Villa Ottolenghi
Carlo Scarpa · Bardolino, Italy · 1978
Villa Ottolenghi in Piedmont represents one of Carlo Scarpa’s most poetic late-career residential projects. Working within an existing estate originally associated with Marcello Piacentini, Scarpa designed landscape interventions, architectural additions, and carefully detailed spaces that merge architecture with the surrounding topography. The project reflects his fascination with movement through landscape, water, terraces, and framed views, while also demonstrating his characteristic use of exposed concrete, stone, wood, and intricate handcrafted detailing. Rather than creating a singular monumental object, Scarpa approached the estate as a sequence of interconnected experiences shaped by light, material transitions, and carefully controlled perspectives. The intervention combines modernist abstraction with deep sensitivity toward place and craftsmanship. Villa Ottolenghi remains less internationally known than projects such as Castelvecchio or Tomba Brion, yet it is highly valued among architects for the way it reveals Scarpa’s mature understanding of architecture as a sensory and spatial journey.