Carlo Scarpa

nexpected solutions, playfulness, a formal elegance are all part of Carlo Scarpa's richly inventive approach to transforming sources - an approach that allowed him to create one of the most original decorative styles of this century. Recent critical appraisals of this Venetian architect have established him as one of the modern masters, particularly in his handling of detail, furnishings, and ornament, which are the focus of this superbly illustrated book. The authors take a close look at what makes Scarpa's work important today. They discuss his interest in imagery, regionalism and the techniques of the artist and craftsman; his fascination with the play of light, air, water, and earth; the ease with which he drew from literature and art; and his translation of these widely varied sources into beams and pillars, joints and molding, fixtures and furniture. Scarpa, combined evocative fragments and vernacular expressions to produce an architecture of sensuality during a time when minimalism was the style of choice. Each of the eight chapters takes up a thematic element - support, connections and links, juncture and articulation, closure and aperture, solid and void, moulding and profiling, surfaces, transparency - and illustrates it with color and black-and white photographs and drawings, many previously unpublished. A concluding catalog provides technical information on all the works or details selected to illustrate these thematic elements. Bianca Albertini and Alessandra Bagnoli assisted on a number of projects in Scarpa's studio at Vicenza from 1974 to 1978. Both authors teach and are in private practice in Siena.