| (b Venice,
2 June 1906; d Tokyo, 27 Nov 1978). Italian architect and designer.
He graduated in architectural design at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice
(1926), having previously worked for the architect Vincenzo Rinaldi. He
began his teaching career at the Istituto Universitario di Architettura
in Venice in 1926, holding various posts there throughout his life. His
practice was in Venice from 1927 to 1962. From 1927 to 1930 he worked as
an artistic consultant to the glassmakers Murano Cappellini. In these early
years he concentrated on drawing and painting and experiments with glass,
which resulted in windows for the Venini company of Murano, for whom he
also became an artistic consultant (1933–47). The restoration of the Ca’
Fóscari (1936–7), part of the University of Venice, was the first
significant work in his own right and already shows the happy acceptance
of historical artefacts in design and the skill to complement it with episodic,
intensely personal interventions. Scarpa was set apart from the polemic
of the period by his philosophy, which ranged from occasional ironic counterpoint
to diffuse over-seriousness, with a mastery of materials and an emphatic
delight in discontinuity.
Works
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