Passie voor design

STUDIO FAGGIONI, PASSION FOR DESIGN. 

300 years of devoted boatbuilding and design.

For ages the Gulf of La Spezia breathes that unique poetic maritime atmosphere. In this entourage over 300 years ago the ancestors of Stefano Faggioni started to build and repair boats of any size.

Close to La Spezia in the village of Cadimare with the view on the Gulf , Studio Faggioni Yacht Design is situated. Stefano Faggioni followed in the footsteps from his grandfather Guido and his father Ugo.

Stefano: "I lived my childhood in a world on the eve of great changes where everything moved slowly, naturally with "human times". My father’s parents were born in the XIX century and their habits, which I often used to share at weekends (half 70's), give me today the impression, as a kind of prenatal memory, to have lived and breathed in a far away time where people had to use fire to cook, the real fire of the wood stove. My father Ugo and me worked together for some years and I learnt from him the importance of details in any project.  Thus the constant, not forced but natural research for perfection, for excellence which I saw with my grand dad and lived with my dad, it is the same way that today we naturally apply in the Studio which carries on our family tradition in the naval artfield".

 Visiting Stefano's office, it's almost a sailing experience with pending floors, boat models, old books and maritime "relics".   

Stefano: "My Studio was in fact the home of my ancestors. The house was built probably in XVIII Century from reused ship parts. The ceiling beams are old ship masts and the entree are two old teak deck house doors. My meeting room table and chairs are the remains from a demolished warship from the Austro Hungarian Empire and you can also find a couple of doors from Mariette".  Remarkable are historical frescos from nautical scenes on the ceilings.

Restoration Projects

At first Stefano studied architecture in Florence. At the same time in his fathers office, he started to design interiors and furniture for superyachts. Working on classic and restoration-projects was really made for him. In 1999 he joined Ugo fulltime

Stefano: "Maybe the best way to honour and to put into practice my ancestors'heritage, is to devote ourselves in defence of the seafaring culture with everything deriving from it, that is to say, not only  of the restoration of both vintage or historical boats, but also of those professions which are considered to have now disappeared, but which are actually very alive in a few little corners of my country.   From here comes most of our efforts as an Office to design the restoration of vintage boats. A vintage hull contains in itself the very meaning of a boat as a unique object, with fascinating  but never extreme shapes; the natural extension towards the sea of the classic house in order to enjoy both nature which surrounds it and the culture from which it has been generated. The restoration of these beauties comes from the necessity, which is also amission, to save a witness in history which, for this reason, deserves to be respected"

From a well-filled orderbook, among others, Studio Faggioni designed many restoration projects like Fast Commuter yacht Marlin, Orion, Sylvia, Yali, Astra, Candida, Mariette, Patience, Black Swan, Javelin, La Spina, Bamba, Rowdy, Emilia, Capricia, Lady May and of course the Dutch Bermudian Ketch Iduna, built by Feadship in 1939, which full restoration project was one of his first works alone without his father.

Stefano : "Unfortunaly my father passed away very unexpectedly in 2000. That of course was a great shock. And from one moment to the next I was alone. With the help of my uncle Francesco and my cousin Simone we pulled ourselfs through a hard time. Still up to today they are a great support for me".

THE Refit of theCentury

Beginning of 2000  Studio Faggioni received the request to participate in the restoration of Big Class Gaff Cutter Lulworth, built at White Bros Shipyard , Southhampton UK in 1920. "Owners like Mr. J.J.M. van den Bruele are a real fortune for the designer and the boat because he really trusted in me and gave me the chance to make any kind of works, so I created any kind of detail and like handles, lamps, accessories and of course,beautiful new interiors which now look like originals..".  This prestigious project worked out to a 5 years trajectory and  she became known as: "the restoration of the century".

Preserve the Soul

With every restoration Stefano insists to seek and preserve the Soul of the yacht. When a project comes in, he loves to go through a the bare hull from bow to stern.  The principle is the reuse as much as possible of the original pieces of the boat if they’re so lucky to find.  Authenticity is the main priority. 

Stefano : "the use of computers in the project process is indispensable of course. But  free- hand sketching gives me a closer involvement in it. Everything has to be in harmony on board from large parts like masts, spars, deck, rigging and deck fittings.  About interiors we make drawings for every piece of furniture, panelling and I often create brand new accessories which help to recreate a lost atmosphere".

During many years of work, Stefano developed a sort of philosophy around this peculiar field of design world.

Stefano: "Maybe, the very first rule of restoration, if there is one, lies into look for the soul and lost spirit of that boat who, through the restoration, comes back to life. If we don’t believe boats have a soul, we will never make restorations, but mere mending.  My restoration works always move with the aim of keeping and sometimes of bringing back to light that original spirit whichis often lost because of the destructive action of nature or even more frequently of the action of man.

            We need to look for a leading spirit, the one of the very boat, that will give the rules of all works needed on board, in order to have and keep the typical characteristics of that boat, a sort of DNA which we arrive at from a series of factors. This does not mean we are trying to createan historical fake, but to find a lost original atmosphere instead".

Coffee, salt, wine and cacao

More recent restorations assignments are the 1957 Italian built Bermudan sloop Mait II. This yacht was the first one to participate in the Fastnet Race (with Sir Francis Chichester on board). Very interesting is also the work made aboard the 1929 Gentleman Yacht Portola, made in Los Angeles in 2019-2020 and now in Italy for carpentry repairs; this yacht was a set in 1959 for the famous movie “Someone like it hot” with Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis.

Also worth mentioning is the latest project now in progress for 1911 sailing ship Brigantes in Sicily. This Brigantine is in fact a sailing-cargo ship with auxiliary engine which crosses the Atlantic from the Caribbean to Europe to bring bio coffee at zero emission.  

Stefano: "I’m very fond of this project because recreates a way to sail not for fun but to transport noble goods like salt, coffee, cacao, or Sicilian wine. It’s a 1911 style in every detail with an impressive and elegant sail plan with square rig. Extremely romantic and paradoxically very current".

Studio Faggioni is also specialized in detailed sail plans and rigging project for Training Ships, in fact they worked for Italian Navy in Palinuro and of course the marvellous Amerigo Vespucci, beyond a couple of preliminary projects in partnership with Fincantieri for other countries’ tallships.

Brand new projects

Beyond restoration projects, Studio Faggioni is also active in many brand new constructions: two wooden 10 m gozzo in Naples area, a 12 m fibreglass motorboat in Viareggio, an interior refit for a 42 m M/Y in Valencia and the interiors of a full carbon fibre 24 m powerboat in Pisa that will be presented in Monaco next September.

In front of the Studio at the waterfront a small old shed is carefully cherished. Stefano calls it his museum. Stefano: "This is where part of my grandfather’s work was happily done and has now been transformed into a museum according to my family will. Even the smells of pitch, canvas, tar tow still help me today and make me believe to better understand the life in the shipyards at the beginning of the XX century". 

One of the most remarkable items in the museum is a rowing boat built by grandfather Faggioni in 1934. The planking is between 2 and 4 mm thick. Ultra-light and used in rowing regattas in those days. As Stefano mentioned: "A Stradivarius in boatform!"

Kees Stuip