From delicate interventions to masterful restructurations, architect Carlo Scarpa gifted Venice with a subtle modernity that can be discovered throughout the city and extending into the countryside, including his famous Brion Tomb. Born in Venice in 1906 and passing away in Sendai, Japan in 1978, this quintessential Venetian architect accomplished a significant portion of his long career on the Lagoon.
Scarpa's early career was marked by both controversy and innovation. As a young architecture graduate, he dared to inject modernity into the historic buildings of the Serene Republic, including Ca' Foscari, which earned him criticism from local officials. In 1927, he sought refuge with his friend Paolo Venini, a former lawyer who had abandoned the bar to work with glass. This collaboration would prove revolutionary, establishing Venini's worldwide reputation through Scarpa's radical stylistic innovations.
While his furniture pieces designed later for friend Dino Gavina in Bologna established Scarpa as a fundamental designer (then called 'progettista'), it was his architecture that formed a complete body of work. His most extraordinary achievement lies in the Treviso countryside at San Vito d'Altivole, where he created the striking Brion Cemetery mausoleum. This masterpiece includes basins, gardens, doors that open with counterweights and pulleys, unique perspectives, and spaces for contemplation. The design shows clear influence from Frank Lloyd Wright, whom Scarpa met in Venice in 1951 and for whom he organized a major posthumous exhibition in Milan in 1960.
Exhibition design was an inspired exercise for Scarpa the scenographer. His work on exhibitions dedicated to Paul Klee and Giorgio Morandi remained memorable, as did his more permanent contributions to museums in Verona and Treviso. The Venice Biennale became his playground, where he built both the Venezuela Pavilion and the more prosaic ticket office within the Giardini grounds. Between private residences for prominent Venetian families - Casa Bellotto, Casa Pelizzari, Casa Balboni - and collective housing projects in Vicenza where he maintained his agency-studio, as well as the Fusina camping site in Venice, Scarpa demonstrated his mastery of materials, craftsmanship, and human touch.
The Querini Stampalia Foundation stands as one of Scarpa's most celebrated works. Initiated in 1869 by Count Giovanni Querini Stampalia, the last representative of one of Venice's oldest families, this foundation preserves the family's real estate and artistic heritage in a 16th-century palace. Between 1959 and 1963, Scarpa constructed a bridge of wood, iron, and copper spanning the canal, restored the severely damaged ground floor spaces often flooded by water, and designed an interior garden. The garden features a concrete wall decorated with a ceramic frieze by artist Mario De Luigi, Scarpa's close friend, and includes a small stream following a labyrinthine and melodious path through basins and cascades.
A Venetian architectural stroll following Scarpa's work crosses canals, penetrates secular walls, and reveals several brilliant achievements. The Querini Stampalia Foundation, the Architecture University, the Academy Gallery, and the recently reopened mythical Olivetti showroom under the arches of the Procuratie Vecchie in Piazza San Marco all showcase his genius. Commissioned by Adriano Olivetti to display typewriters, calculators, and artworks, this space designed by Scarpa in 1957 closed in 1997 before becoming, inevitably in Venice, a souvenir shop. It has now been restored to its original concept as a museum of itself.
The journey continues to the Correr Museum, housed in a ceremonial palace where Scarpa created what is rightfully considered a masterpiece. Crossing the Grand Canal to Campo della Carità in Dorsoduro, visitors can explore the Academy Gallery, a former church transformed into an exemplary museum by Scarpa, who worked with a prodigious collection including works by Tiepolo, Tintoretto, and Veronese. The experience is breathtaking in its execution and presentation.
The paradox of this Venetian Scarpa journey also includes some remnants and losses. In the heart of the San Polo district, the centuries-old Sfriso goldsmith shop, whose interior Scarpa designed in 1932, recently closed its doors. His own house, located on Rio Marin next to the Capovilla carpentry workshop - Scarpa designed the family tomb at San Michele cemetery - presents no interest other than knowing he lived there, as no trace of his presence remains. Despite these losses, Scarpa's architectural legacy continues to offer visitors a unique glimpse into how modern sensibility can harmoniously coexist with Venice's historic fabric, creating spaces that are both respectful of the past and boldly contemporary.
