Sanlorenzo celebrated its 10th anniversary a few days ago, on 14 April. The company was established when Massimo Perotti acquired the majority shareholding of Cantieri Navali Sanlorenzo Spa from Giovanni Jannetti in 2005 and renamed the company Sanlorenzo Spa. According to Perotti, this company is similar to a handicraft shop that works for 650 customers around the world, where people work well, stay calm, and take the right time to manufacture 25 boats every year. Boats characterized by timeless style, which means, immediately recognizable.
In the last decade, Sanlorenzo has tried to innovate in the wake of tradition, always with maximum care for detail, because a luxury product becomes a top product when there is care for detail. And care for detail on a 40-meter yacht is complex, it is a top challenge.
Sanlorenzo has brought design culture in the yacht industry. In 2007 the first experiment, when a boat was conceived with Rodolfo Dordoni, who tried to underline the “home concept”, and furnished the interior with items by Minotti, Boffi, Paola Lenti that communicated style and comfort. The ADI Italian Innovation Award received in 2009 for this boat was the first assigned to a nautical project.
Antonio Citterio then worked on the “boat concept”, studying for example the connection between exterior and interior. And then the Explorer Line project with Albanese Experience: a boat with a range of 5,000 miles to cruise for 40/50 days without touching land, isolated from the world and civilization. Comfort must be extremely high.
What can design give to the yachting industry? Piero Lissoni, with his usual ironic and desecrating style, mentioned a series of values that cannot be neglected. These are rules of good design, that apply to architecture, design objects and shipbuilding.
First and foremost lightness, in terms of materials and style of composition. Then rapidity (a project may require years of studies and research, but execution must be fast). And exactness, the necessary balance that exists in nature and man is able to replicate.
Then multiplicity, a typical feature of what consists of a set of various elements that can be distinguished, as is the case of a complex project. This is followed by consistency, accuracy in following the project. Without these values, foolishness may take the upper hand, which irremediably devastates and mars any project, be it simple or very complex.
Text by Danilo Signorello – photo by Efrem Raimondi
