Carlo Scarpa started collaborating with Venini in 1932, while still studying at the Academy, and later became its artistic director until 1947, developing a new modernist approach with glass artisans and artists away from their traditional ornate chandeliers and designs by embracing a contemporary vocabulary that included streamlined shapes and saturated colors. It was through his work with the Murano glass blowers at Venini, that he deepened his understanding of the role that traditional crafts should have in contemporary architecture and design. Despite apprenticing with architect Francesco Rinaldo, Scarpa refused to sit for the pro forma professional exam administered by the Italian government after World War II. As a consequence, he was not permitted to practice architecture without associating with an architect. Hence, those who worked with him (clients, associates, craftspersons, etc.) called him "Professor", rather than "architect".

Through his collaboration with Venini, Carlo Scarpa designed numerous glass objects and lamps that, to this date, routinely demand the attention of design enthusiasts and museums.  Although glass was the primary focus of his product design practice while at Venini from 1932 until 1946, Scarpa also created other furnishing designs such as the 618 chair for Meritalia (1964); the Delfi terrazzo table, in collaboration with Marcel Breuer, manufactured by Simon (1969); the Samo marble table manufactured by Simon (1970); and the Kentucky chair and 'Scuderia' Walnut Dining Table for Bernini (1977).

 Scarpa created a limited number of new original structures, and most of his architectural work centered around interventions in pre-existing public buildings and palazzos. His design and architectural approach was markedly different from the then prevailing norm, as his appreciation for, and familiarity with, artisanal approaches and skills separated him from Italian Rationalism and International Style that had spread throughout Italy and Europe. Between 1935 and 1937, Scarpa worked on his first transformational architectural work, the intervention at the Ca’ Foscari in Venice. This work, for which he had a second intervention between 1955 and 1957, but which was later tampered with, turned out to be one of the most innovative restoration projects of that period, and won him national and international recognition.

Scarpa's work was influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright as well as Josef Hoffmann. He executes a "minimalist" aesthetic within historic buildings which allows the existing context to exist within the new work without being disturbed. The extraordinary care in the execution of handrails, floor patterns, benches, door pulls, and the like set Carlo Scarpa's work apart from others of his generation. Scarpa was concerned with the manipulation of materials in relation to the human body. Scarpa's architecture is expressed through precise detail, a delicate combination of modernism, historicism and craftsmanship.


His work greatly influenced that of other Italian designers, most notably Franco Albini. While most of his built work is located in the Veneto region of Italy, he made designs for landscapes, gardens, and buildings in other regions of Italy as well as Canada, the United States, Saudi Arabia, France and Switzerland. One of his last projects, left incomplete at the time of his death, was recently altered (October 2006) by his son Tobia: the Villa Palazzetto in Monselice. This project is one of Scarpa's most ambitious landscape and garden projects.

During his life Scarpa developed a fascination with Japanese art and culture. Although Venice always remained the centre of his activities, starting from the 1950's he undertook several journeys to the Far East. He died in Sendai in the north of Japan on his last journey there in 1978.