Carlo Scarpa Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Forget your perfect offering There is a crack, a crack in everything That’s how the light gets in —Leonard Cohen (Anthem) India has the largest deer species in the world. There was one rufous-fawn white-spotted doe that I still remember.... more

Paper presented at “ Models and Drawings: The Invisible Nature of Architecture” conference, Nottingham, 2005. Original title: Drawing and Pilgrimage, Circumlocutory and Picaresque. See this title for the submitted abstract, which is a... more

Paper presented at “ Models and Drawings: The Invisible Nature of Architecture” conference, Nottingham, 2005. Original title: Drawing and Pilgrimage, Circumlocutory and Picaresque. See this title for the submitted abstract, which is a little different. This paper concerns a temporary intervention and architectural installation by Peter Eisenman in the Castelvecchio Museum in Verona by architect Carlo Scarpa.

The Salt Museum of Salins-les-Bains and the Castelvecchio are restoration projects that incorporate historic structure with that of modern techniques and materials. The projects maintain the clarity of modern space, materials, and design... more

The Salt Museum of Salins-les-Bains and the Castelvecchio are restoration projects that incorporate historic structure with that of modern techniques and materials. The projects maintain the clarity of modern space, materials, and design and the purity of the historical buildings creating structures that function in both the past and present.

This book examines the application of the principle of layering in architecture, its mechanics, possible application and meaning. Layering is widely used in the discussions of the 20th and 21st centuries architecture but rarely defined or... more

This book examines the application of the principle of layering in architecture, its mechanics, possible application and meaning. Layering is widely used in the discussions of the 20th and 21st centuries architecture but rarely defined or examined. Layering bridges the tectonics of structure and skin, offers a system for the creation of different architectural spaces over time and functions as a design principle without hierarchy. Three types of layering are identified: a chronological sedi-mentation of planes materializing changes over time (temporal layering), the additive sequence of spaces (spatial layering), and the stratification of individual planes (material layering). Like a palimpsest, historic cities frequently reveal temporal layering and aspects of change over time, a condition familiar to archaeologists who study layer upon layer of remnants of civilization , including architectural remains and urban organization. In historic cities, one can read at least the most recent layers to determine a physical chronology of the city's history; contemporary architects add strata of the 21st century. Cities are composed of several layers, offering a complex understanding of time in which a view of the present includes also the perception of the past. At a building scale, layers can be part of the spatial composition, multiple elements of walls, the skin, the structure or decorative and narrative elements. Just as the position and order of geological strata contain information related to their age, formation, and origin, the position and form of architectural layers come with information about their function, intellectual scope, and provenance. The possible elements of such an architectural strategy include materials, light, water , and color as well as associations, memories, and analogies embedded in the layers or in the voids between them. Material layering is based on a perceived separation of spatial enclosures into floor, wall, and ceiling or roof elements and combinations thereof. Individual elements may consist of multiple planes fulfilling a series of specific functions. The architectural enclosure can represent the physical wrapper of a building and might transport the structure's narrative, tectonic information, cultural expression, the architect's design intent, and other topics that might be embedded.

The thirtieth anniversary of The Luigi Marzoli Arms and Armour Museum in Brescia, 1988–2018.The article is focused on the history of The Luigi Marzoli Mu-seum and its collection. Most pieces of the collection came from the donations made... more

The thirtieth anniversary of The Luigi Marzoli Arms and Armour Museum in Brescia, 1988–2018.The article is focused on the history of The Luigi Marzoli Mu-seum and its collection. Most pieces of the collection came from the donations made by Luigi Marzoli. Two pearles of the museum are a collection of civilian firearms of 1600–1700 and the widest collection of sallets produced in Milan. The museum is a symbol of an excellent production of arms in Brescia. The Museum is hou-sed in the Castel of Brescia, a large building, the walls of which dramatically illustrate an evolution of the castle’s construction went through the sieges and the artillery attacks. The building project was designed by a famous C. Scarpa and completed by F. Rovetta and A. Rudi. During the restoration of the remains of a pre-existing Roman temple, the original 14th century frescoes were discovered. The items for display were selected by Nolfo di Carpegna and Bruno Thomas from an inventory of Hans Schedel-man. The collection includes many arms, firearms, pole-arms and armours of different ages.The new conservator of the museum is Dr. Marco Merlo, one of the youngest oplologist in the world. After thirty years the exposition of the museum has been reorganized. To celebrate this event, an international scientific conference The Marzoli Museum and Lombard weapons was organized.

This paper considers the nature of the speculative architectural project, its distinction from building, its relationship to a particular aspect of mimetic inquiry, and the implications of the rise of technique -- in particular, its... more

This paper considers the nature of the speculative architectural project, its distinction from building, its relationship to a particular aspect of mimetic inquiry, and the implications of the rise of technique -- in particular, its influence on the mimetic capacity of a speculative architectural project. Architectural speculation is considered through the relationship of "making" and "place," evidenced in the admittedly unlikely conjunction of Gothic Scholasticism, surrealist theater, and the Cinquecento conceptual model of disegno. This paper explicates their interrelationship through reconstructing a program that invites participation in the collective mimesis of a speculative architectural project.

Pictures from the amazing land of Lessinia

In the theory of architecture, there is probably no more hotly debated and controversial issue than the use of the golden section as a tool for governing the proportions of forms and spaces. In this article, the author shows that the work... more

In the theory of architecture, there is probably no more hotly debated and controversial issue than the use of the golden section as a tool for governing the proportions of forms and spaces. In this article, the author shows that the work of the Venetian architect Carlo Scarpa has its roots in the classical theory of proportions. He examines two drawings by Scarpa, demonstrating their application of harmonic proportions to the museum space and the close ties between it and the art works on display. Unlike Le Corbusier, perhaps the most important modern master to have used the golden section in his designs, Scarpa employs this proportional system in a pragmatic and experimental way, applying it only in places of special importance. This is true of the “small masterpieces” gallery in the Gallerie dell’Accademia and of the Main Lecture Theatre at IUAV, again in Venice. Scarpa thus reveals two important principles of his work: that small size is an essential premise for attempting perfection and, more generally, that the architectural project is a matter of visual perception based on the quest for the “right proportion”.

Scarpa’s work as a designer has long been narrowly framed as that of an object-fixated architect, whose fascination with rich materials and overly-complex details has overshadowed other aspects of his productive activities. Yet, there... more

Scarpa’s work as a designer has long been narrowly framed as that of an object-fixated
architect, whose fascination with rich materials and overly-complex details
has overshadowed other aspects of his productive activities. Yet, there is another
Scarpa that has yet to be fully explored – a designer for whom landscapes and
gardens were intrinsic parts of the design of exhibitions and buildings.The landscapes and gardens Carlo Scarpa (1906-1978) designed are an important yet largely unexamined part of his oeuvre. Several revised surveys of architectural and garden histories evince this oversight, all of which now conclude with his gardens.1 Surveys
notwithstanding, recent and more focused studies, including essays on landscape theory, and exhibitions with accompanying catalogues on Scarpa’s work

Storia dell'Architettura Contemporanea
Prof. Naser Eslami
Facoltà di Architettura di Genova.

The Brion family sanctuary in San Vito di Altivole is arguably the best known of Carlo Scarpaʼs more than seventy projects for gardens and landscapes. This aspect of his work, largely overlooked in the literature, ranges from small... more

The Brion family sanctuary in San Vito di Altivole is arguably the best known of Carlo Scarpaʼs more than seventy projects for gardens and landscapes. This aspect of
his work, largely overlooked in the literature, ranges from small temporary installations to large-scale parks (Dodds 2000). Scarpa is better known for the many museums and exhibitions he designed wherein he carefully honed his ability to direct oneʼs vision through subtly manipulating the body of the visitor. In the design of the Brion sanctuary (1968-78) Scarpa combines the scopic and somatic dimensions of his architectural production, engaging visitors in his personal desire for landscapes and gardens. The circumstances of the Brion project are distinct among Scarpaʼs previous landscape and garden commissions. Unlike his garden for the Venice Biennale (1952), the temporary landscape for the Italia ʼ61 Exhibit in Turin (1961), and the gardens for the Fondazione Querini-Stampalia (1950-63) and the Museo di Castelvecchio (1957-64), the Brion project was privately funded. Moreover, Scarpa was unrestrained by the archeological, museological, and institutional programs that limited these earlier works. The Brion commission is further distinguished by its nominal programmatic requirements for a site that posed few if any spatial limitations beyond its L-shaped configuration. This is not to say that there was no preesistenze ambientali into which Scarpa intervened (Rogers 1958, 304). During a lecture in Madrid in the summer of 1978, Scarpa commented that he understood his work as being located inside a longstanding and deeply felt tradition.12 Scarpaʼs relation to the Venetian School of painting must be considered a key part of this tradition, an aspect of which is the representation of bodies as landscapes (Spengler 1926, 271) and landscapes as bodies (Wilde 1974). The key here is not so much the ancient and more generic association of nature as feminine, but rather the particularly Venetian tradition of the fleshy female anthropomorphizing of landscape (Clark 1976). Naomi Schor argues, “To focus on the detail … is to become aware … of its participation in a larger semantic network, bound on the one side by … ornament, with its traditional connotations of effeminacy and decadence, and on the other…. The detail …[therefore]… is gendered and doubly gendered as feminine.” The relation between the gendered and eroticized ground of Venetian painting and the physical ground of the Veneto, the Veneto as signifier and signified, is a key to Scarpaʼs understanding of landscape and garden, and the role that the body, particularly the female body, played in the gardens he designed.

This volume is devoted to four museums, built between the 1940s and 1960s of the 20th century, and sharing two main purposes: educating the public in the arts and showing them the value of history in building the present. In the Italian... more

This volume is devoted to four museums, built between the 1940s and 1960s of the 20th century, and sharing two main purposes: educating the public in the arts and showing them the value of history in building the present.
In the Italian post-World War Two scene, which includes dozens of remarkable museums, three projects of primary importance have been chosen. The Museo di Arte Antica del Castello Sforzesco in Milan (1947-1956), set up by Studio BBPR, aspired to have a “didactic” and “popular” character, as the expression of an “imaginative” and “grandiose” spirit that was able to speak to the masses. In the museum rooms, this popularizing aim meets, and clashes with, the complexity of the theoretical thought of Ernesto Nathan Rogers and his peculiar interpretation of history and the arts.
In the Galleria Comunale di Palazzo Bianco in Genoa (1949-1951), Franco Albini and director Caterina Marcenaro encourage the public to develop their own “visual culture” through the mediation of the collections. To this end, the ancient spaces of the Palace are equipped with modern, flexible displaying devices that help each visitor adapt to the environment, thus preparing to meet the artworks.
In the extensive museographic research of Carlo Scarpa, the Gipsoteca “Antonio Canova” in Possagno (1955-1957) is his most difficult work, condensing a series of artistic, architectural and literary sources. In the new “home” that houses the statues and the models of Canova, Scarpa mainly works with light, the same crystalline light seen in the paintings of Giambattista Tiepolo, which the architect draws upon to reveal the 18th-century soul of Canova’s works to the public.
The three Italian museums are complemented by MASP – Museo de Arte de São Paolo, Brazil (1947-1950; 1957-1968), designed by Lina Bo and directed by her husband, Pietro Maria Bardi. Like the other protagonists of the volume, Bo had refined her knowledge of the art of displaying thanks to the exhibitions she visited in the 1930s in Milan, a key antecedent to the development of post-War museography. In the vision of the Bardis, the MASP had to perform the task of bringing art literacy to the Brazilian people. To achieve this, in designing the two locations that host the museum, Lina Bo focused especially on the ideas of collective education and the adaptability of spaces to different cultural functions. The result was a “museum outside the limits”, as director Bardi described it, which in its final, permanent location also allowed Bo to make a political statement by creating one of the most original display devices of the 20th century: the cavalete de cristal.
An anthology of writings by Albini, BBPR, Bo Bardi, Scarpa and art historian Giulio Carlo Argan completes this volume, which aims at drawing attention back to some themes that are also crucial for contemporary museography.

Carlo Scarpa is one of the best-known and most studied modern architects; the bibliography on his works is vast and exhaustive. Despite the undeniably positive critical reception of his work, however, approaching the complex world of his... more

Carlo Scarpa is one of the best-known and most
studied modern architects; the bibliography on his
works is vast and exhaustive. Despite the undeniably
positive critical reception of his work, however,
approaching the complex world of his forms is neither
easy nor immediate. The singular nature of
his built spaces and the originality of his famous
construction details have often left him open to
accusations of sterile and self-referential formalism.
This picture of a refined artist isolated in his
ivory tower has long overshadowed his work as an
architect. In fact, Carlo Scarpa was a perceptive
intellectual and an artist sensitive to all aspects of
the contemporary world. In his long career as an
architect, he constantly sought to reinterpret the
legacy of the classical tradition, blending it with the
most stimulating ideas drawn from his great interest
in international artistic experimentation and the
cultures of the Far East.
The poetry of Scarpa’s work springs not only from
the geometrical rigour of his forms but also from
his acute sensitivity towards immaterial aspects of
architecture such as light and colour, the sky and
the horizon. This article contains the preliminary
results of a long study of the original documents in
the architect’s personal archive. It will focus in particular
on the relationship between architecture and
the landscape, developed in a particularly intense
cycle of mature works comprising the extension to
the Canova plaster museum and the monumental
cemetery for the Brion family. In both cases, it
would be hard to describe Scarpa’s works simply
as “buildings”: in them, open spaces and the rapport
with the sky and the landscape are almost as
important as the solid parts of the structure. Scarpa
arranges the various elements of the construction
by orienting them towards the natural landscape in
search of an intimate and creative relationship with
the great artistic tradition of the Veneto. The plaster
museum is a space projected wholly towards the
landscape, inspired by the paintings of Lotto and
Canova’s classical legacy. The Brion cemetery, by
contrast, is a garden-building that blends oriental
influences and Western art to offer a captivating
array of visual experiences created by sculptural
objects and structured spaces. Here Scarpa plays
explicitly with the fine line of the horizon, cutting
the built volume at the exact height of viewers’
eyes, and thus aligning, on the edge of the boundary
wall, objects near and far that resonate with
his architectural forms. The walled space embraces
the changeability of the sky and the light, which
become the true protagonists of the architectural
work, following in the footsteps of an experimentation
that runs from Giorgione to Le Corbusier.
In the plaster museum, the altitude of +1.37 m
marks ground level; in the Brion cemetery, eye level
is set at +1.62 m. Between these two extremes,
Scarpa calibrates his architectural landscapes almost
like optical devices, to see into the distance
Gianluca FREDIANI
On the Line of the Horizon: Architecture Between Earth and Sky.
Carlo Scarpa: the Canova Plaster Museum (1955-1957) and the Brion Cemetery
(1969-1978).
Entlang des Horizonts: Architektur zwischen Himmel und Erde.
Carlo Scarpa: die Gipsothek von Canova (1955-1957) und der Brion Friedhof
(1969 - 1978)
without being seen. The magnificent obsession
with perfect sight” is in him so compelling and
fundamental that it appears to demand a constant
reference point from which to measure the dimensional
variations transcribed into the stratified world
of his forms: the horizon. Scarpa thus shows us
that architecture is the sublime play of materials
arrange above and below the line of the horizon.

Carlo Scarpa (1906-1978) is an Italian architect whose methodology and approach to architecture was not appreciated until after his death , although, recently, his method and works are admired as Modernist-Regionalist architecture. This... more

Carlo Scarpa (1906-1978) is an Italian architect whose methodology and approach to architecture was not appreciated until after his death , although, recently, his method and works are admired as Modernist-Regionalist architecture. This dissertation discusses, explores and illustrates the significance of Scarpa’s methodology and holistic approach as an authentic Modernist-Regionalist architect.
In particular, this research considers Scarpa’s holistic approach where elaborate objects come together to create an integral, harmonious form. However, none of these elaborate objects has dominance; this is opposite to the philosophy of Modern Movement. Scarpa resolved the issue of heaviness of modern architecture simply by employing the fluid characteristic of water and using local craftsmen and materials. Hence, Scarpa’s inclusive method brought various factors of Modern Movement, traditional architecture and critical regionalism together.
Moreover, the process of design in Scarpa’s project is critically evaluated to demonstrate his route from inspiration to invention and then from drafting to crafting. Finally, the way in which he brought all the objects and elements of his design together to make a spatial arrangement of space, is discussed. Therefore, Scarpa’s methodology addressed the crisis of objects in Modern Movement.

Gli interventi di restauro e di allestimento museografico dei palazzi Abatellis e Steri a Palermo, del 1953 e del 1972, eseguiti dall’architetto veneziano Carlo Scarpa(1906-1978), segnano due tra gli episodi più significativi nella... more

Un sorprendente pròdromo del fortunato dispositivo museografico del white cube viene presentato a Genova nel 1950 con l'inaugurazione del museo ricostruito e riaperto da Caterina Marcenaro e da Franco Albini. Con una curiosa inversione,... more

Un sorprendente pròdromo del fortunato dispositivo museografico del white cube viene presentato a Genova nel 1950 con l'inaugurazione del museo ricostruito e riaperto da Caterina Marcenaro e da Franco Albini. Con una curiosa inversione, lo stesso display che una Genova all'avanguardia introduce nel contesto di un museo di arte antica, sarà destinato a trionfare nei decenni a venire tra America e Europa, tra gallerie e musei sopratutto di arte contemporanea.
Negli ultimi anni - passato oltre mezzo secolo da quelle invenzioni - dopo una lunga eclissi, le sale storiche fanno il loro ritorno nei musei come testimoniano, un po’ ovunque, dal Louvre a Palazzo Rosso, il ritorno in auge delle period rooms.
Non si può fermare il mondo, ne pretendere di cristallizzare le espressioni di architettura. Ma non si può neppure negare che alcune realizzazioni della seconda metà del Novecento abbiano ormai assunto il ruolo di paradigmi di cui sarebbe insensato perdere le tracce.
Gli allestimenti, anche quelli dei musei, hanno un tempo. Alcuni invecchiano in fretta; alcuni sono ancora attuali. Di taluni forse addirittura non se ne comprende ancora a pieno al valenza sperimentale, creativa e innovativa per cui ogni adeguamento, manutenzione, rifacimento, “restauro del nuovo”, ne minano irreversibilmente quegli equilibri che meriterebbero invece di essere conservati...

This is a small part of a much larger and ongoing study of landscape and garden in the work of Carlo Scarpa. I focus on one of the last and least studied landscapes Scarpa realized, albeit not fully – the curiously named “Villa... more

This is a small part of a much larger and ongoing study of landscape and garden in the work of Carlo Scarpa. I focus on one of the last and least studied landscapes Scarpa realized, albeit not fully – the curiously named “Villa Palazzetto” in Monselice which he worked on from 1969 until his death. Next year marks the centennial of Carlo Scarpa’s birth. Born in Venice in 1906, he died in Japan, in November, 1978, ten days after falling down a fl ight of concrete stairs while waiting in the street near his hotel. Ironically, he fell while his wife Nini was fetching his eye glasses which he had left in their room. (This is one of the reasons that Andy Warhol said “The worst part of dying is that it is so embarrassing.”) [2] (This photograph was taken of Scarpa at a Chrysanthemum Festival of all things, the day before his accident. Chrysanthemum as the flower of death.) The comic-tragic manner in which Scarpa died, however, is less important for our purposes today than where he died, Sendai, Japan. I return to this part of the story in a few moments. Scarpa is, for most students of landscape

Among the famous Venetians to be honoured by burial in the church of the Frari, one of the last was Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata. His monument, composed of a neo-Renaissance tomb, a wall inscription and a floor slab, is to be found in the... more

Among the famous Venetians to be honoured by burial in the church of the Frari, one of the last was Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata. His monument, composed of a neo-Renaissance tomb, a wall inscription and a floor slab, is to be found in
the left-hand aisle of the church, among the tombs of the Pesaro family. As one of the richest and most important Venetians of the first half of the twentieth century, he was linked to the Franciscan church from infancy onwards: he was
baptised there, as were his three sons. Moreover, the Volpi family had lived for at least two generations in a palace on the campo dei Frari overlooking the canal. In 1947 Giuseppe Volpi died in Rome, and it was his widow Nathalie who executed
the wish expressed in his testament that he should be buried in the church of the Frari. This was not put into effect until 1954, with the consent of the patriarch Roncalli, the future Pope John XXIII. In the early 1970s Giuseppe’s son Giovanni
Volpi, through the Fondazione Volpi di Misurata, restored the organs of the Frari, established an important festival of organ music, and even commissioned a new organ from Carlo Scarpa, although this was never carried out.

Ringrazio la prof.ssa Subrizi Carla, relatore di questa tesi, per la grande disponibili-tà e cortesia dimostratemi. Ringrazio il personale degli archivi e biblioteche consultate, in particolare la Dott.ssa Cossu Marcella Direttrice del... more

Ringrazio la prof.ssa Subrizi Carla, relatore di questa tesi, per la grande disponibili-tà e cortesia dimostratemi. Ringrazio il personale degli archivi e biblioteche consultate, in particolare la Dott.ssa Cossu Marcella Direttrice del Museo Manzù e la Dott.ssa Valente Esmeral-da Responsabile dell'archivio di architettura presso il MAXXI di Roma. Ringrazio tutta la mia famiglia, in particolare i miei genitori che mi hanno permesso di raggiungere questo traguardo e che hanno seguito il mio lavoro. Ringrazio i miei amici, Claudia, Sara, Tiziano, i punti fermi della mia vita. Ringrazio Sandra, che mi ha aiutato a ritrovare me stessa. Ringrazio il mio compagno di sempre, Stefano, che mi è stato sempre vicino e che ha sopportato tutti i miei sbalzi d'umore. Grazie.

Architettura e paesaggio nei lavori "asolani" di Carlo Scarpa

Il 1968 è stato un anno di svolta per la cultura mondiale. In Europa molte sono state le città teatro di grandi proteste studentesche e operaie che hanno richiesto – e in alcuni casi ottenuto – notevoli cambiamenti sociali. Nemmeno... more

Il 1968 è stato un anno di svolta per la cultura mondiale. In Europa molte sono state le città teatro di grandi proteste studentesche e operaie che hanno richiesto – e in alcuni casi ottenuto – notevoli cambiamenti sociali. Nemmeno Venezia è rimasta estranea all'agitato clima politico e culturale creatosi in quei mesi: del suo coinvolgimento, in particolare legato alle sue funzioni di centro culturale internazionale, il musicista Luigi Nono, un intellettuale fortemente impegnato nelle lotte politiche e sociali di questi anni, è stato un grande testimone e protagonista. Un’esperienza che si vuole qui ricostruire a partire da una breve cronistoria dei fatti veneziani che occuparono l’estate e l’autunno di quell'anno e delle conseguenze che ebbero negli anni successivi.

Il saggio ricostruisce la storia del documentario RAI "Un'ora con Carlo Scarpa", realizzato da Maurizio Cascavilla e curato da Gastone Favero nel 1972. Segue la trascrizione integrale dell'audio della video intervista a Carlo Scarpa,... more

Il saggio ricostruisce la storia del documentario RAI "Un'ora con Carlo Scarpa", realizzato da Maurizio Cascavilla e curato da Gastone Favero nel 1972. Segue la trascrizione integrale dell'audio della video intervista a Carlo Scarpa, Bruno Zevi, Paolo Portoghesi, Licisco Magagnato, Giuseppe Mazzariol, e agli artigiani Zanon e Anfodillo.

The widespread environmental historicizing and an outstanding heritage determined, in Italy more than in other countries, a particular type of museology practice which has been defined as the "internal museum", or rather the adaptation of... more

The widespread environmental historicizing and an outstanding heritage determined, in Italy more than in other countries, a particular type of museology practice which has been defined as the "internal museum", or rather the adaptation of historic spaces of exhibition spaces. This represented, and still does, a laborious search for a balance between monumental buildings and new uses, between antique collections and new users. A design study and practice of great interest. The museum in Italy, mainly thanks to the great museographical lesson of the Fifties (Franco Albini, Carlo Scarpa, BBPR, Ignazio Gardella and others), is the fruit of the condensation into a single theme of many aspects central to the architectural debate of this Century: the restoration, the conservation, the city's redesign and a new relationship with history.

Italian Interiors, with Michela Bassanelli (tutor)