Sanlorenzo returns to Milan Design Week with Fabbrica

Sanlorenzo's participation at the FuoriSalone in Milan has become a regular feature, stemming from its design approach, whose strength lies in the convergence of different creative languages. Through iconic exposition projects, the shipyard has been able to tell the story of its identity and brand values in diverse and unexpected contexts.

For Milan Design Week 2022 Sanlorenzo returns to the wonderful setting of the Università degli Studi di Milano, as part of the exhibition-event INTERNI DESIGN RE-GENERATION, with a project by Piero Lissoni entitled FABBRICA, that moves from the iconic installation presented in 2019, which recalled the wooden structures that shipwrights used to construct in the shipyards, to reveal something about place where boats are built and bring to life at an evocative level the experience of climbing aboard and the new perspectives that ensue.

At the centre of the historic courtyard, a high scaffolding of Innocenti tubes plays with the full and empty spaces of the colonnade, in an interweaving of straight lines that create the pathway for visitors. The structure thus conceived is linked to the industrial nature of Sanlorenzo and refers to the structures actually used to build boats in their shipyards.

"It's as if we've brought a piece of the shipyard, the place where boats are built, into the courtyard of the State University. It almost seems as if yachts are born under cabbages, but the truth is that behind them there is the work of many people, as well as the research, knowledge and technology of a complex industrial reality. The intention for me is to reveal precisely this aspect."

Piero Lissoni, Art Director of Sanlorenzo

This thought expresses the desire to make visible, through FABBRICA, what often remains hidden: the research and technology of a cutting-edge industry that is also attentive to reducing its environmental impact in order to meet the new challenges linked to sustainability and therefore "conscious design for a new future", one of the themes that the Design Re-Generation exhibition aims to explore.

The intention of the project is also to try to recreate the vibrant experience of boarding a Sanlorenzo yacht, offering a fascinating elevated view of one of the vessels through a route made up of ramps that take visitors from the ground up to the central part. This area, a platform that cites the shape and materials of a ship's deck, is designed to give the public the feeling of hospitality that one feels on Sanlorenzo yachts, thanks also to a sophisticated audio system that reproduces recognisable sounds of a luxury experience at sea, as well as offering interesting new viewpoints over the courtyard of the Università Statale.

The impact of the entire installation changes after dusk, revealing a vertical superstructure of LED bars that lights up as night falls, transforming the perception of the installation itself and making it astonishingly scenic. 

FABBRICA is a project that continues and consolidates Sanlorenzo's path through the most important cultural events of 2022, which also includes the sponsorship of the Italian Pavilion at the 59th International Art Exposition - La Biennale di Venezia. Piero Lissoni's installation for the Courtyard of the Università Statale in Milan is in fact closely linked to ARENA, curated by the same designer for another splendid location, the garden of ACP - Palazzo Franchetti in Venice, open for the entire seven months of the Art Biennale 2022. What connects the two projects is the desire to give visitors a new experience, expressing in every detail the purest soul of Sanlorenzo and telling, through works of art and installations, a new way of addressing the key issues of the history and growth of the shipyard. This path has led to the creation of Sanlorenzo Arts, an active and interactive container of projects related to art and design that encompasses Sanlorenzo's initiatives in these two areas and interprets the brand's desire to be more and more a true producer of cultural content.