The superyacht design world encompasses its fair share of ego-driven rock stars, but 48-year-old Enrico Gobbi is the quiet, no-nonsense type. He says he prefers matte to shiny, with a portfolio of designs that reflects timelessness rather than trends.

“I am constantly reminding my staff to push everything to the max,” Gobbi says. “Every detail must be worked and reworked until it is perfect.”

According to Giulia Perale, Gobbi’s senior interior designer, “Enrico does not accept anything less than perfect with the respect to his vision.”

His Venice, Italy-based studio, Team for Design–Enrico Gobbi, which he founded in 2005, has a team of eight people and specializes in custom projects. Gobbi was born and raised in Venice, and says he has always had a strong relationship to boats.

“I grew up around more boats than cars,” he says. “Boats were simply a mode of transportation around town.”

His father and mother were fashion designers and had hoped their son might follow in their footsteps. “Our home was filled with decorative dress fabrics,” he says. “My mother traveled the world collecting exotic materials, and as a child, I was literally enveloped with color and texture.”

Creating fanciful buildings with Legos was Gobbi’s favorite childhood pastime. He studied art history and architecture at the University of Architecture in Venice. Yet as a teenager and young adult, boats captivated him more than buildings. “I read magazine after magazine on yacht design and yachts,” he says.

For his final thesis, he designed a luxury cruise ship: “a purely aesthetic one, not an ugly, crazy, enormous floating high rise like so many cruise ships of today,” he says.

His first job after earning his degree was with a studio designing small cruise ships. Next, he worked for Venice-based yacht design firm Nuvolari Lenard for five years. “I learned a lot from Carlo Nuvolari,” Gobbi says. “He is a gentleman, a good person and a good teacher.”

Gobbi went out on his own when he was in his early 30s. “I opened my office without having a single client,” he says with a laugh. “I started promoting myself with my concept designs, and almost right away, a German client saw something he liked and decided to build it with me.”

That first project was constructed at Rossinavi. One job led to another, and another. Over 14 years, Rossinavi built 16 of Gobbi’s projects. Currently, Team for Design–Enrico Gobbi has 10 projects in various stages of build. The firm recently closed on a 262-foot (80-meter) project at ISA, and did the exterior design on a 249-foot (76-meter) project that’s in build at Turquoise Yachts. The company also has yachts under construction and concept designs for shipyards such as at Baglietto, Oceanco, Tankoa and Mondomarine, and works on designs for luxury residences, villas and lofts.

Team for Design–Enrico Gobbi offers a range of styles from minimal to modern and contemporary. The word “team” in the company name relates to different views of design and architecture. Carlo Lionetti, chief/senior architect, and Perale have been with Gobbi for 14 years.

“Enrico never loses sight of the daily satisfaction derived from seeing what we are all creating together,” Perale says, adding that while there might not be a signature style, “Enrico is keen that all of his designs adhere to balanced proportions.” One characteristic that many of the projects share, Perale says, is side pillars connecting decks, designed in different materials. Another is long, continuous window surfaces on the superstructure.

Gobbi calls his designs “sleek and proportional and the contrary of exuberant. I don’t like to show off for the sake of making a statement.” He enjoys the challenge of working with clients to actualize their dream, no matter how fantastical it is. “All is possible,” he says. “We draw your dreams with a realistic vision.”

He mentions one American client, the owner of the 207-foot (63-meter) Rossinavi Utopia IV, who wanted the lines of his yacht to take cues from the automotive industry, particularly from a sports coupe.

“We took his reference and created exactly the look he was after. At the same time, we designed a timeless yacht with shapes and details that are unaffected by the passage of time of or fashion,” Gobbi says. “The principal ethos of our studio is never to lose sight of a client’s vision.”

In an ideal world, Gobbi says, he would like to have control over the entire design of a yacht—exterior and interior. “In that way, I can ensure a cohesive design inside and out.” However, it doesn’t always work out that way. He then collaborates with other designers, always keeping an eye on the goal: “What pleases me is a when a client is approaching his yacht at anchor from his tender and falls in love with it again and again.”

Sometimes, clients have their heart set on certain design moves, but Gobbi disagrees. In those cases, he presents what the client wants alongside his own design vision, hoping his arguments resonate. Ultimately, the goal is to make a project flow from start to finish, to keep the design concept intact, and to follow all aesthetic decisions—exterior, interior, decorative items, furniture, art, dishes, cutlery and more.

Fashion versus style is often up for debate, and shiny versus matte is a matter of preference, but whatever someone’s taste is, Gobbi is ready to give the vision his undivided attention.

For more information: teamfordesign.com

This article was originally published in the Winter 2023 issue.