Light as a material
For Carlo Scarpa, light is not simply a means of making spaces or works of art visible, but a real design material, like stone, wood or glass. His architecture thrives on the relationship between light and matter, between transparency and shadow, between revelation and mystery.
This approach has deep roots in the history of architecture. Already in Greek temples and Romanesque churches, light was calibrated to evoke a symbolic and transcendent presence. With Modernism, architects like Le Corbusier (just think of the Ronchamp chapel) or Louis Kahn (at the Kimbell Art Museum) made it a poetic cornerstone of design. But Scarpa developed a use of light all his own: intimate, controlled, sensory.
In his museum installations, light is a narrative tool. At the Gypsoteca di Possagno, Scarpa intervenes with zenithal skylights that modulate the natural light on the white surfaces of the Canovian plaster casts, restoring a vibrant corporeality to the sculptures. The result is a slow, almost sacred experience in which the visitor discovers forms through light.
At the Querini Stampalia Foundation, light dialogues with the water of the canal and the materials of the city: reflections, transparencies, and flashes are integrated into the space. Here, the light is not direct, but diffused, reflected, and shared. In Castelvecchio, on the other hand, the artificial light is calibrated on each room and on each work, with cuts and points of light that enhance the volumes and colors without invading them.
In the Correr Museum, Scarpa designs small environments around individual works: natural light, screened and reflected, shapes the atmosphere. The case of the Dead Christ by Antonello da Messina is famous, placed in a space covered in light travertine that amplifies the internal brightness.
For Scarpa, light is a dynamic element that actively participates in the experience of space. It is never just decorative, but functional to the understanding of the works, to the architectural reading, to the perception of time.The legacy of this conception is strong even today. Architects such as Tadao Ando, Peter Zumthor, Kengo Kuma or Eduardo Souto de Moura have developed a similarly poetic use of light, inspired - consciously or not - by the Scarpian lesson.
