An exhibition entitled ‘Giugiaro – 45 years of Italian Design’ is to be held at the Sao Paolo Museu da Casa Brasileira.

Opening on February 7, the show will honour the work of both Giorgetto Giugiaro and Fabrizio Giugiaro. The exhibition is to feature a selection of the most important creations of Italdesign, showcasing both automotive and industrial design products conceived by one of Italy’s most famous design houses.

Visitors will be able to follow the creative process employed by Giugiaro in highly successful projects such as the Nikon D series and F series, and the high-speed train ETR 600 Frecciargento. Other exhibits will include the Italdesign Aztec, first shown at the Turin Motor Show in 1988; Structura Giugiaro, built in 1998 to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of Italdesign Giugiaro; and the seminal Volkswagen Golf Mk I.

Giugiaro: car design mastery
Born in 1938, and the son of an artist (his father and grandfather were both painters), Giugiaro left his native town Garessio (near Cuneo) at the age of 15 to study art and technical drawing in Turin. Just two years down the line and he was already working at the Fiat Styling Center. But in 1959 he moved over to Bertone and helped fashion such cars as the Alfa Romeo Giulia GT, Ferrari 250 GT, Fiat Dino Coupe, and Aston Martin’s DB4 GT Jet.

Next came a move to Ghia, where, as director of the Styling Center, he designed models like the Maserati Ghibli and De Tomaso Mangusta.

However, in 1968, he chose to go it alone and founded Italdesign Giugiaro. He has subsequently given shape to more than 200 cars, of which many have been mass-produced. During this period he has worked with almost all of the major Italian and foreign manufacturers, from Volkswagen to BMW, from Daewoo to Renault, from Lotus to Saab, putting his signature on models of historical importance: the first Volkswagen Golf, the Fiat Uno and the Panda, the Alfasud, the Audi 80, to name but a few.

Since 2010, Italdesign Giugiaro functions as part of the Volkswagen Group, working with all brands across the group both in terms of styling research and engineering development.

Premio Gianni Mazzocchi 2013
On a separate note, Giorgetto Giugiaro has just won the 2013 Gianni Mazzocchi Award. Taking its name after the founder of Italian automotive magazine Quattroruote, the prestigious award was established in 2011 to mark the occasion of 55 years of Quattroruote. The first ever award was assigned to political activist and automotive safety campaigner, Ralph Nader. Last year’s award winner was British racing car design engineer, John Barnard.

Tags: Bertone, Brazil, car designer, Editoriale Domus, ETR 600 Frecciargento, exhibition, Gianni Mazzocchi Award, Giorgetto Giugiaro, Giovanna Mazzocchi, Golf Mk I, industrial design, Italdesign, Italdesign Aztec, Italian design, John Barnard, Quattroruote, Ralph Nader, Sao Paolo Museu da Casa Brasileira, Structura Giugiaro