Afra & Tobia Scarpa

Background

Afra Scarpa (born Afra Bianchin, Montebelluna, 1937 – died 2011) and Tobia Scarpa (born Venice, 1935) worked together as a husband-and-wife design duo. Wikipedia says both earned architecture degrees from the Università Iuav di Venezia, that Tobia worked as a glass designer at Venini in Murano from 1957 to 1961, and that in 1960 they opened their own design office in Montebelluna. Tobia was the son of the Venetian architect Carlo Scarpa, whose influence the same article stresses.

Signature Style

Their work moved between architecture, interiors, furniture, lighting and glass, and Wikipedia says they focused on the technical and aesthetic possibilities of materials. For Molteni&C, the Monk page quotes Tobia Scarpa on how the design was settled: a seat first imagined as one piece, then reworked into an iron structure stretched between two identical frames.

Notable Works

Wikipedia lists the Bastiano sofa for Gavina (1961), the Coronado sofa for B&B Italia (1966), the Soriana armchair for Cassina (1968) and the Libertà chair for Meritalia (1989), and a long run of work for Benetton from 1964. For Molteni&C it names the Monk chair (1973), Morna bed (1973), Mop bookcase (1974), Mastro and Meo chairs (1980) and Miss chair (1986).

Legacy

Wikipedia places their pieces in museums including MoMA in New York and the Louvre. Molteni&C has reissued Monk as a re-edition in its Heritage Collection, and Tobia Scarpa was given a lifetime-achievement Compasso d'Oro in 2008.