Fiat Group Automobiles’ new Style Centre in Turin was inaugurated yesterday in the presence of Fiat Vice Chairman John Elkann and CEO Sergio Marchionne. The new Centre puts all the research and design activities of the Fiat, Lancia, Fiat Professional, Abarth and Maserati brands into one Style department.

An industrial building within the Mirafiori complex called “Officina 83”, which had served originally as a machine shop, was refurbished to provide a headquarters for the new Centre. The workforce numbers about 200 people with an average age of 37, and with professional skills ranging over the entire styling process: designers, ‘digitisers’ and model makers. The new Style Centre occupies a roofed area of 12,500 sq m, to which should be added 8,100 sq m outside. It contains a big meeting room, a room for virtual reality presentations, and two rooms for presenting models, in addition to the large open-air display area. The rooms inside the Centre have been designed in a very modern key so as to best serve the creative aspect of activities linked to the definition of car design.

This is the latest stage of a recent wide ranging reorganisation of Fiat's styling and design departments, drawing much more closely together long standing arrangements that have been historically fragmented.