Walter de Silva keynote speaker

Walter de Silva, a well-known Italian designer born in Lecco in 1951, began his career in 1972 at the Fiat Style Centre in Turin where he designed the Ritmo. From 1979 to 1986, he worked at the I.De.A Institute and was then employed by Alfa Romeo where he successfully designed the 155, 145 and 146.

At the Frankfurt Motor Show in 1997, the 156, the Biscione company’s mid-size saloon, made its debut: ‘A model that responded to precise aerodynamic criteria,’ stresses the designer from Lecco. The 147 premiered at the Turin Motor Show in 2000 with the ambition of repeating the success of the 156, with which it shared the floorpan and mechanics. Both won the title of “Car of the year”.

In 1999 he left the Fiat Group, accepted an offer from the Volkswagen Group and moved to Barcelona to devote himself to the Seat brand, redesigning the new Ibiza, Cordoba, Leon and Toledo and creating the Altea. In 2002, he was in Germany as chief designer of the Audi holding company and designed the new A6, maintaining responsibility for Seat. Three years later he was in charge of Lamborghini styling, creating the Miura Concept. In 2007, he was appointed head of the Volkswagen Group Style Centre, overseeing the styling of the eight brands (Audi, Seat, Lamborghini, Skoda, Bentley, Bugatti, Volkswagen and Porsche).

In 2015 he left the VW Group. De Silva, winner of the Compasso d’oro for lifetime achievement, is particularly attached to the Audi A5, winner of the 2010 Design Award. But in his prestigious career, we should not forget the Golf, the Beetle, the Polo and the Up city car; the latter designed in flight from Detroit to Frankfurt.

An Up that seems to have paved the way for Alba: ‘A small toy with attractive aesthetics, tailor-made for use in golf courses, resorts and seaside resorts’. In short, we must quickly enter the analogue and post-digital era: “it is essential that the new world of the car plays its cards on basic, single-dwelling vehicles without neglecting design, which will have to change course by incorporating IT, engineering, aerodynamic and ergonomic knowledge to enter into sustainability, the environment, privacy, psychology, tackling a more real and more aesthetic world head-on”.

After some time of inactivity, Walter De Silva launched Walter De Silva & Partners with other designers, later rebranded as Walter De Silva Automotive. This new company offers services of design consultancy to car manufacturers with a strong focus on brand & product identity. Their first project after leaving the VW Group was the ECF Concept car presented at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show for the Chinese manufacturer Arcfox. With his partners, Walter De Silva was later in charge of the design of the Hongqi S9 designed for SilkFAW presented at the 2021 Shanghai Auto Show.

Walter's Awards & Recognition are Designpreis der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (2010), Premio Compasso d'oro alla Carriera (2011), EyesOn Design Lifetime Achievement Award, Medaille für besondere Verdienste um Bayern in einem Vereinigten Europa (2013),  Desing Best Hall of Fame (2022)