Carlo Scarpa: "Poetry is Born of the Thing in Itself"

Abstract

This article is the first in Russia detailed publication about Carlo Scarpa, one of the greatest masters of Italian architecture of the twentieth century: an architect, an artist, a designer, about whom almost annually books and catalogs are published, scientific works are being written, exhibitions and conferences are held. In this article, the experience of these publications, searches and discussions has for the first time become the object of a special study. It is found that variety of authors refer to the Scarp's buildings, drawings and statements as a kind of "Scarpianlaboratory" (the term M. Tafuri), that allows to reveal the implicit; deep levels of architectural structures and their meanings. Theleading research topics, which are projected onto keylevels of the architecturallanguage and the creative method of the master are identified. Each of these topics is covered by a small section entitled in terms adopted by Scarpa himself or his interpreters. Within the sections, author's and research positions are presented by selections of specially made translations of lectures that Carlo Scarpa and studies devoted to his work, including articles by Manfredo Tafuri, Bruno Dzevi and other great theorists and historians of Italian architecture. A number of fundamental ideas and provisions of this article were put forward for the first time, including for Italian theory and criticism.