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Jan.23,2005 -Jan.30,2005 |
Following Father's Footsteps
New exhibit at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura highlights career of architect Tobia Scarpa
By Mark Curtis
Originally Published: 2005-01-16
It can't be easy to follow in the footsteps of your famous architect father, yet Tobia Scarpa - son of the legendary Carlo Scarpa - has managed to carve out a significant architecture career in his own right. The work of Tobia Scarpa is celebrated in an exhibit which opened this week at Toronto's Istituto Italiano di Cultura.
Tobia Scarpa, which debuted last fall in Chicago, features furniture, objects and drawings from the Venice-based architect's distinguished career, which began in the late 1950s when the younger Scarpa - like his father before him - designed glassware for the respected manufacturer Venini. Tobia Scarpa's Occhi series of vases for Venini are design classics. From the start of his career, Scarpa collaborated frequently on projects with his wife Afra Bianchin Scarpa and through the 1960s the Scarpa design studio produced furniture for clients such as B&B Italia, Cassina and Gavina (later distributed by Knoll). "Their language, though very personal, is continuously articulated and redefined with every new project," says fellow designer Massimo Vignelli of the work of Tobia and Afra.
Also like his father, Tobia Scarpa put some design distance between his work and that of his peers. While the 1960s was a time for modern design to take centre stage, Scarpa's work always retained a more traditional design influence. He has cited in particular the European arts and crafts movement at the turn of the 20th century as an inspiration in his design explorations. Consistent with his well-rounded architectural training at the university in Venice, Scarpa proved himself to be equally adept at small and large scale designs. He designed the first Benetton factory in Treviso in 1964 and he has been the Italian clothing company's de facto in-house architect since then. Vignelli considers the Benetton work to be some of Scarpa's most significant. The Venice architect's portfolio also includes countless private homes, company showrooms and historic restorations throughout Italy. "I have always appreciated his intellectual elegance, his poetic vision, his exquisite sensitivity for colour and textures and his passionate love for materials," Vignelli says of Scarpa's work.
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