DATA SHEET
Client: Azimut Yachts
Architecture and interior design: AMDL CIRCLE e Michele De Lucchi; Settanta7
Photos: Rasmus Hjortshøj
In the late 1990s, Gabetti & Isola, designers of Azimut Yachts‘ headquarters in Piedmont, Liguria, and Tuscany, completed the Avigliana site. In 2025, after years of production history, growth, and transformations, AMDL CIRCLE and Michele De Lucchi are spearheading the architectural project and artistic direction for the creation of a new building – the entrance pavilion – and the redevelopment of part of the existing office building in Avigliana.
This intervention is part of a 50 million euro investment plan for the production site and responds to the evolution of Azimut’s working model towards a collaborative and team-based approach, one that transcends hierarchies even in the configuration of work environments. The restructuring plan also included the redevelopment of all employee offices – approximately 1,500 – designed by Settanta7, and improved energy efficiency.
The AMDL Circle project positioned itself within this dialogue between past, present, and future, as Davide Angeli, director in charge, explains. «Working with existing structures is particularly special because it connects to themes of identity and history. You intervene on a layer, on a living foundation; you don’t sweep it away, you add to it. And this brings immense value to architecture». The act of addition serves as the genesis of an architectural project envisioned as a journey through Azimut’s history and identity – a true heritage walk.
The new entrance pavilion is a modern, essential volume of glass and metal, featuring transparent and reflective materials. It leans against the brick body of the historic building, accessed by skirting a linear water basin from which suspended models of Azimut’s “firsts” emerge, a tribute to the numerous stylistic and technological innovations of Azimut yachts.
From the reception and waiting lounge – open, reconfigurable spaces illuminated by large windows – the journey continues on the ground floor of the existing building. Here, objects and elements narrate the shipyard’s story, from the engine of Paolo Vitelli’s first boat to a photographic gallery tracing the company’s 50-year history and its many innovations in design, technology, and communication. The journey then leads to the third floor, home to the boardroom and three meeting rooms, named Gogamigoga, Goga, and Goghina, after Paolo Vitelli’s boats.
«We connected the three separate turret volumes with corridors, glass panels, and loggias, creating a new glazed walkway that is both internal and external, thanks to a green terrace. This walkway is designed to open up to the surrounding environment, to the mountains, but also to the very heart of the company – the production shipyards – and to the territory where this entity was born, grew, and continues to thrive». Like a complex living organism, possessing a strong personality and an ever-evolving identity.
