Alberto Mancini: a yacht designer from Trieste that has conquered all the best shipyards.

The first thing you notice as you step into Am Yacht Design studio is the colour white, that prevails on everything, and then you notice all the precious yacht models and rolls and rolls of project papers.

The large glass windows of the open space look down onto the roofs of the city, birthplace of Alberto Mancini, class of 1978, who unites a perfect phisique-du-rôle for the luxury industry, affable manners and a great passion: the sea.

After his studies in Transportation Design at the I.E.D. – European Design Institute of Torino, his work experience sets off at a great pace: Alberto joins the project team of the Riva shipyard, international symbol of the “dolce vita” from the 60s, an icon for “Made in Italy” and of our best design.

From that moment it’s a succession of prestigious collaborations with studios that create the designs and projects for many international yachts, like Ken Freivockh, Carlo Nuvolari and Dan Lenard. Until the day Mancini decides to return to Trieste, and open a design studio of his own where he works with a team of ten professionals, architects, designers and engineers that have moved here from various parts of Italy.

The most profitable collaboration is with Overmarine, a shipyard for which Alberto, designs the interiors and of the hull of the famous Mangusta Oceano 42 metri e 55 metri e Mangusta Gran Sport 50 metri.

What impressed me most of his work isn’t so much the technical aspects and the great quality of all his projects (that you can admire on his website), but his exclusive traits, transferred from the automotive and aviation industry to the nautical sector. I would classify then as “hand-made”, because he traces them by hand, on paper or on a tablet, , thanks to special pens that replicate the effect of a pencil.

His capability of understanding and interpreting his customer’s preferences and creating objects that maintain his elegant and clean style (and aerodynamic!) is transferred also to the interior design sector.

So, I still might not be able to ask him to create a project for my super yacht yet, but I can a settle for a few items for my house: lamps, furniture or home furnishings, and after having designed them he has them created by the expert hands of a network of skilled artisans. His passion is lighting design, which consists in creating unique items that transform the environments or hide the light sources in the house, using hidden LED lights.

What can be nicer than seeing an idea you had in mind come to life, even if just in drawing. Through his designs you can create the most imaginative solutions, anything that has been hidden away at the bottom of your wish list because it seemed so impossible.

Set your imagination free: Alberto will manage to turn it into a project, a prototype or a tangible object. All originally “Made in Trieste”!

Ph. Andrea Zangrando