Negozio Olivetti: Entry Ticket

Scarpa on the piazza

In 1958, Adriano Olivetti commissioned Carlo Scarpa to design a showroom on St Mark's Square for his typewriter company. The result is one of the finest examples of mid-century modern design in Italy, a small space that demonstrates Scarpa's extraordinary attention to materials, light, and proportion. Managed by FAI (Italy's National Trust), it is open to visitors as a design landmark.

The design

Scarpa transformed a narrow ground-floor space into a showroom that feels far larger than its dimensions suggest. A floating staircase in Aurisina marble connects two levels. Teak, brass, and Murano glass are combined with the precision that defines Scarpa's work. Every surface, joint, and detail has been considered. The space rewards close inspection: look at how materials meet, how light enters, how the staircase appears to hover.

The Olivetti connection

Olivetti was unusual among Italian companies for treating design as central to its identity. The typewriters and technology on display represent a period when Italian industrial design led the world. Scarpa's showroom was both a retail space and a statement of corporate values, placing technology within an aesthetic framework of the highest quality.

A design detour

The showroom takes only 20 to 30 minutes to visit but offers a complete change of register from the Byzantine and Gothic architecture surrounding it on the piazza. For anyone interested in modern design, architecture, or Scarpa's work specifically, it is an essential Venice stop. It also provides a calm, air-conditioned pause from St Mark's Square outside.

Book your Negozio Olivetti tickets

See Scarpa's design masterpiece on St Mark's Square. Book your entry tickets today.