Curated by MDFF Greece’s Director Annie Markitanis, this podcast series is a sequel to the homonymous article written for the festival’s catalog by Brand Strategy Advisor to the Architecture and Design Industry, Daniel Gava. The concept is based on the notion of how the environments we interact with are sought to enhance as much as possible the ideal experience we want to get from them. Given that today interior design is progressively becoming the perfect candidate to achieve this ambition, the series sees guests from the cultural, design, and architecture sectors who examine the different facets of design, and the changes signaling it through time via topics pertinent to their work and experience.
Featuring original music composed by Rosita Kèss, “Obikè” from her upcoming album “Yèlèma”. www.rositakessmusic.com
In this second episode – hosted by Daniel Gava, available in both video format with English Subtitles and podcast in Italian – we are joined by Horacio Pagani, the Founder and Chief Designer of Pagani Automobili.
Pagani Automobili S.p.A. is an Italian Hypercar manufacturer. The company was founded in 1998 by Horacio Pagani and is based in San Cesario sul Panaro, Modena, Italy. The philosophy driving the company embraces a concept borrowed from the Renaissance and embodied by the great Leonardo da Vinci who, over 500 years ago, once stated: “Art and Science are disciplines that must walk together hand in hand.”Pagani Automobili creates in accordance with this inspirational creed, combining technique and taste, functionality and aesthetics, handcraft work and technological know-how.
Together we talk, amongst others, about the Pagani lifestyle and DNA rooted in Da Vinci’s philosophy, which sees as its value system the pairing of the art of craftsmanship and technology. About the faces of interior design and design in general and how they play out within the frame of an automotive company and beyond. Moreover, we discuss the birth and strengthening of the Pagani Art division with the Pagani’s design touch expressed in bespoke interiors of airplanes, helicopters, hotels, and so forth; the Pagani’s awaited Milan based office, an exemplar of the fusion between the supercar culture with the design culture, as well as the upcoming revolutionary project “Vision 2030”. Last but not least, we touch upon the current challenges within the automotive industry, in need of mental flexibility and humility with everything changing and fundamental concepts such as rethinking and questioning the heat engine coming in the forefront.
Horacio Pagani was born in Casilda. At the age of 14, he discovered the genius of Leonardo Da Vinci and the philosophy that would influence his entire career from that moment on: Art and Science are disciplines that can go hand in hand.
At the age of 21, he built an entire Argentine F2 single-seater, which competed in the official Formula 2 championship and caught the eye of F1 world champion Juan Manuel Fangio, thanks to whom he moved to Italy in 1983.
He started working at Lamborghini as a third-level worker and subsequently worked on the design and construction of the Countach Evoluzione, the first car with a chassis made of composite materials. He then participated in various projects, including the Countach Anniversary and the Lamborghini LM. In his final years working with the company, he was appointed head of the Composites Division and became Automobili Lamborghini’s in-house designer.
In 1993 he founded Modena Design, while simultaneously leading the design and end-to-end development of the C8 Project, a car that would be officially presented in 1999 at the Geneva Motor Show as the Zonda C12. Acclaimed by the international press as a futuristic and revolutionary car, so much so that the term hypercar was coined for the occasion, Zonda soon became one of the most celebrated cars of the last 20 years and officially marked the birth of Pagani Automobili.
The Pagani Huayra was presented in 2011, the first car in the world equipped with active aerodynamics and built using the latest generation of composite materials such as carbon fibre and carbo-titanium, all based on the know-how of Pagani Automobili. Winner of the three most prestigious awards in the sector, such as Car of the Year in 2012, Huayra represents the perfect combination of scientific and artistic research that originated in the thinking of Leonardo da Vinci, today a fundamental part of the Pagani DNA.
Research on state-of-the-art composite materials and continuous investment in the study of new methodologies, fibres, resins and paints have always been a constant in Horacio Pagani’s activity, a mission that has resulted in an extremely specific production method.
The Pagani Atelier, originally born from one man’s dream, currently employs a team of more than 170 people, including technicians, engineers and craftsmen who all share that same passion and continue to propagate its concepts and methodologies.
The theoretical foundations and technologies developed by the Atelier, which are today the basis of the most modern hypercars, continue to find new outlets, 35 years on, through the use of composite systems in many sectors, including medical, nautical and aerospace.