Officina Italiana Design
| Fondateurs | Mauro Micheli et Sergio Beretta |
|---|---|
| Fondé | 1994 |
| Base | Bergame, Italie |
| Rôles | Micheli directeur du design, Beretta associé gérant |
| Discipline | design de yachts et de bateaux |
| Signature | designer exclusif de Riva depuis 1994 |
| Connu pour | la gamme Riva moderne, dont l'Aquariva |
| Disciplines | exterior and interior design, industrial design, prototypes and refit work, with no naval architecture |
| First 50 metre Riva | Race, 49.9 m, launched 2019, exterior and interior with Riva's in-house team |
| Current flagship | the Riva 54Metri, first hull Sairu, launched at Ancona on 7 August 2025 |
| Sairu figures | 54.84 m LOA on an 8.60 m beam, all aluminium, under 500 GT, ten guests and eleven crew, over 370 square metres of outdoor space |
| Flybridge flagship | the 130 Bellissima, at around 40 metres |
| Design fee | inside the boat price and not disclosed. The studio is retained under an exclusivity renewed in June 2024 and running to 2030, which is a retainer rather than an owner-paid design contract |
| A private commission elsewhere would carry a designer's fee of 1 to 5 per cent of build cost plus 2 to 4 per cent project management outside the yard price. Neither line exists on a Riva (SuperYachtReview 2026 price guide, updated March 2026) | |
| Resale rests on comparables rather than on authorship. A continuous model line gives valuers a data set that a one-off design does not have | |
Le studio derrière Riva
Mauro Micheli et Sergio Beretta ont fondé Officina Italiana Design en 1994 à Bergame, dans le nord de l'Italie. Micheli avait rejoint Riva comme jeune designer en 1984 après avoir remporté un concours, et il dirige le travail créatif du studio. Beretta, diplômé en gestion et en droit européen, dirige le studio comme associé gérant. Ensemble, ils ont fait du bureau l'un des plus concentrés du yachting. Micheli mène le design pendant que Beretta tient le volet économique, une répartition qui tient depuis trois décennies.
Le trait qui définit le studio est son lien exclusif avec Riva, l'un des noms les plus chargés d'histoire du nautisme. Cette relation, nouée en 1994, a été renouvelée à plusieurs reprises et court désormais jusqu'en 2030. Peu de studios sont aussi étroitement liés à une seule marque. L'arrangement a donné à Officina Italiana Design une vocation claire et singulière. Lier son avenir à une seule marque est un choix audacieux, et sur trois décennies il a manifestement bien tourné pour les deux parties.
Garder une ligne classique
La tâche du studio est de porter l'héritage Riva des années 1950 et 1960 dans des bateaux modernes sans le transformer en pastiche. Les dessins de Micheli conservent les profils bas et élégants de la marque et son goût du beau détail. Le travail met en balance la nostalgie et les exigences de la construction et de l'usage contemporains. Cette intendance attentive est la signature du studio. Retravailler un classique sans lui faire perdre son caractère est un chemin étroit, et Micheli l'a suivi modèle après modèle.
Le bureau traite chaque Riva comme un objet sculpté où la ligne et la prestance comptent avant tout. Micheli a dit que dessiner un Riva revient à sculpter une émotion plutôt qu'à tracer une forme. Le résultat est une famille de bateaux au caractère reconnaissable et constant. La continuité prime sur la réinvention. Un Riva doit se reconnaître au premier coup d'oeil, et le studio protège cette reconnaissance dans chaque modèle.
Trente ans comme main unique pour garder Riva à la fois classique et actuel.
La flotte Riva moderne
Le studio a façonné toute la gamme Riva moderne, des petits runabouts aux plus grands yachts du chantier. Des modèles comme l'Aquariva portent jusqu'à aujourd'hui l'esprit classique de l'acajou et du chrome. À mesure que Riva est passé à des unités plus grandes, le studio a fait monter son langage aux tailles de superyacht. La ligne va désormais des open sportifs aux yachts de bien plus de 50 mètres. Faire monter le langage de la marque aux tailles de superyacht était un vrai test, et le studio l'a passé.
Chaque nouveau modèle est dessiné pour se situer clairement dans la famille Riva tout en faisant avancer la gamme. Le studio a gardé la marque cohérente au fil de décennies de lancements. Cette constance sur une gamme aussi large est une réussite rare. C'est la preuve la plus claire de la discipline du studio. Tenir toute une gamme ensemble pendant tant d'années est plus difficile que de dessiner un seul bateau.
Une seule marque, en profondeur
Travailler exclusivement pour Riva donne au studio une compréhension exceptionnellement profonde d'une marque et d'un chantier. Le bureau connaît intimement l'histoire de la marque, sa clientèle et sa production. Cette concentration lui permet de protéger l'identité Riva dans chaque modèle. C'est un modèle très différent de celui des studios répartis sur de nombreux chantiers. La connaissance profonde d'une marque et d'un chantier est le principal avantage du studio sur des rivaux plus larges.
Ce lien serré signifie aussi que le sort du studio est lié à Riva et à sa maison mère, le groupe Ferretti. Cette concentration est une force de cohérence et un rétrécissement du champ. Micheli et Beretta ont choisi la profondeur plutôt que l'étendue. Ce choix définit le studio depuis trois décennies. Tout miser sur une seule marque est inhabituel, et cela a façonné tout le caractère du studio.
Gardien d'une icône
Officina Italiana Design est devenu inséparable de l'un des noms les plus célèbres de l'eau. Son intendance de Riva est largement admirée dans le métier. Le rang du studio tient à ce qu'il garde une légende à la fois pertinente et fidèle à elle-même. C'est un brief subtil et exigeant. Garder une marque de patrimoine à la fois fidèle et actuelle est une compétence plus rare que de partir d'une page blanche.
Le contrat renouvelé jusqu'en 2030 signale la confiance des deux parties dans le partenariat. Le studio continue d'étendre la ligne Riva vers des unités plus grandes et plus ambitieuses. Sa concentration exclusive reste son trait distinctif. Officina Italiana Design est le gardien d'une icône du design. Son travail garde vivant et actuel l'un des grands noms du nautisme pour une nouvelle génération de propriétaires.
Going large: Race, Bellissima and the 54
Riva was a small-boat marque for most of its history and has moved decisively upmarket in the last decade. Race, the first Riva 50 Metri, launched in 2019 at 49.9 metres with the exterior and interior from the studio working alongside Riva's own team. The 130 Bellissima, at around 40 metres, became the flagship of the flybridge range. The 102 Corsaro sits below it at 31 metres.
Sairu, the first Riva 54Metri, was launched at Ancona on 7 August 2025 and is the largest boat the yard has ever built. She is all aluminium, 54 metres on an 8.60 metre beam, with over 370 square metres of outdoor deck, a five metre pool in the beach area aft and a transformer platform giving on to it. She carries ten guests and eleven crew. Her lines are softer than Race's, which is the studio moving the language on instead of repeating it.
Under 500 GT, and why that matters
Sairu is 54 metres and stays under 500 gross tons. That is not an accident and it is the single most useful fact about her for a prospective owner. Below the 500 GT line the regulatory regime, the certification burden and the required crewing are materially lighter, which is why she runs with eleven crew instead of the twenty a comparable length would otherwise need.
Designing a 54 metre that stays under the line while still feeling like a large yacht is a volume problem before it is an aesthetic one. Every cubic metre enclosed counts against the total, which forces decisions about superstructure height, overhangs and enclosed versus open deck. Most of the studio's cleverness on this boat is invisible in photographs. It appears in the annual running cost.
How a boat gets bought, and what it costs
These are yard models, so the commercial path runs through Riva and the Ferretti Group rather than through a design contract with the studio. A buyer selects a model and a specification, negotiates layout and finish inside the limits the platform allows, and takes delivery on a stated date. The design fee is inside the boat price. The studio is retained by the group under an exclusivity that was renewed in June 2024 and runs to 2030, which reads as a retained relationship rather than the per-hull royalty of roughly 1 to 1.5 per cent that published naval architecture practice applies to repeat builds. Neither the terms nor any royalty are disclosed, and no buyer will ever see either.
What that arrangement buys a buyer is the absence of the numbers everyone else in this directory has to plan for. There is no separate designer's fee of 1 to 5 per cent of build cost and no project management at 2 to 4 per cent, the two lines the SuperYachtReview guide of March 2026 puts outside a yard's quoted price on a custom project. The largest boats are still built to order and take a year or more from contract, with the 54 Metri programme longer. What a buyer gives up is authorship. What he gets is a price fixed at signature and a delivery date the yard can meet.
Standing, and who it does not suit
The studio's reputation rests entirely on keeping a legend both current and recognisable across three decades and a range that now spans from small runabouts to 54 metres. That is a rarer skill than starting from a blank sheet and it is judged in public every time a new model launches. The repeated contract renewals are a better signal than any award, because they are commercial decisions taken by a listed group.
This studio does not suit an owner who wants a custom yacht drawn around him, because it does not take private commissions outside the marque. It does not suit anyone who wants an unfamiliar profile, since the whole exercise is continuity. Buyers who want maximum volume for their length should look at almost anything else, as a Riva spends its length on line and stance. It is not the place for a displacement explorer or a sailing yacht.
The strongest resale position in this directory
A Riva sells better than almost anything else of its size, and the reason is unglamorous. The market knows exactly what the boat is. Model designations, standard specifications and a continuous production history give brokers and valuers a dense set of comparables, and a valuation built from comparables is the one buyers argue with least. Ocean Independence, on 11 May 2026, puts builder pedigree, specification and condition at the top of what holds value, and a marque with an unbroken line and a factory service network scores on every count. The classic boats make the point at the other end of the timeline, where restored examples trade as collectable objects rather than as used yachts.
The cost is real and it is paid in volume. A Riva spends its length on line and stance, so a buyer comparing interior space against a flybridge boat of the same length will find less of it, and that gap does not close at resale. The continuity that protects value also caps the upside, because a boat that is recognisably part of a line cannot surprise the market in either direction. For an owner who wants a known asset with a predictable exit, that is the point. For one who wants his boat to be the only one of its kind, this is the wrong marque entirely.
Informations pratiques
| Design fee | inside the boat price and not disclosed; the studio is retained under a group exclusivity, not an owner-paid design contract. A private commission of this kind elsewhere would carry 1 to 5 per cent of build cost plus 2 to 4 per cent project management (SuperYachtReview 2026 price guide, updated March 2026) |
|---|---|
| How a boat is actually bought | through Riva and the Ferretti Group rather than a design contract with the studio; a buyer selects a model and specification, negotiates layout and finish inside the platform's limits, and takes delivery on a stated date |
| Current range | runs from the mahogany-heritage runabouts (Aquariva, Aquarama derivatives) through the 130 Bellissima flybridge flagship at around 40 metres to the 54Metri line, first hull Sairu launched at Ancona on 7 August 2025 |
| What is NOT published | the studio's own fee or day rate, any per-hull design royalty, and any figure for how much of the group's design budget the exclusivity represents |
| Contract term | renewed June 2024 at the historic Sarnico yard, running to 2030 |
Ce que rapportent propriétaires et équipages
No independently attributable owner testimony found
search turned up the founders' own description of the brief (Micheli and Beretta calling the Riva 54Metri a balanced blend of sportiness and sophistication) and Ferretti Group chief executive Alberto Galassi's promotional line calling the studio a renaissance atelier, but no on-the-record quote from a private Riva owner or a named captain specifically about the studio's design work; owners of new Rivas at this size are recent and few, and the marque's smaller boats are bought and sold too informally for a named, sourced review to surface
Yotters research desk
Les points forts et les points de vigilance
Points forts
- Thirty two years drawing one marque, and the contract just extendedevery Riva since 1994 has come from this studio, and the exclusivity was renewed again in June 2024 through 2030 - a commercial decision by the Ferretti Group each time, which is a harder test than any award
- Proven across the widest size range any studio in this directory coversthe same office draws a 27 foot runabout and the 54.84 metre Sairu, and keeps a recognisable identity across both without either end looking like a costume
- The best resale comparables of any design credit in this directorya continuous model line with standard specifications gives brokers and valuers a dense data set to price against, which is the main reason a Riva holds value better than a comparable one-off design
- Sairu shows the studio can move upmarket without losing the identitythe 54.84 metre flagship stays under 500 GT by design, which keeps crewing at eleven instead of the twenty a comparable length would otherwise need, and the counter-curved glass and cut-out bulwarks still read unmistakably as a Riva
Points de vigilance
- One client, permanentlythe studio does not take outside commissions; an owner cannot hire Officina Italiana Design directly, only buy a Riva that the studio has already drawn
- No naval architecture offeredthe discipline list is exterior design, interior design, industrial design, prototypes and refit work; hull engineering sits with Riva and the Ferretti Group, not with this studio
- No published design fee, because there is not really onethe studio is retained on a group exclusivity rather than paid per commission by an owner, so there is nothing for a buyer to negotiate the way a custom-yacht design contract works elsewhere in this directory
- A narrow brief by designa Riva has to be recognisable at 400 metres in poor light and read as descended from the 1950s and 60s mahogany runabouts; that constraint is the studio's whole job, and it leaves little room for an owner who wants something the marque has never looked like
Pour qui: Les acheteurs attirés par la marque Riva et son alliage d'élégance italienne classique et de savoir-faire moderne.