Sergio Buttiglieri, Style Director for the Sanlorenzo shipyard since 2006, is our guest for the eleventh episode of Daily Nautica’s podcast, Giro di Boa, a series created to accompany readers of our web magazine to better get to know these important people in the industry.

With Buttiglieri, Sanlorenzo took their first steps in what could be defined as “the sober design revolution” calling upon great contemporary designers to work with them in the boating industry. “The job of a Style Director – explains Buttiglieri – is to work with the technical department and help guide our clients who choose our boats that have such a tailored design.”

SERGIO BUTTIGLIERI: ‘I LOVED DESIGN SINCE I WAS VERY YOUNG” 

Sergio Buttiglieri is an all round creative, he loves classic and contemporary art, design and the theatre. Educated in Parma under the guidance of art historian Carlo Arturo Quintavalle, he still writes theatre and art reviews for a number of magazines. His encounter with the boating industry, as often happens, occurred by chance.

“I saw in the Corriere della Sera – he says – an announcement that Sanlorenzo was looking for a new design manager. I was attracted by the opportunity to bring my know how into such a different world, as I discovered after I went to my first Boat Show in 2006. I hit it off really will with Massimo Perotti. He is a quality entrepreneur, expert in boating. I was attracted by the chance to be able to bring a new language and so it was a happy occurrence, though not everyone was able to understand at first.”

“I have always loved design – continues Buttiglieri – since I was young, in addition to classic and contemporary art. I wanted to bring back that dignity that Giò Ponti brought to boating with his beautiful yachts, setting aside all that old-fashioned thinking that came before. I brought back quality contemporary design to yachting, a connection with the art world, and worked with great artists.”

THE FIRST DESIGNER: RODOLFO DORDONI

And so Sergio Buttiglieri began sharing his skills in the Italian shipyard, suggesting to Massimo Perotti, president and CEO of Sanlorenzo, to start working with great designers who he had worked with while working for Driade (1986 to 2006), and Italian design brand founded by Enrico Astori.  The first was Rodolfo Dordoni, architect and designer from Milan, who passed away recently.

“I chose Dordoni – he remembers – because he was a sober designer with no extremes. The first open I worked on was the SL100, against the wishes of many in Sanlorenzo who thought, initially, that it would never sell because of it different layout. Perotti silenced everyone when he said he would have used it for his family. He barely had a chance to show it to his parents when and Austrian came to the Boat Show and bought it right away.”

After Dordoni, a number of other designers have worked for Sanlorenzo, like Antonio Citterio, Piero Lissoni and  Patricia Urquiola. “With her – notes Buttiglieri – possibly the most important female designer in the world who has a very different style form the others, we created a series of interiors for semi-displacements, which was very successful.”

DIVING INTO CONTEMPORARY ART

Not just design. The Sanlorenzo shipyard is also famous for their interest in contemporary art and for their participation in important events like Art basil, the Venice Biennale and Fuori Salone del Mobile in Milan.

“After the sober revolution in design – concludes the Sanlorenzo style director – with high quality interiors, with the best furniture brands and great designers, the second piece of advice I gave was to step into the world of contemporary art. News for the 2024 Biennale will be a building in Venice dedicated to Sanlorenzo art. With all the artists we have exhibited in the various Art Basil exhibitions. We aim to open Sanlorenzo Art by then.”

Listen to the full interview with Sergio Buttiglieri in the eleventh episode of the Giro di Boa podcast.

The “Giro di Boa” podcast is broadcast with the support of Pantaneius, a leading European yacht insurance company.