Walter de Silva
Walter Maria de Silva (born twenty seven February one thousand nine hundred fifty one in Lecco, Italy) is an Italian car designer who was head of Volkswagen Group Design until 2015. Since beginning his car design career in one thousand nine hundred seventy two as head of design for Fiat, de Silva has also worked as a designer at I.DE.A Institute, and as head of design for Alfa Romeo, SEAT and the ‘Audi brand group’. [1] He is presently CEO of “Walter de Silva Footwear”.
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Fiat 1972-1977 Edit
Walter de Silva began his career in one thousand nine hundred seventy two at age 21, working for Centro Stile Fiat. [1]
I.DE.A. Institute 1977-1986 Edit
After his practice at Fiat, Walter de Silva worked at the I.DE.A. Institute in Turin, Italy for nine years under the direction of Franco Mantegazza and Renzo Piano. [1]
Alfa Romeo 1986-1999 Edit
In one thousand nine hundred eighty six Walter de Silva was recruited away from the I.DE.A. Institute to become head of Alfa Romeo’s Centro Stile. Walter de Silva remained in this role until 1999. [1]
At Alfa Romeo, de Silva led the renewal of the brand’s design language and repositioning. [Two]
SEAT 1999-2002 Edit
In one thousand nine hundred ninety nine Ferdinand Piëch assigned Walter de Silva to work for the Volkswagen Group SEAT division, with the aim of injecting verve and sportiness to SEAT design. The result was SEAT ‘auto emoción’ philosophy which was very first demonstrated in the two thousand SEAT Salsa and the two thousand one SEAT Tango concept cars, [Trio] as a foretaste of SEAT fresh design language, with the latter receiving in two thousand two the ‘Autonis Award’ in the Concept Car category. [Four] His more expressive design treatment has since influenced the form and look of numerous cars, such as the two thousand two SEAT Córdoba and SEAT Ibiza, as well as the two thousand four SEAT Altea and two thousand five SEAT León which were very acclaimed and subsequently received several design awards (e.g. Crimson dot design award, Autonis award, ‘The World’s Most Beautiful Automobile 2004’ award in Milan [Five] [6] [7] etc.).
Audi brand group 2002-2007 Edit
In March two thousand two Walter de Silva was appointed Head of Design to the now-defunct Audi brand group which encompassed the Audi, SEAT and Lamborghini brands. Volkswagen Group management charged de Silva with providing the Audi range a more emotional design language which included the controversial introduction of the full-height, single-frame front grille that now adorns all Audi models. His very first total design for a production Audi was the two thousand five A6. He has since gone on to contribute to the two thousand five Audi Q7, two thousand six Audi TT and the two thousand seven Audi A5, which is reportedly his favourite design. [8]
Volkswagen Group 2007-2015 Edit
Following the appointment of former Audi chairman Martin Winterkorn as the chairman of the Volkswagen Group in January 2007, de Silva was appointed as Head of Volkswagen Group Design effective from one February two thousand seven and was responsible for the overall strategic design direction of all VW passenger car brands including Škoda, SEAT, Volkswagen, Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini and Bugatti. de Silva substituted Murat Günak and his very first task was to re-evaluate the designs of three then-imminent Volkswagen models which had been penned by his predecessor: the two thousand eight Golf, the two thousand eight Passat CC and the two thousand eight Scirocco. [9]