The International Carlo Scarpa Prize for Gardens

 

The International Carlo Scarpa Prize for Gardens is a campaign of studies and care for a site which is particularly rich in natural, historical and creative values, instituted, and organized every year since 1990, by the Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche.

 

Aim

The purpose of the Prize is to enhance and propagate the culture of “stewardship of the landscape” and “care of places”; it is conceived as an opportunity and an instrument through which a wider public, beyond the community of specialist experts, can be acquainted with the intellectual and manual skills required to manage the changing landscape and to safeguard and promote the natural and historical heritage it embodies; the work requires a wide-ranging combination of scientific, technical, artistic and craft knowledge and skills and entails identification of the distinctive nature and characteristics of a site and an appreciation of its true extent and context; it involves acts of creation, far-sighted renewal programmes, a daily routine of care and maintenance and sensitive application of procedures whereby expressions of the natural heritage, cultural change and human communities can exist side by side in the same place; it shuns ephemeral and superficial effect and measures success in the long term; it seeks a balance between conservation and innovation, accepting that taste changes constantly and that the role of nature and history may differ radically from one civilization or historical period to another.

 

Statement

Each year the Scientific Committee of the Foundation, within the ambit of its ongoing research activities, selects a place that features characteristics, deserves attention and prompts considerations relevant to the aims of the Prize; a citation is issued in which the Committee explains the reasons for its choice. The Committee’s decision is final.

 

Programme

Throughout the campaign, the Scientific Committee proposes and provides guidelines for those actions it considers useful for protecting and enhancing the site in question. Using various means of communication, it addresses public administrations, scientific, artistic, technical and operative communities and all those who are committed to or interested in enhancing appreciation of landscapes and gardens, developing new skills in investigation and planning as well as improving management procedures. Of particular importance among the actions envisaged are: the publication of a dossier to raise awareness and give information about the site; the collection of relevant bibliographical and cartographic materials, which are made available through a documentary exhibition and for consultation in the Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche library; the organization of one or more study meetings and a public ceremony during which the body or person responsible for the management of the site is presented with a symbolic award consisting of the “seal” designed by Carlo Scarpa (1906-1978), the designer of gardens after whom the Prize is named.

 

Scientific Committee

Luigi Latini, Architect, Iuav University of Venice (Chairman);

Giuseppe Barbera, agronomist, University of Palermo;

Hervé Brunon, garden historian, André Chastel Centre, Paris, CNRS;

Thilo Folkerts, 100Landschaftsarchitektur, Berlino;

Anna Lambertini, architect and landscape architect, University of Firenze;

Monique Mosser, art historian, Advanced School of Architecture, Versailles, CNRS;

Joan Nogué, geographer, University of Girona;

Juan Manuel Palerm, architect, University of Las Palmas;

José Tito Rojo, botanist, University of Granada;

 

Carmen Añón, landscape architect, University of Madrid, member of the Prize Jury from 1990 to 2010; honorary member from 2011;

Domenico Luciani, architect, Director of the Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche from 1987 to 2009; deviser of the Prize and its chief executive from 1990 to 2014, honorary member from 2015.

 

Since 2015 the Scientific Committee of the Foundation and the Jury responsible for awarding the Carlo Scarpa Prize from 1990 to 2014, have merged to become a single organism. Other participants in the work of the Committee include the heads of the various sectors, Patrizia Boschiero, Francesca Ghersetti, Massimo Rossi and Simonetta Zanon. The activities of the Carlo Scarpa Prize are coordinated by Patrizia Boschiero and the Chairman of the Scientific Committee, Luigi Latini.

Former members of the Prize Jury include:

Sven-Ingvar Andersson (1927-2007), landscape architect; member of the Jury 2002–2005; honorary member  2006–2007;

Rosario Assunto (1915-1994), philosopher, Chairman of the Jury in 1990 and Honorary Chairman 1991–1994;

Ippolito Pizzetti (1926-2007), landscape architect, writer, member of the Jury 1990–1996, honorary member 1997–2007;

Massimo Venturi Ferriolo, philosopher, Milan Polytechnic;

Thomas Wright (1928-2016), consultant to the National Trust and lecturer at the University of London (Wye College), member of the Jury 1990–2000; honorary member 2001–2016.