Triennale Milano will held a day-event in homage to the story of Pininfarina design, from cars to architecture. It was 22 May 1930 when Battista Farina, known as “Pinin”, signed the deed of incorporation of Carrozzeria Pinin Farina. Shortly thereafter, the first official Pinin special, the Lancia Dilambda, rolled out of the factory in Corso Trapani, Turin. This marked the beginning of a 90-year history that, through three generations and profound social, economic and technical changes, saw the small artisan bodyworks turn into an iconic brand, synonymous with beauty and elegance and recognised as a symbol of Made in Italy all over the world.
Almost a century, then, of cars and objects, events and personalities, prestigious achievements, good times and bad but always under the banner of innovation and without ever losing sight of the values and that essential cult of typically Italian good taste so much appreciated abroad. The result is that now, in 2020, the company has a global presence, it represents supreme expression of automotive styling and engineering and an established reality in industrial design and architecture. A group employing 700 people, offices in Italy, Germany, China and the United States, listed on the Stock Exchange since 1986 and included in the basket of Italian Listed Brands in which Borsa Italiana has brought together the 22 top Italian brands of listed companies.
Today, at Triennale Milano, Pininfarina kicks off the official celebrations of its 90th anniversary with a day-event in which the Pininfarina family and top management celebrate this important milestone along with leading national and local institutions, Pininfarina Group clients, the media and the world of design and architecture. The event takes place in conjunction with “The State of the Art of Architecture Milano” exhibition, of which Pininfarina is a partner, and which will be open at Triennale until 29 March.
“Identity-wise”, comments Chairman Paolo Pininfarina, “the Pininfarina of 2020 is the same as it was in the 1930s: the centrality of design, an aesthetic sense capable of creating timeless beauty, the obsession with quality, the force of a tradition that combines industry, technology and stylistic research, the propensity for long-term collaboration. Pininfarina has built up 90 years of innovation in compliance with these values”. The 90-year-old Pininfarina is a company that looks to the future through its multidisciplinary expertise in services. The skills it has historically expressed in the automotive sector – design, engineering, limited series production – are only a portion of the range of services that the company can offer its customers today. Cross-fertilisation, mainly from Industrial Design and Architecture, allows Pininfarina to offer a new, broader value proposition in the form of integrated solutions and turnkey projects in all sectors, from automotive to telecommunications, from real estate to sailing, from industrial machinery to retail.
“Our uniqueness as a global service provider”, explains CEO Silvio Pietro Angori, “is the ability to create value for companies by building new customer experiences. Guaranteeing consistency between the various phases of customer experience is Pininfarina design, recognised worldwide for its combination of beauty and innovation. On the back of this special characteristic of ours, we can proudly say that for 90 years we have been designing the future and helping our customers turn their dreams into reality”.
Today, Pininfarina works on revolutionary projects in all sectors. It has recently unveiled new models of electric cars, trains, yachts and major international architectural projects including the Control Tower of the new Istanbul Airport and a number of high-impact residential buildings in Europe and Latin America that have also earned it numerous architectural accolades. These include the International Architecture Award 2019 for the recently inaugurated Cyrela by Pininfarina residential tower in Sao Paolo, Brazil. As proof of how much today’s Pininfarina has grown compared to that of its origins, the 90th anniversary is being celebrated with the announcement of a new Architectural collaboration. This is the agreement with Spanish developer EXCEM Real Estate for a new residential complex that will become a unique architectural landmark on the Costa del Sol, Spain. The project includes the development of 38 luxury residential units, which will be built in Estepona, a location that, together with the municipalities of Marbella and Benahavis, makes up “The Golden Triangle”, a high-end enclave on the south-western shores of the Mediterranean.
“We couldn’t have hoped for a better gift for our 90th birthday”, comments Chairman Pininfarina. “For years we have gradually pushed our creativity forward from cars to the world of industrial design and building architecture, and the market has understood this. We have learned that once a design language has been defined, a world of opportunities opens up. We started out from new luxury residential concepts with projects like Cyrela in Brazil or Sixty6 in Cyprus, and now we aim to leverage our vast experience in high-end residential complexes by designing a breathtaking piece of architecture for Excem that establishes an emotional connection with people”. On the occasion of the day-event, the Triennale Milano Salone d’Onore is hosting an exhibition highlighting Pininfarina’s ability to apply its design values to all sectors: for the automotive sector, scale models of the Cisitalia, Modulo, Ferrari 250 Le Mans and Maserati Birdcage 75th; for architecture, scale models of the Cyrela by Pininfarina luxury condominium and the control tower of Istanbul airport; for the nautical sector, the model of the Super Sport 65 yacht designed for Rossinavi; for industrial design, the Torino 2006 Olympic Torch; for furniture design, the revolutionary Snaidero Acropolis kitchen.
The Triennale starts off the celebratory events that will be distributed throughout 2020. After Milan they will touch on Geneva for the unmissable appointment with the Motor Show, then Turin, the city where it all began, China, the market where the company has been operating since 1996 and is present with Pininfarina Shanghai, and the United States with two different events: in August at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, with the institution of three classes where collectors can present the Pininfarina masterpieces of which they are proud owners, and in December in Miami, where Pininfarina of America is present, with an event during design week.
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Article edited by Mark Brown