Wallpaper* Exclusive September / Michele De Lucchi Takes Design To The Seas For The First Time With Azimut / By Harriet Thorpe

After working with luxury yacht brand Azimut for more than ten years on land (including designing the company’s HQ), Michele De Lucchi is now navigating the waves with an interior design for the new Magellano 27M.

Launching in September 2026, the third-generation Magellano superyacht maintains its character as a comfortable long-range cruiser, with a freshly discerning atmosphere that embraces adventure as a route to inner discovery too.

For Giovanna Vitelli, chair of Azimut Benetti, Magellano’s adventurous soul matched that of design visionary De Lucchi: a philosopher, leader and humanist, who has embraced innovation as creative director of Olivetti, radical ideas as co-founder of the Memphis Group in the 1980s, and today, curatorial perspective as creative director of Triennale Milano.

Since joining her father’s company in 2000, Vitelli has pioneered cross-pollination of the design and yachting worlds: ‘Each range needs its own designer, because each range has a different soul and scope,’ she says. ‘You need to find two souls that match

The Magellano range was originally launched in 2009, imagined as an ‘SUV of the seas’, explains Vitelli, balancing comfort and safety with distance and speed.

This 2026 edition maintains the characteristic dual-mode hull (enabling dining and relaxing at both slow and fast cruising speeds), with an exterior design distilled to ‘just a few lines’ by Finnish yacht designer Jarkko Jämsén.

AMDL Circles reimagines the Azimut superyacht

Working closely alongside Davide Angeli under AMDL Circle, De Lucchi’s sinuous wooden interior enhances this minimalist fluidity, flowing around expansive glazing and out to the main deck shaded by a teak, fan-shaped brise-soleil.

The Mediterranean atmosphere inspired by the ‘pergolas, patios, loggias and porticos of old aristocratic houses’ finds harmony between domestic warmth and the omni-present potential of the sea, with its shifting cadence of personalities.

‘Perhaps this was the most beautiful aspect of working on a boat for the first time,’ says De Lucchi, ‘imagining an interior that was not separate from what was happening around it, but could continuously change together with the journey and your state of mind.’

The softly dimensional geometry is crafted predominantly of light oak wood, important to De Lucchi for its transformational patina that could continue to evolve with each adventure. Shape is illuminated by travertine, metal and integrated lighting and lamps, such as the Metafisica and Tolomeo.

Whilst movement is guided by wood-working techniques: walnut detailing, subtle ribbing, flame-treatments, and hand-chiselled Japanese ‘Naguri’ finishes.

Drawing further influence from Japan, a wall in the primary bedroom is upholstered in Hosoo fabric that echoes the growth rings of a tree trunk, handwoven on a traditional loom at the eponymous Kyoto company founded in 1688.

Japan is an enduring inspiration and pleasure for De Lucchi, and showing the harmony of distinct world cultures was essential to the spirit of Magellano.

‘For us Italians, Japan is also the other side of the moon, not only because it is on the other side of the world, but because it approaches working with the hands with the same emotional intensity, yet in a completely opposite way,’ says De Lucchi. ‘When different cultures and skills meet, things emerge that neither could have created alone.’

De Lucchi’s ability to embed meaning in design for both our aesthetic and metaphysical selves is what draws Vitelli to his way of thinking.

‘His background is not only in architecture, it’s in experiencing new limits,’ she says. ‘This interior is about atmosphere, rather than ornament’ – qualities that can be seen at his previous designs for Azimut’s exhibitions, boat shows and the company’s own HQ in Piedmont.

For Vitelli, the Magellano 27M expresses the development of a post-pandemic ‘mindset shift’ that has brought new perspectives on wellness and culture to luxury yachting, where exploring the world is an exercise in self-exploration too. It’s a trajectory that’s no doubt set to travel even further with De Lucchi’s design mind on board.