The Birth Of An Icon

Every motoring enthusiast dreams of visiting the place where their favourite cars are made. For Ferrari aficionados, the sacred ground is the marque’s recently opened design facility, Centro Stile. Andre Lam reports from the new site in Maranello, Italy

- Andre Lam

More than 70 years ago, the thoughts running through Enzo Ferrari’s mind were simply about racing the cars he made. The idea of making road-going cars to sell wasn’t part of the picture yet. In fact, he never kept many of his early creations, but either took them apart for parts or sold them in order to fund his next race car. Eventually, Ferrari did come to realize the potential of his cars.

At the time, however, the bodywork of his first cars simply served as a cover for their mechanical skeleton. The cars were also mainly designed by external coachbuilders such as Touring, Vignale and Carrozzeria Scagliett, and in the later years, Pininfarina as well. Due to this approach, Ferrari’s earlier creations were marked by a timeless look that remains coveted until today.

Fast forward to January 2010, Ferrari’s eponymous marque took a crucial step to change its approach to design. It welcomed styling maestro Flavio Manzoni as its new head of design with the aim of bringing all future styling in-house. Alongside its former CEO, the late Sergio Marchionne, Manzoni came up with the concept of Centro Stile, a facility at the heart of Ferrari’s Maranello plant that would bring all of the marque’s design and engineering departments under one roof. Conceptualized by Manzoni and the Ferrari design team, the new building’s architecture would be developed in partnership with London’s Studio Design International, led by architect Davide Padoa, and the Planning studio based in Bologna.