“It is with great pride and a touch of madness that, after almost five years of hard work and an investment of over 50 million euro, we are launching the new chapter in the life of Moto Guzzi,” says Piaggio Group CEO Michele Colaninno. “The project has involved a complete transformation of the factory and the museum, and is the brainchild of Greg Lynn, a friend and internationally renowned architect, with whom we have worked to fuse metal and robots, silence and art.”
In the place where Moto Guzzi was founded 105 years ago, the American designer – a former winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Architecture Biennale – has created a multifunctional hub where innovation, experimentation and history come together to create a unique cultural space. The factory complex is situated at the heart of the original site, respecting both its history and its architecture. It comprises 5,500 square meters of new industrial buildings (bringing the total factory area to 38,000 square meters. This boosts production capacity to more than 30,000 vehicles a year.
The new production facility, designed with a constant focus on environmental sustainability and efficient use of resources, is equipped with 1,300 square meters of photovoltaic panels. It is situated within the same industrial site where Moto Guzzi motorbikes have always been constructed. The red gate on Via Parodi, which has been the entrance for Moto Guzzi’s technicians, workers, engineers and riders since 1921, and which over the years has become a place of pilgrimage for motorcyclists from all over the world, remains in place, a symbol of continuity with a unique company history. But now, beyond that entrance, after almost five years of work, is a state-of-the-art factory, a new global benchmark for the motorcycle industry.
“Overlooking the shores of Lake Como, in Mandello del Lario, surrounded by the past and the present, yet also one of the most cutting-edge motorcycle factories, a technological benchmark in the global motorcycle industry,” concludes Colaninno. “This was a by no means an easy challenge, which, together, we have successfully completed. Moto Guzzi is one of the world’s best loved and iconic motorbike brands: anyone who rides a Moto Guzzi is riding through over a century of Italian history, with all our memories and all our hopes for the future.”
