Tobia Scarpa

Background

Tobia Scarpa was born in Venice on 1 January 1935, the son of the architect and designer Carlo Scarpa. Molteni&C and Italian Wikipedia give his graduation from the Università Iuav di Venezia as 1969, while English Wikipedia gives 1957. From 1957 to 1961, Italian Wikipedia says, he worked as a glass designer at the Venini glassworks in Murano before opening a design office in Montebelluna with Afra Bianchin, whom he later married.

Signature Style

Molteni&C describes a versatile and inquisitive designer who has worked across architecture, restoration, exhibition design, industrial design, graphic design and teaching. His own motto, quoted on its page, reads: "Knowing how to build is a debt to technique. Knowing how to give a meaning to things I create is a debt to logic required by the forms."

Notable Works

Together with Afra Scarpa he designed Bastiano and the Pigreco chair for Gavina, the Soriana armchair for Cassina and the Libertà chair for Meritalia, and from 1973 the Monk and Miss chairs for Molteni&C. Italian Wikipedia also lists his restoration of the Palazzo della Ragione in Verona and of the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice, both dated 2000, and a long series of silver jewellery for San Lorenzo, on which he has worked alone since 2000.

Legacy

He received the Compasso d'Oro Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008, and Molteni&C says single-designer exhibitions of his work have taken place in Milan, New York, Chicago, Toronto, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Bordeaux. He has taught at the universities of Venice and Alghero, and his works are held in museums around the world.