Querini Stampalia Foundation
Carlo Scarpa · Venice, Italy · 1963
The Querini Stampalia Foundation renovation in Venice is one of Carlo Scarpa’s most celebrated adaptive reuse projects and a defining example of his approach to historic intervention. Completed primarily during the late 1950s and early 1960s, the project transformed parts of the historic Venetian palace into exhibition spaces, circulation areas, and a redesigned ground floor entrance sequence. Scarpa embraced Venice’s constant relationship with water by allowing controlled flooding and integrating channels, stone details, bridges, and layered material transitions directly into the architecture. The project combines historic masonry with precise concrete detailing, brass elements, glass, wood, and mosaic surfaces, creating a highly tactile spatial experience. Rather than erasing the existing building, Scarpa carefully inserted contemporary architectural elements that reveal the passage of time and the coexistence of old and new. The Querini Stampalia Foundation remains one of the most influential examples of museum renovation and demonstrates Scarpa’s extraordinary sensitivity toward material, movement, and historical context.