Carlo Scarpa, "Designer"
1906-1978
Carlo Scarpa remains an enigmatic character in the history of modern architecture and design. His work does not submit easily to explanation and analysis, despite attempts by numerous architects and historians. His buildings and projects were being studied by architects and students throughout the world, and his decorative style had become a model for architects wishing to revive craft and luscious materials in the contemporary manner.
Carlo Scarpa never completed a full-scale architectural eduction and was never recognized as an architect (he was once accused, but was exonerated, of practicing architecture without a license).
Carlo Scarpa resisted the postmodern and neo-rationalist influences of the 1970s, preferring to elaborate a decorative system derived from the materials of modern architecture used in a craft tradition. Carlo Scarpa was in constant touch with his artisans, and his drawings were revised almost daily to reflect a pre-industrial attention to old methods of construction.
Like many Renaissance architects, Carlo Scarpa rarely got to build an entire building. The exception of this is the Brion Tomb complex in the cemetery at San Vito d'Altivole (Treviso), considered by some to be his most fecund and important work. It is a complex and difficult work, filled with symbolic gestures and a myriad of interlocking forms. The major elements are an arched bridge that shades the tombs of the Brion spouses, a family tomb, and a chapel. Carlo Scarpa's emblematic step motif and interlocking circular windows are the dominant leitmotifs of the details in this project, along with a typical use of concrete with more precious materials.
It is in the Castelvecchio Museum in Verona that Carlo Scarpa's delicate handling of ancient buildings comes to its highest achievement. Here floor patterns and materials interact to form a tactile play of pliant versus hard surfaces The new is held apart from the old by reveal joints and spatial slots that function as miniature conceptual "moats," and each work of art is lovingly held up to view by a stand or a bracket that is almost human in its anthropomorphic configuration.
The Brion cemetery was the culmination of Carlo Scarpa's career, and Carlo Scarpa is appropriately buried there.
Recommended Book: Carlo Scarpa. Architecture and Design by Guido Beltramini
Comments & Suggestions: alcohen@trebnet.com
