TOBIA SCARPA
Born in Venice in 1935, Tobia Scarpa is one of the most influential figures in postmodern Italian architecture and design. He is known for his focus on material exploration, a curiosity-driven experimental process, and the rigor and imagination he brings to every project – from bookcases to buildings.
In a career spanning more than six decades, he has created a body of work of extraordinary breadth and beauty – encompassing furniture, lighting, interiors, architecture, restoration, and glassware. He could be called a one-of-a-kind, were it not for the fact that he spent 50 years of his career working in equal partnership with his wife Afra Scarpa, with whom he shared a remarkable personal and professional bond. Together, they created a shared legacy, which Tobia Scarpa continues to build on today.
BORN INTO DESIGN, DRAWN TO INTENTION
Tobia Scarpa was born into the rich cultural context of Venice, the son of architect Carlo Scarpa, and the nephew to a prominent painter in the 1930s and ’40s. Surrounded by artists, architects, and intellectuals, he absorbed a sensitivity to material and form from an early age.
At IUAV University of Venice, one of the first architecture schools in Italy, he met Afra Bianchin, and together they began exploring how design could respond not just to function, but to feeling. Their early work already revealed a dual sensibility: his poetic curiosity, her structural precision.
A SHARED LANGUAGE
Afra and Tobia established their studio in 1960 and worked together almost until her death. Over five prolific decades, they created more than 400 designs from furniture and lighting to industrial architecture, private homes, retail interiors, and museum installations. They approached architecture and design as equal and equivalent, letting the lessons of one inform the other and treating every project with the same intensity of focus and creative experimentation.
THE STORY CONTINUES
In 2008, Tobia Scarpa received the Compasso d’Oro lifetime achievement award, and today he continues to design, restore, and research with the same sense of wonder that marked his earliest experiments. In partnership with GUBI, Scarpa revisits a classic 1970s design co-created with Afra – the Elogio modular sofa system – refining it to meet the needs of modern lifestyles and introducing a new generation to one of the most distinctive design visions to emerge in the last century.
ELOGIO SOFA
Elogio is the result of a journey of technological and formal experimentation, which the Scarpas also developed through its predecessors, such as the Erasmo sofa, created a year earlier. While maintaining the anthropometric approach to proportion and the balance between structure and softness, Elogio adopts a lower, more grounded profile. GUBI’s edition remains true to the 1974 edition, subtly updated through refined materials, internal construction, upholstery, and proportions, ensuring the sofa meets contemporary standards of comfort and craftsmanship.
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