The book reveals a work by Scarpa that has remained shrouded in mystery until now and deals with a complex and timely subject, the restoration of the most significant works of contemporary architecture.
Scarpa restored the house between 1964 and 1968 for Loredana Balboni, collector and art dealer, the widow of Francesco Pasinetti, director of the Experimental Centre of Cinematography in Rome and the sister of Letizia, the wife of Michelangelo Antonioni, who made it a meeting place for writers, artists and directors, and a treasure chest of artworks. The architect created an extraordinary luminous telescopic installation for the rooms and artworks that connects the front on the garden of the house to that on the Grand Canal. He made use of stone materials modelled with extreme care and wall coverings by adopting traditional techniques and drawing on the work of the most gifted Venetian artisans.

After the death of Loredana Balboni in 2008, the house passed to its new owner, who undertook the necessary restoration, conducting it as carefully as possible. The work completed made it possible to know every single aspect of the building, to bring out all the solutions used by Scarpa and restore the spaces to their admirable brightness and transparency.

The emblematic history of Casa Balboni is revealed by Roberta Martinis on the basis of accurate archival research, leading to the publication of many previously unknown drawings, while Francesco Magnani and Trudy Pelzel, drawing on extensive photographic documentation, explain how they restored it.