The story recounted in this book has never been told before. It reconstructs the relationship between one of the leading 20th-century architects and an enlightened, visionary entrepreneur. The Bolognese Dino Gavina asked Carlo Scarpa to design series of furniture items and brought in Sandro Bagnoli to help him complete the projects according to the specific needs of industrial production.
After training at the Academy of Fine Arts and working at length with Murano glassworks to create pieces of remarkable quality, a focus on the object was second nature to Scarpa. It was sharpened by the new challenge, which gave him the opportunity to conduct research on a creative, technical, economic and cultural level in designing his furniture items, or "mini architectures", and developing many ideas that have remained in note form.
The volume analyzes in detail the genesis of the Sarpi and Florian tables, the Rialto bookcase and the Toledo bed, which are still in production, and other pieces of furniture that remained at the sketch stage, through exhaustive graphic documentation and critical essays. It is completed by a chronological list of the pieces of furniture designed by Scarpa and produced by Simon and Bernini between 1968 and 1979.
Contents
Suspended Dialogue
Tobia Scarpa
A Starting for the Study of Carlo Scarpa's Furniture
Paola Marini
THE ESSAYS
"A Natural Designer". Carlo Scarpa's Design in the MAXXI Architettura Collections
Margherita Guccione, Elena Tinacci
Carlo Scarpa: Architect and Designer
Alberto Bassi
Long-standing Loyalty
Sandro Bagnoli
Carlo Scarpa and Dino Gavina, a Friendship
Elena Brigi
Furniture out of a Drawer. Carlo Scarpa's drawings from the Sandro Bagnoli collection
Alba Di Lieto
THE DRAWINGS OF THE BAGNOLI COLLECTION
edited by Andrea Masciantonio
Sarpi and Florian Tables
Rialto Bookcase
Toledo Bed
Piece of Furniture Four Metres Wide
Wardrobe for a Young Girl
Ezra Table
Piece of Furniture with Roller Mechanism
Piece of Furniture with Sliding Doors
Coffee Table in Marble and Steel
APPENDIX
The Gavina store in Bologna designed by Carlo Scarpa
Ketty Bertolaso
Carlo Scarpa. Abacus of the furniture produced
Rita El Asmar