Carlo Scarpa

Space, light, and materiality

A talk by PHILIP BOYLE

Carlo Scarpa (1906 -1978) from Venice, Italy was a highly educated architect who came somewhat later to practice. During his life he was known mainly as an academic and exhibition designer. However in hindsight his very personal style and working methods revealed lessons from earlier Modernism. These developed from his immersive knowledge, and preoccupation with history, art, craftsmanship and invention.

 This talk will concentrate on two works. One is an early work of urban reconstruction/reuse in Palermo, Southern Italy. The second a late work a high budget new tomb and chapel adjacent to an existing cementery in a rural landscape outside Venice, Northern Italy.

Philip Boyle is an architect. He studied at the Bartlett School, UCL and then worked on the design of low cost housing, initially in the Ministry of Housing and Local Government Research Group, then for the London Borough of Islington (where he won first prize in a housing competition in 1970), then in a number of private practices, and latterly in Milton Keynes. He has been Secretary of GLAC (LCC/GLC Dept Architects Club), organising tours, lectures and visits at home and abroad for many years. He has lectured on Modern architecture in the UK and USA. For the past five years he has lectured and run a course on Modern architecture at HLIS (Highgate Literary and Scientific Institution). He has been Coordinator of Docomomo UK since 1999.

 Recorded March 30th 2021