The commercial layout of a store is, for many businesses—especially in the fields of retail and franchising—a fundamental strategic asset. It is a business asset that can be protected through various Intellectual Property tools, ranging from Copyright and Trade Dress to Unfair Competition and Design rights.

A major recent development has occurred in this last area: the adoption of the European Design Package, which includes EU Regulation 2024/2822 and EU Directive 2024/2823. These legal reforms have updated the definition of “Product,” a concept that now explicitly includes spatial arrangements of both interior and exterior spaces.

It is now clear and indisputable that a store’s layout can be effectively protected through Design registration.

Looking to the past for inspiration in designing these unique spaces, the extraordinary work of Carlo Scarpa stands out and shines. The Venetian architect, designer, and academic was a leading figure in 20th-century Italian culture, with a prestigious career spanning a wide range of fields.

To give just one example, he began his career in 1932 through a fruitful collaboration with the renowned Murano glass company Venini, where he served as artistic director until 1946. For Venini, Carlo Scarpa designed extraordinary products—many still in production today—that deeply shaped the brand’s identity: his glass vases and reinterpretations of chandelier lamps truly defined an era.

He also played a key role in the restoration of historic monuments and the design of highly innovative exhibitions that revolutionized modern museography. Among many examples, we can mention the celebrated restoration of Castelvecchio in Verona, where exhibition spaces unfold along a unified museum path, occasionally opening up to the outdoors.

Returning to the topic of this article, we want to shine a spotlight on two remarkable examples of Carlo Scarpa’s work in commercial layout design—projects that met with very different fates.

In 1958, under the porticoes of the Procuratie Vecchie in Venice, Scarpa’s showroom for Olivetti was inaugurated. Today, it is considered a masterpiece of Italian architecture. The engineer from Ivrea (Adriano Olivetti) had explicitly asked the Venetian architect to create a true “business card”—an exhibition space embodying the company’s pursuit of quality and innovation.

Carlo Scarpa brilliantly met the challenge, completely rethinking the original space—once dark and cramped—into a harmonious whole with an innovative spatial composition. The result was an emotional and original balance between function and elegance, most evident in the airy main hall introduced by Alberto Viani’s sculpture Nude in the Sun.

But the most iconic element of the design is the extraordinary central staircase, with its floating steps appearing to defy gravity—a masterpiece of lightness and dynamism. This same feeling extends to the two long mezzanine walkways above, which housed small office spaces and part of the display of Olivetti’s historic typewriters and calculators.

Scarpa’s genius also shines in his meticulous choice of materials: Aurisina marble, rosewood, African teak, metals, and stone are combined with a modern reinterpretation of Venetian traditions like stucco and mosaic.

This project, rich in expressive and cultural depth, was left neglected for years until it was restored thanks to Assicurazioni Generali, following advocacy from the Italian Heritage Trust (FAI). Once the restoration was complete, the Trieste-based company entrusted FAI with its preservation and continued promotion.

A much sadder fate befell a lesser-known project: the International Design showroom, inaugurated in 1974 in Florence at the corner of Via delle Mantellate and Via San Gallo. The space had been designed under Scarpa’s guidance, commissioned by Puccio Duni and Paolo Stefani on the advice of Dino Gavina.

The showroom featured prestigious design brands and hosted high-profile exhibitions, including shows on Le Corbusier and Mackintosh—both curated by Filippo Alison, head of the “I Maestri di Cassina” collection—and the first Italian exhibition of Philippe Starck.

The showroom was marked by distinctive elements such as a counterweighted window and a cantilevered staircase, whose designs are now preserved in the Carlo Scarpa Archive at Castelvecchio.

For the iconic display windows on Via San Gallo and Via delle Mantellate, Scarpa designed a highly original frame with a pietra serena stone slab and a tripartite glass panel, accented by red lacquered frames and brass trim.

The store remained in operation for eighteen years, after which the lease was not renewed and the business was relocated. The showroom was entirely dismantled, including Scarpa’s fine finishes, to make way for a luxury hotel.