Zuccon International Project
| Fondateurs | Gianni Zuccon et Paola Galeazzi |
|---|---|
| Fondé | 1984 (en travaillant ensemble depuis le début des années 1970) |
| Base | Rome, Italie |
| Dirigé aujourd'hui par | Martina et Bernardo Zuccon |
| Disciplines | architecture, design naval, intérieurs et extérieurs |
| Yachts signatures | Chopi Chopi (80 m, CRN), Cloud 9 (CRN) |
| Connu pour | un long partenariat avec le groupe Ferretti |
| Yard relationships | the Ferretti Group brands CRN, Custom Line and Ferretti Yachts, plus Sanlorenzo and Bluegame |
| Largest yacht | Chopi Chopi, 80 m, CRN, 2013, exterior by Zuccon over an interior by Studio Laura Sessa |
| Cloud 9, 74 m, CRN, delivered May 2017 | exterior styling by Zuccon, exterior guest areas and interior decoration by Winch Design |
| Sanlorenzo SL102 Asymmetric, 2018 | the first asymmetrical motor yacht, exterior and interior by the studio |
| Recognition | Bernardo and Martina Zuccon took the Compasso d'Oro in 2024 for the Sanlorenzo SP110 |
| Team | around 20 people at the Rome studio, in a villa the practice restored and moved into around 2021 (BOOTE, Norman Kietzmann, 11 November 2023) |
| On yard models the design fee sits inside the boat price and further hulls are covered by a royalty, put at roughly 1 to 1.5 per cent of each boat under published naval architecture practice (Marsh Design and Sponberg Yacht Design terms, read 28 July 2026) | |
| For an owner's own commission the market band is 1 to 5 per cent of build cost, with project management a further 2 to 4 per cent, both outside the yard price (SuperYachtReview 2026 price guide, updated March 2026) | |
Une maison de design romaine
Gianni Zuccon et son épouse disparue Paola Galeazzi sont venus au design de yacht depuis l'architecture et ont formellement fondé le studio en 1984. Le couple avait commencé à dessiner des yachts ensemble au début des années 1970, bien avant que le cabinet ne prenne son nom. Le bureau est basé à Rome et travaille sur l'architecture et le design des yachts, du concept à l'achèvement. Son portefeuille compte des centaines de yachts semi-custom et sur mesure. Ce volume de travail sur quatre décennies est parmi les plus importants de tous les studios italiens.
Le studio reste une affaire de famille, et Martina et Bernardo, les enfants de Gianni et Paola, dirigent aujourd'hui le cabinet. Cette continuité a maintenu une philosophie constante sur quatre décennies de travail. L'équipe est devenue un bureau pluridisciplinaire de belle taille. Ses racines architecturales façonnent encore sa façon d'aborder un yacht. Les fondateurs se sont d'abord formés comme architectes et ont porté cette pensée sur l'eau.
De l'architecture qui flotte
Zuccon traite un yacht comme une pièce d'architecture, avec un fort intérêt pour la façon dont les gens circulent dans les espaces et les utilisent. Le studio privilégie le verre généreux, un lien étroit avec la mer et des intérieurs ouverts et habitables. Ses extérieurs sont élégants et retenus plutôt qu'agressifs. Cette sensibilité mesurée et architecturale traverse son travail de série comme son travail sur mesure. Le studio dessine pour la façon dont une famille vit vraiment à bord, pas pour la parade.
Le bureau pense la lumière, le volume et la relation entre les ponts comme un architecte pense les pièces et les étages. Cela rend ses yachts spacieux et calmes à l'intérieur. L'approche convient aux propriétaires qui veulent une maison en mer plutôt qu'une déclaration de vitesse. C'est une lecture discrètement italienne du luxe. Le confort et la lumière du jour passent avant le spectacle dans les intérieurs qu'il dessine.
Un yacht dessiné comme un bâtiment, la lumière et l'espace d'abord.
De Posillipo à Chopi Chopi
Les débuts nautiques du studio remontent aux années 1970, quand il a remporté un concours de Cantieri di Posillipo et produit une première série de yachts qui a établi son nom en Italie. Un long partenariat avec le groupe Ferretti a suivi, donnant de nombreux modèles de série chez les marques du groupe. Le 80 mètres Chopi Chopi, construit par CRN, est le plus grand projet du studio et un yacht sur mesure marquant. Cloud 9, également de chez CRN, est une autre grande livraison notable. Le passage aux grands yachts sur mesure est né d'une base profonde de travail en série.
Au fil des décennies, le bureau a façonné un très grand nombre de coques, du bateau de série de taille moyenne aux grands yachts sur mesure. Son travail pour Custom Line et d'autres marques de Ferretti a mis le style Zuccon sur l'eau en quantité. Cette combinaison de volume et de vaisseau amiral occasionnel est rare. Elle reflète un studio également à l'aise dans le design de série et le dessin unique. Peu de cabinets passent aussi facilement d'un petit bateau de série à un yacht sur mesure de 80 mètres.
Chantiers, séries et propriétaires
La relation profonde de Zuccon avec le groupe Ferretti est au centre de son activité et lui donne un flux régulier de travail de série. Dessiner des yachts de série impose une discipline de coût et de répétabilité, que le studio a maîtrisée sur de nombreux modèles. Sur les projets sur mesure comme Chopi Chopi, il travaille en tête-à-tête avec un propriétaire et un chantier. Le bureau passe sans peine entre ces deux façons de travailler très différentes. Le bureau passe de la série au sur mesure plus aisément que la plupart des maisons.
Son bagage architectural aide à traduire le mode de vie d'un propriétaire en plan d'aménagement général. Le studio a l'habitude de guider les acheteurs dans les choix qui déterminent les volumes intérieurs d'un yacht. Sa longue expérience des chantiers italiens lui donne une bonne connaissance de leurs méthodes de construction. Cette aisance garde ses dessins constructibles et dans le budget. Connaître les méthodes d'un chantier de l'intérieur l'aide à éviter les mauvaises surprises coûteuses pendant une construction.
Une valeur fixe du yachting italien
Avec des centaines de yachts à son nom, Zuccon est l'une des maisons de design les mieux établies d'Italie. Son influence passe autant par des gammes de série populaires que par des yachts sur mesure vedettes. Le style régulier et architectural du studio a bien vieilli sur quatre décennies. Cette constance est la base de son rang. Le regard Zuccon est resté reconnaissable alors même que les goûts changeaient autour de lui.
La transmission du cabinet aux enfants des fondateurs a assuré son avenir. Le bureau continue de dessiner sur toute la gamme de tailles pour de grands constructeurs italiens. Son mélange d'architecture et de design de yacht reste distinctif. Zuccon est tissé dans l'histoire du yachting italien moderne. Son influence atteint des propriétaires qui n'apprendront peut-être jamais le nom du studio.
Custom Line, and design at volume
The deeper commercial relationship is with the Ferretti Group. The studio has drawn the Custom Line range, including the Navetta models, along with boats for Ferretti Yachts. These are semi-custom and production hulls built in numbers, where the platform is fixed and the buyer chooses layout, finish and equipment.
Series work imposes a discipline that custom work does not. A shape has to be tooled, repeated and built to a price, and a designer who cannot work inside those limits is no use to a production yard. The benefit runs back the other way for a custom client, because a studio that has justified every curve to a production accountant tends to have a clear view of which expensive decisions actually improve a boat. It also means the Zuccon hand is on a very large number of hulls afloat, most of whose owners could not name the studio.
Sanlorenzo, Bluegame and the Compasso d'Oro
The Sanlorenzo relationship has become the centre of the studio's recent work, alongside Bluegame. Beyond the SL102 Asymmetric, the studio has drawn a long list of Sanlorenzo deliveries including the 43.89 metre Annabella in 2021 and Lady Lu in 2023. In June 2024 Bernardo and Martina Zuccon took the Compasso d'Oro for the Sanlorenzo SP110, on which they drew the exterior and Lissoni and Partners the interior.
The Compasso d'Oro is worth explaining, because it is not a yachting prize. It is Italy's oldest and most serious industrial design award, judged against furniture, cars and consumer products, and boats very rarely win it. For an owner it is a more meaningful signal than most trade trophies, since the jury has no commercial relationship with the marine industry at all.
How a commission runs, and what it costs
Most projects arrive one of two ways. Either an owner has chosen a yard and brings the studio in, or the yard is developing a model and appoints the studio to draw it. Those two routes have completely different commercial shapes. On a yard model the design fee is inside the boat price, negotiated between the studio and the builder and never seen by the buyer, and further hulls are normally covered by a royalty, which published naval architecture practice puts at roughly 1 to 1.5 per cent of each boat's price. On a private commission the owner signs and pays a design contract of his own, in stages, before any build contract exists.
Neither route has a published scale. The market band for an owner's own designer is 1 to 5 per cent of build cost, plus 2 to 4 per cent for project management, both outside the yard's quoted price, per the SuperYachtReview guide updated March 2026. On a semi-custom Italian boat an owner is at the bottom of that or outside it entirely, because he is buying a platform someone else paid to design. The expensive number is change. Every revision to the general arrangement after the yard has begun engineering is paid twice, once in drawings and once in yard time, and Italian yards price late changes without sentiment.
Recognition, and who it does not suit
Beyond the Compasso d'Oro, the SL102 Asymmetric was included in the ADI Design Index in 2019, which is the shortlist that award is drawn from. The studio's standing inside Italy is very high and its name carries less weight with buyers outside it. Awards help modestly at resale and confirm a standard of finish. They say nothing about how a studio behaves in the second year of a build.
This office does not suit an owner who wants a designer with his own naval architecture team and control over the hull. It is not the place for a hard, aggressive profile or for someone who wants his boat to be the loudest thing in the anchorage. Owners commissioning above 80 metres will find the portfolio stops there. Anyone building outside Italy will also be taking the studio away from the yards it knows best.
What the Zuccon name does at resale, which is less than the yard's
On a semi-custom Italian boat the honest answer is that the designer's name makes almost no difference. Buyers and valuers price the yard, the year, the volume and the condition. Ocean Independence, writing on 11 May 2026, lists builder pedigree, accommodation, technical specification, paint condition and maintenance history as what moves a valuation, and does not list the studio at all. A CRN or a Sanlorenzo sells as a CRN or a Sanlorenzo. What the studio contributes is indirect and real: ceiling height, daylight and the movement between decks are the things a viewer notices in ten minutes aboard without being able to name them.
The exception is the asymmetric. The SL102 removed a side deck to gain interior beam, which is a genuine gain and a genuine narrowing of the buyer pool, because a boat that is unlike its comparables is harder to value and easier to argue about. Ocean Independence also warns that yachts positioned above realistic market levels lose momentum rather than gaining leverage, and an unusual layout is exactly where a seller talks himself into an unrealistic number. Anyone buying an asymmetric hull should treat the extra beam as something bought for use, not for resale.
Informations pratiques
| Two different commercial routes | On a yard model (CRN, Custom Line, Sanlorenzo) the design fee sits inside the boat price and is never itemised to the buyer; further hulls are typically covered by a royalty of roughly 1 to 1.5 per cent of each boat's price to the studio |
|---|---|
| A private commission | An owner appointing the studio directly pays a separate design contract, market band 1 to 5 per cent of build cost plus 2 to 4 per cent for project management, both outside the yard's price (SuperYachtReview 2026 price guide) |
| What is not included | Naval architecture is normally the yard's own department, CRN, Sanlorenzo and Ferretti all run their own engineering. Performance figures belong to the build contract, not the design contract |
| The expensive mistake | Changes to the general arrangement after the yard begins engineering are paid twice, once in drawings and once in yard time. Italian yards price late changes without sentiment |
| Where the studio works | Rome, Italy, around 20 people, in a villa the practice restored and moved into around 2021 |
| Portfolio ceiling | Largest delivered yacht is Chopi Chopi at 80 metres (CRN, 2013); an owner building above that size is outside the studio's track record |
Ce que rapportent propriétaires et équipages
The asymmetry disappears from normal viewing angles
Sea-trial reviewers needed two SL102s side by side to see the missing side deck at all. The extra saloon space reads as a bigger boat, not a visibly lopsided one.
Yachting Magazine
Les points forts et les points de vigilance
Points forts
- Succession already happenedBernardo and Martina Zuccon took over from their parents progressively over years, not in a single handover. Unlike several one-person studios in this directory, the key-person risk here is already settled.
- Volume experience feeds the custom workDrawing production Custom Line and Ferretti hulls at scale gives the studio a cost-tested view of which expensive design decisions actually improve a boat.
- An award judged outside yachtingThe 2024 Compasso d'Oro for the Sanlorenzo SP110 is Italy's oldest industrial design prize, judged against furniture and cars by a jury with no commercial tie to the marine industry. That is a rarer signal than a yachting trophy.
- Genuine innovation, not just stylingThe SL102 Asymmetric's single side deck is a real functional trade, about 25 square metres of extra saloon space, and it reads as balanced rather than lopsided from normal viewing angles.
Points de vigilance
- No naval architecture of its ownSpeed, range, fuel burn and sea-keeping are the yard's numbers on the build contract; an owner should not assume the designer stands behind performance guarantees.
- The name adds little at resale on semi-custom hullsBuyers and valuers price the yard, the year, the volume and the condition. Ocean Independence's 11 May 2026 valuation factors don't list the studio at all.
- The asymmetric layout narrows the buyer poolA hull that doesn't match its comparables is harder to value and easier to argue down; the extra beam should be bought for use, not resale.
- Portfolio stops at 80 metresOwners building above that size, or outside Italy, are outside both the studio's track record and its closest yard relationships.
Pour qui: Les propriétaires qui veulent un yacht architectural et lumineux, d'un studio à l'aise en série comme sur mesure.