The International Carlo Scarpa Prize for Gardens
The purpose of the Prize is to enhance and propagate the culture 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 work 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 civilisation or historical period to another.
Last editions
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.
Carlo Scarpa Prize documentary films
Directed by Davide Gambino, 2026
16:9 Ultra HD / col. / stereo sound 2026, duration 52’
Hospitalfield
directed by Davide Gambino, 2024
Ita/Mex, 2024, 45 mins., w/b, in Spanish, subtitles in Italian
Pedregal: the story of the Espacio Escultórico
directed by Davide Gambino, 2022
16:9 HD / col. / stereo sound 2022, duration 40’
Natur Park Südgelände
regia di Davide Gambino, in collaborazione con Gabriele Gismondi, 2020
16:9 HD / col. / sound stereo 2020, durata 40’
Güllüdere e Kızılçukur: la Valle delle Rose e la Valle Rossa in Cappadocia
regia di Davide Gambino, 2016
16:9 HD / col. / sound stereo 2016, durata 34’
Diario da un viaggio di studio in Kazakistan e Uzbekistan
regia di Ziyah Gafić, 2017
16:9 HD / col. / sound stereo 2017, durata 29’
Lanzarote, Jardín de Cactus
regia di Davide Gambino in collaborazione con Gabriele Gismondi, 2018
16:9 HD / col. / sound stereo 2018, durata 48’
Céide Fields
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.
Editions
Publications
Events
Information
Comitato scientifico
Luigi Latini
Architect, Iuav University of Venice (Chairman);
Hervé Brunon
garden historian, André Chastel Centre, Paris, CNRS;
Anna Lambertini
architect and landscape architect, University of Firenze;
Joan Nogué
geographer, University of Girona;
José Tito Rojo
botanist, University of Granada;
Giuseppe Barbera
agronomist, University of Palermo;
Thilo Folkerts
100Landschaftsarchitektur, Berlin
Monique Mosser
art historian, Advanced School of Architecture, Versailles, CNRS;
Juan Manuel Palerm
architect, University of Las Palmas;
honorary member:
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
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),
paesaggista, saggista; membro della giuria 1990–1996; membro onorario 1990-2007;
Lionello Puppi (1931-2018),
storico dell’arte, professore emerito dell’Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia;
Massimo Venturi Ferriolo,
filosofo, Politecnico di Milano;
Thomas Wright (1928-2016),
consulente del National Trust e docente nell’Università di Londra (Wye College), Giuria 1990-2000; membro onorario dal 2001.
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.