I colori fra il giallo e l’azzurro del cielo

In Carlo Scarpa’s architecture it is noticeable how colour is able to communicate sensations and emotions. He drew attention to this in many of his constructed spaces, choosing to use the “ephemeral” perception of a colour which changes according to the person who sees it and how he recalls it. This essay will consider the sensory experiences of a possible visitor, highlighting his intimate and privileged relationship with light and colour, by means of the experience carried out by Carlo Scarpa in his re-functionalization of Palazzo Chiaramonte, called Steri, in Palermo. The places designed by Scarpa and carried out by Roberto Calandra, with whom the Venetian maestro enjoyed a complicated and controversial relationship (1968-1978), are entered by crossing a threshold which has the effect of producing in the visitor a sense of amazement and contemplative ecstasy. This essay will seek to bring to light, in the design of a “room”, how Scarpa’s intentions were “betrayed” by his friend Calandra who, in carrying out the design, abandoned the red plastering of the walls indicated by him for the sala Magna.