Francesco Paszkowski Design
- Founder: Francesco Paszkowski, born 1963 in Milan, raised in Florence
- Studio founded: 1992, Florence
- First project: a 29 metre open yacht for Baglietto
- Training: architecture, then four years at Spadolini Design, with early work in Athens and Singapore
- Interior department: added in 1996
- Key collaborator: architect Margherita Casprini, working with the studio on interiors since 2006
- Team: a small core of around five collaborators plus Paszkowski
- Portfolio: in the region of 220 to 250 yacht designs, from 24 to 72 metres
- Yards: Baglietto since 1992, Sanlorenzo since 2005, Tankoa, CRN, Heesen, Cantiere delle Marche, ISA, Custom Line, Turquoise
- Landmarks: Suerte (69.3m, Tankoa, 2015), Casino Royale (72m, Tankoa, 2018), Attila (64.25m, Sanlorenzo, 2019), Saramour (61.3m, CRN, 2014)
- Awards: World Superyacht Awards, and a Compasso d'Oro reported in 2016 for a 44 metre Baglietto
- Disciplines: exterior design, interior design and general arrangement
Florence, 1992
Paszkowski was born in Milan in 1963 and moved to Florence at three. He studied architecture with a side interest in car design and yachts, then spent four years at Spadolini Design, the Florentine practice that shaped a generation of Italian yacht designers. He has called those four years the foundation of his career. Work in Athens and Singapore on boats of 30 to 42 metres followed.
He opened his own studio in Florence in 1992. The first commission was a 29 metre open yacht for Baglietto, a yard he has now worked with for more than three decades. The office has stayed in Florence and has stayed small. It is still run from a house on Via di Santa Maria a Marignolle, well away from any waterfront showroom.
Two disciplines in one office
Paszkowski added an interior department in 1996, four years after opening. Since 2006 the architect Margherita Casprini has worked with the interior team on most of the studio's projects. Paszkowski himself concentrates on the exteriors and hands the interior lead to others inside the office.
That structure matters more than it sounds. On most large yachts the exterior comes from one studio and the interior from another, and the owner ends up refereeing where the two meet at a window line, a deck edge or a stair. Here both sides are drawn under one roof to one general arrangement. The saving is not only in fees. It is in the months of a build that are otherwise spent reconciling two sets of drawings.
One office draws the outside and the inside, which removes the argument most owners never see coming.
What the boats look like
Paszkowski still begins with freehand drawing. The result is a horizontal, calm profile with long unbroken bands of glass and a superstructure that reads as one piece. He has been explicit about avoiding fashions that date, which is why boats he drew fifteen years ago do not look fifteen years old.
Inside, the studio works in light woods, natural stone and restrained colour, with an emphasis on connecting the interior to the water through large openings and terraces. The Italian yards he works with are the ones that pushed fold-down balconies and full-beam beach clubs into the mainstream. An owner gets an interior designed by the people who drew the hole in the hull that lets the light in.
Baglietto, three decades on
Baglietto has been the constant. Mischief at 54 metres in 2006, Blanca at 53 metres in 2008, Burkut at 53 metres in 2009, Unicorn at 54 metres in 2016 and Severin's at 55 metres in 2019 all came from the studio. Ark of Fate, 52 metres, followed in 2023 from the yard's T52 line and took a World Superyacht Award, and Kinda II at 60.6 metres is a 2026 delivery.
For an owner, a designer with that depth of history at one yard is a practical advantage. He knows the yard's engineering habits, its subcontractors and what it can actually build in the time it promises. He is also in a position to push back on the yard on the owner's behalf without the relationship collapsing. That is worth a great deal in the second year of a build.
The Tankoa fleet
Tankoa Yachts in Genoa is the other close partner. Suerte, 69.3 metres, was delivered in 2015 as the yard's first yacht at that size and carried both the exterior and interior by the studio. Casino Royale, 72 metres, followed in 2018 and remains the largest boat Paszkowski has drawn. Olokun, 50 metres, arrived in 2020 and Diamond Binta, 58 metres, in 2024.
The Tankoa boats show the studio's range within one house style. The 50 metre platform has been sold repeatedly with different layouts and different interior treatments. An owner buying into an established Tankoa hull gets a shorter build programme and a designer already familiar with every system on the boat. The exterior does not give away that the hull has been built before.
Sanlorenzo, CRN and the rest
The studio has worked with Sanlorenzo since 2005. Attila, 64.25 metres, was delivered in 2019, Rose d'Or at 61.87 metres in 2023 and KD at 64 metres in 2024. Saramour, 61.3 metres, came from CRN in Ancona in 2014. Baraka, 58.2 metres, was built by Turquoise Yachts in Istanbul in 2010.
Heesen in the Netherlands, Cantiere delle Marche, ISA, Custom Line and Canados have all built to Paszkowski drawings. The explorer end of the market is covered through Cantiere delle Marche. The spread means an owner is not being pushed towards a single builder and can bring the studio to a yard he has already chosen.
Where the studio's work starts and stops
Paszkowski delivers exterior design, interior design and the general arrangement. Naval architecture is normally the yard's responsibility, which is standard practice among the Italian builders he works with, since most of them have their own engineering departments and their own hull platforms. On a semi-custom project the hull is already fixed before the designer is appointed.
That division suits an owner who is building at an established yard and does not suit one who wants a hull developed from nothing. It also means the studio's leverage over range, fuel burn and sea keeping is limited. Those numbers come from the yard. An owner should read the performance guarantees in the build contract and not assume the designer stands behind them.
How a commission runs, and what it costs
Most projects start either with an owner who has chosen a yard or with a yard developing a new model and bringing the studio in. Paszkowski produces sketches, then a general arrangement and profile, then the interior concept, with the owner reviewing at each stage. On a semi-custom boat the whole design programme is measured in months. On a full custom project of 60 metres and above it runs to a year or more before construction, with delivery typically three years or so after contract.
Design at this level is charged either by stage or as a share of build cost, and taking exterior and interior from one studio is normally cheaper than appointing two. On a 60 metre Italian build the design fee is a small fraction of a price measured in tens of millions. The larger cost is time. Every change the owner makes to the general arrangement after the yard has started engineering is paid for twice.
Recognition, and who it does not suit
The studio has taken World Superyacht Awards and a Compasso d'Oro was reported in 2016 for a 44 metre Baglietto, which is an Italian industrial design prize, not a yachting one, and is unusual for this industry. Awards help a boat at resale and tell an owner the finish met a standard specialists would defend. They do not tell him whether the studio will answer the phone in month thirty of a build.
This studio does not suit an owner commissioning at 90 metres or above, since the portfolio stops at 72. It does not suit an owner who wants a designer with his own naval architecture team and control over the hull. Anyone chasing a profile that looks radically unlike anything else on the water should also look elsewhere, because the studio has spent thirty years deliberately avoiding that.
Who it is for: Owners building between 40 and 72 metres at an Italian or Dutch yard who want a single studio responsible for how the whole boat looks.