Customer Reviews

Villa Ottolenghi (One House)

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First, the good: the oft-overlooked Villa Ottolenghi is my far and away my favorite work by Carlo Scarpa. This book is the only monograph I know of on the house. Unlike other monographs, which tend to contain only artful photographs of the finished work, this book contains dozens, if not hundreds, of Scarpa's sketches. It allows you to see how the house developed and how Scarpa worked (which is important as Scarpa has a reputation for frequent redesigns). The book also explains how the site and local zoning restrictions influenced the design, and how Scapra's freindship with the client gave him carte blanche in what would be his final residential design.

Now, the not-so-good: Well, a few of the pictures are blurry or out of focus. One full-page photo is so bad that I at first wondered if it was intended to be art piece. Also, out of the hundreds of sketches, there are no section drawings at all, and only one (unlabeled) hardlined plan. In a building with a floor plan as complex as the Villa Ottolenghi's, this left me feeling a little lost.

Overall, the book is rich in process and rationale. There's a lot to sink your teeth into. The best part for me was being able to peruse the hundreds of rough drawings and doodles, which must be the next best thing to rummaging through Scarpa's sketchbook.

I did a research paper on Scarpa and found this villa to be my favorite. This book goes into a great deal of detail on the Villa Ottolenghi. It contains photos of the interior and exterior which I found most helpful for my paper. This book is informative and hard to put down once you start reading it. Loved it.