The concept of truth

Anna Moldenhauer: I know you don't particularly like the labels attributed to you, such as architect or designer. You say they are just labels you don't agree with. Why is that?

Tobia Scarpa: They stray from the concept of truth. You have to be absolutely rigorous in everything you do, form your thoughts impeccably, and if your limits prevent you from stopping the wrong parts, you're not right for the job.

You have received the highest awards in the industry, such as the ADI Compasso d'Oro for the "Soriana" armchair and the Compasso d'Oro for your career, but you have never sought the limelight and often hide your talent when it comes to talking about your extraordinary abilities and achievements. Why are you not attracted to the stage?

Tobia Scarpa: The basic concept, which is very simple for me, is that I am in favour of spontaneous, light-hearted things. I think that the elegant game of being able to offer a thought is enough.

Your father, Carlo Scarpa, a famous architect, influenced your career, but at the same time you always kept your distance from him in your work, to give him space and to create your own profession. It seems like an extremely difficult undertaking. Was it?

Tobia Scarpa: It is. It's very difficult, but it wasn't possible because if someone teaches you everything, how can you stay away from them?

In terms of education, neither you nor your father followed traditional study paths. Furthermore, despite your dyslexia, you managed to find your way in the “system”. Do you perhaps have a bit of revolutionary spirit in your blood?

Tobia Scarpa: All free men must be rebels. I think that what they could teach me at school, I had already learned from my father or his friends who frequented our home. Their approach to a subject was to try to understand it: 'Why did the artist do that? At the end of the day, it might have been considered a piece of stone, but that piece of stone wasn't that easy to make, because it could have been too big and therefore poor, or too heavy, or too thin... The culture I grew up with was one that was careful to become very flexible and capable of identifying phenomena, taking an incredible amount of time to understand them. I graduated very late because, towards the end of my university career, I had already started working with many companies, including Flos, which was just starting up, and I was undoubtedly still a student at the time. I am still a student today.

You started your career very early, working for Venini glassworks in 1958. What intrigued you about this material?

Tobia Scarpa: Joining Venini was like arriving in a sacred place. It is a world that contains a wealth of information that goes beyond simply learning about the material. It requires an understanding of the culture, and if you don't appreciate these aspects, you don't understand anything about the phenomenon. Therefore, you need preparation and then an intrinsic quality of character so that you can easily, and without harm, learn and not just take the easy part of rational thinking. Otherwise, you will be forced into a mould, made rigid by those who had worked in that space before you. So it is very important to emerge as a proper ignoramus, but looking for the delicate and fundamental points of the subject.

Your father, in addition to his profession as an architect, spent his nights drawing like an artist, and your aunt was the painter Bice Lazzari. How would you describe your connection to art?

Tobia Scarpa: When I was a boy, I was exposed to a lot of information linked to a concept that was rigidly defined: art was explored in depth and then written about in books. This led to knowledge, but not to a comprehensive understanding of phenomena. The attitude I acquired at home was to be very curious about everything, so my encounter with the works of the past, through my father's reading, was much more dynamic than what I could learn at school. Nothing I learned at school was ever as useful as my father's words. Understanding, knowing and being able to analyse the works of the past is fundamental. It is essential to “understand” them through knowledge, but if you only know them through possession (of knowledge), you will have nothing. A work of art is a secret, it is knowing how to construct what you show.

You were born in Venice. What role does your connection with water play in your design?

Tobia Scarpa: These are very difficult topics to explain, to understand that “playing” with water is different from playing with other things. Venice is rich thanks to the presence of water, which in turn has the ability to transform itself intelligently.

For many years, you were responsible for Benetton's projects in Europe and the United States, such as the company's first textile factory in Castrette di Villorba and the interior design of the offices in Paris, Freiburg and New York, as well as the shops. What was decisive for you in your creative work with the company?

Tobia Scarpa: I think I may have been the right solution.

You have restored numerous existing buildings and designed new ones. Together with your wife Afra, you designed the house in Trevignano in 1969/70. The link with the surrounding spatial context is clearly visible. Light also plays an essential role. Why is the strong link between your architecture, the place and nature important to you?

Tobia Scarpa: When you have it, you are lucky. Where this connection is possible, it is strongly desired, in order to relate the presence of the landscape to the tradition of the territory. These are never denied by the design, but respected.

Your work conveys a sense of beauty, truth and purity. People love to surround themselves with your designs because their attention to detail and reduction to the essentials create something poetic. At the same time, however, they are functional objects, sophisticated from a technical and craftsmanship point of view. How do you achieve this balance?

Tobia Scarpa: First of all, there is the principle that answers the question: “What are you doing?”. When you are clear about what you are doing, the reasons why you started doing it emerge. I wanted answers from the technique that would not disappoint the reason why our work sought to discover the truest things. The attempt was not to lose the principle of quality within the importance of the method. It is necessary to act in the pursuit of truth. At the heart of Carlo and his son's attitude is the rule that it is not possible to “cheat”. If you want to be clean inside, you have to find the impeccable logic of your actions and not betray the principle.

You have always been interested in the use of new materials and technologies and in advances in industrial production, whether it be the use of cold polyurethane, “Cocoon” resin or the “Coronado” armchair, whose technology was developed to hold the entire structure together with just two screws. What research do you find interesting at the moment?

Tobia Scarpa: Anything that can be developed in completely new ways, not just the classic ones. The approach to the project is important; the product must be extraordinarily honest, it must not be “deceptive”. So, following the basic principle, you keep making mistakes and starting over. Experimenting with new technology is part of the project as a continuous control element, to make sure you don't make mistakes.

You have always hated fads, which is why your designs are timeless. In recent years, the market has rediscovered its appreciation for the shapes and comfort of the 1960s and 1970s. How do you view this retro nostalgia for the "golden age" of design?

Tobia Scarpa: At the time, designers and companies wanted to create products that would bring well-being in every way. It's not nostalgia, I think the market needs to rediscover the reality that motivated it in the first place. That reality was then lost in apparent fantasies, which built nothing, and people simply but correctly turned towards the truth of things.

Many of the paths you have taken in your career have been the result of different opportunities. Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently?

Tobia Scarpa: Definitely everything. If I could do it again, I would do everything to gain a better understanding (of phenomena), so that it would be more authentic.

What advice or insights would you like to pass on to young designers?

Tobia Scarpa: It's very difficult, because a young person starting out enters a "world of poisons". It's true that if you know how to use poison, you can do good and not evil, but you have to know how to do it. So you have to find a way to learn what is good and what is not so good.

What creative idea would you still like to realise, whether in design, art or architecture?

Tobia Scarpa: It is always a question of honesty of thought. The material or the project that emerges says, "Tell me what you need to do with me. If you find me useful, I am ready and I am sure you will not cheat me".