Standing or Sitting: The Water Pavilion at Carlo Scarpa’s Brion Memorial and its Restoration

It does not make sense to use the term “tomb” for the project built by Carlo Scarpa in San Vito di Altivole between 1968 and 1978 for Onorina Brion in memory of her husband Giuseppe. The word “tomb” says little about this place, about its architecture, or the ideas and forms it evokes in the mind. There is nothing comparable to this monumental cemetery complex in the history of antiquities or modern architecture; one could say that the cemeteries we know minister to our injuries with topical ointments acting from the outside, but do not help to work through the pain of a great loss. With his buildings, Carlo Scarpa offers us instruments for processing our mourning and for conserving the memory of those who are no longer with us. Scarpa’s project was the outcome of dedicated research that lasted for ten years and was a personal excavation conducted within himself. He produced more than 2,200 drawings to develop the program, Standing or Sitting: The Water Pavilion at Carlo Scarpa’s Brion Memorial and its Restoration