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Words by: Jared Paul Stern
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For 85 years Pininfarina has designed some of the most beautiful cars in the world. Three generations of design geniuses, starting with the legendary Battista “Pinin” Farina in 1930, have applied its now iconic name to Ferraris, Maseratis, Alfa Romeos and more, embodying the apex in technological expertise, functionality, innovation, and, most of all, Italian elegance. A massive, knockout new book by famed photographer Günther Raupp from German luxury publisher teNeues, a must for any gent’s library, celebrates this incredible torrent of talent. Yes, it is mostly car porn – of the very best kind. But more recently Pininfarina has also turned it hand to architecture and industrial design, with equally eye-watering results. |
| Any Pininfarina product “must always be innovative and must aim to achieve a high standard of elegance, a synthesis of function and form resulting in a strong aesthetic personality,” Raupp notes. Just a few of their greatest triumphs include the Cisitalia 202 – honored by the Museum of Modern Art as one of the eight most significant designs in the history of the automobile – scores of Ferrari legends from the 250 GT to the Testarossa, F40 and Enzo, the Alfa Roméo Giulietta Spider, Lancia Aurelia and Aprilia, Maserati Quattroporte, and so on. Beyond cars they are now designing watches, kitchens, private jets, yachts and even trains, which will no doubt be studied by the next generation of geniuses.Hotel buildings and apartment houses bearing the Pininfarina signature have gone up in Miami, San Diego, Singapore, Sao Paulo. In other words, you can now live in a Pininfarina. Yes of course we’d love to have you round for tea some day… |
Top Image: © The Pininfarina Book, Günther Raupp, published by teNeues, www.teneues.com. Ferrari 458 Speciale, 2014, Photo © G. Raupp. Book cover: © The Pininfarina Book, Günther Raupp, published by teNeues, www.teneues.com. Photo © G. Raupp. Ferrari Cabriolet: © The Pininfarina Book, Günther Raupp, published by teNeues, www.teneues.com. Ferrari 342 America Cabriolet, 1953, Photo © G. Raupp. Building image: © The Pininfarina Book, Günther Raupp, published by teNeues, www.teneues.com. Ferra Residential Project, Photo © Pininfarina
