Giustini / Stagetti

Carlo Scarpa is an architect whose international notoriety is on the rise today, yet he also has a strong connection to Venice and its surrounding region.

Born in Venice and raised in Vicenza, he graduated from the Regia Accademia delle Belle Arti in Venice. In the 1920s, while still very young, he began collaborating with the Murano glassworks and started practicing as an architect while teaching at Venice’s Regio Istituto Superiore di Architettura (later IUAV), a role he continued throughout his career. His first completed project was the restoration of the Ca’ Foscari University seat (1937), where he demonstrated great skill in redefining interior spaces and an exceptional sensitivity in the use of materials—qualities that would characterize all his future work.

He was consistently involved in exhibition design projects, particularly for the Venice Biennale and the city’s permanent collections. Though later modified by others, his work on the Gallerie dell’Accademia and the Museo Correr remains a milestone in the history of museum exhibition design on an international level, as do his contributions to the Gipsoteca in Possagno and Palazzo Abatellis in Palermo. Many of his exhibition design choices stemmed from his deep engagement with works of art, both ancient and contemporary. He had a remarkable ability to highlight the individuality of each piece, even when placed in diverse contexts, as exemplified by his Olivetti project in Piazza San Marco, Venice.

From the early 1970s, Scarpa’s name gained prominence on the national scene, though his work always maintained a deeply personal character and a clear detachment from the themes dominating the work of many of his contemporaries. In the realm of exhibition design and museum installations, he carved out an independent approach, drawing inspiration from distant times and cultures, as evidenced by his fascination with Far Eastern civilizations.

The greatest and most challenging project of his later years was the renovation of the Museo di Castelvecchio in Verona. This project involved multiple interventions on the various architectural bodies of the Scaliger castle, where Scarpa developed extraordinary solutions and designed a museum installation that has left a lasting mark on 20th-century international museology. Over time, materials and construction processes became one of his most significant fields of research. His work with steel and concrete allowed him to create some of the most original interpretations of contemporary building methods.

Courtesy of Fondazione MAXXI