Unusual suspect

Following in his father’s footsteps, Italian designer and architect Tobia Scarpa has quietly made a name for himself while staying true to his quest for simplicity

- MARIA CRISTINA DIDERO

Years ago, the architect and designer Tobia Scarpa was asked what he dreams about. He replied, ‘One of my dreams would be to have my own little boat next to my house, or a boat big enough to hold me for a lifetime and drift away.’ Now 87, Scarpa’s boat-owning days are over, though his passion for boatbuilding remains undimmed. The image of water, as well as the sense of sunlit solitude that one associates with sailing, continues to be present in his work.

The son of leading modernist architect Carlo Scarpa (1906-1978), Tobia Scarpa was born in Venice in 1935, and has always had a privileged relationship with water. Fittingly, his current studio in Treviso is located near the Sile river, which was once used to transport goods to and from Venice. Water imposes a sense of isolation and privacy, and Scarpa does not yearn for the spotlight. He has never been associated with a school of architecture or design, instead detaching himself from the mainstream so he can create freely. ‘The secret to the highest quality is to pass unnoticed; when you work towards beauty, you don’t have to show it off,’ he says.

Scarpa’s famous last name comes with a certain burden – his father Carlo was an exceptional talent, who had the unique distinction of teaching architecture at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice while not being officially an architect, having refused to sit for the certification exams that became obligatory in Italy after the war. When I ask Tobia about his first encounter with architecture, he answers with a smile: ‘There was not a first time. Architecture just fell on me all at once, and I was not fast enough to move away. I felt obliged to say yes.’