution offered by Carlo Scarpa to the artistic and architectural panorama both in Italy and in Venice, rather – finding ourselves in Venice and imagining not to have much time to visit the city – there are some particularly fascinating places that can be chosen without fear of making mistakes.
At the end of the 1950s Scarpa accepted the task of reorganizing the spaces of the Negozio Olivetti, a space overlooking Piazza San Marco near the Procuratie Vecchie. The dark spaces were rethought by the architect with attention to volumes and transparencies. What once again emerges from the observation of the spaces designed by Scarpa is the predilection for the dialogue between the architectural and decorative elements in relation to the volumes. Inside the entrance hall, a prominent staircase inhabits the empty space and appears at the same time heavy and weightless. Once again the dualism of Scarpa succeeds in bringing lightness through massive structures. Here we also find the triumph of pure material, where marble, metals, teak, stucco and mosaics are exhibited refusing to complicate their appearance in formal terms. The conservation of the shop have been entrusted to FAI since 2011 following a careful restoration by Assicurazioni Generali.
Carlo Scarpa also intervened on the ground floor of Palazzo Querini in Santa Maria Formosa, where Querini Stampalia Foundation is located, maintaining the ancient elements from the sixteenth century and choosing to overwrite only the parts of nineteenth-century origin. Here Scarpa is extremely close to tradition, with the explicit intention of not wanting to re-propose ancient forms but rather to acquire and overcome them. Here too, Scarpa’s obsessive search for quality in materials is demonstrated by the perfection of the marble chessboard that forms the atrium floor. On this surface, Scarpa welcomes the water of the lagoon and refuses to think of barriers to stop it beyond the threshold of the building. Instead of fearing it, he accepts it and indeed establishes it as an element that brings light and reflections. Also not to be missed is the Luzzatto room, set up according to the dualism between similarity and contrast.
As already mentioned, the cases listed are only hints at the wonders that can be observed in Venice created by the hand of Carlo Scarpa.
Although not sufficient to provide an exhaustive picture of Scarpa’s creations, the Olivetti Shop and the Querini Stampalia Foundation are excellent sites from which to begin to approach the principles of one of the most well-known and loved contemporary architects.
Contact us for more details about Carlo Scarpa or other famous artists of the history of Venice!
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
