October 2025 marks the official 20th anniversary of the Lamborghini Centro Stile. The design centre, inaugurated in the early 2000s and with its first car completed in 2005, was the first in-house department of its kind for a super sports car manufacturer and, in true Lamborghini fashion, set a trend for others to follow. It marked a turning point for the Italian super sports car marque: from this point on, every new masterpiece of design, model variant, extraordinary concept, special edition and few-offs would be directed and delivered by the Lamborghini heads of design and their teams, shaping Lamborghini’s stylistic heritage for the decades to come.
“The Lamborghini Centro Stile is an integral driver of our brand,” says Chairman and CEO Stephan Winkelmann. “In the last 20 years it has consolidated the role of design not only in the creation of extraordinary Italian production super sports cars, but always pushing boundaries to deliver the unexpected that is so innate within the Lamborghini marque, from concept cars to limited editions that explore new horizons, to one-off and few-offs that have established the appeal of Lamborghini models in private collections. Design is fundamental to all that we do: our Centro Stile has also innovated the expansion of our brand into areas that complement and elevate our automotive design proposition, with partners from the worlds of yachting to audio, architecture to clothing, illustrating the power of Lamborghini design DNA not only on the road and track but in the world around us.”
Founder Ferruccio Lamborghini knew, in 1963, how important the shape and styling of his GT cars would be to his Italian brand, using Franco Scaglione for the prototype 350 GTV and turning to Milan’s Carrozzeria Touring for the first production 350 GT and its evolution to the 400 GT. The softer curves of the 1966 Miura by Carrozzeria Bertone of Turin gave way to the sharp lines and ‘hexagon’ paradigm of the Marzal prototype in 1967, and to the astonishing Countach in 1971 with its signature Lamborghini silhouette: Lamborghini’s design culture was established, laying the foundations for style, detail and proportions that would be exponentially developed by the Centro Stile decades on.
“Two decades have passed since the important moment when the Lamborghini Centro Stile was established,” says Automobili Lamborghini Design Director Mitja Borkert. “Lamborghini is built on performance engineering and design, and the two go hand in hand. With Research and Development in house, design must be too. Over the last 20 years the Centro Stile has written the rule book for Lamborghini’s design DNA, its structure and function, which is the genetic blueprint for our brand.”
The 1980s saw the first steps towards in-house design, with the 1981 Jalpa on the Urraco base as well as the 1986 LM 002 designed by then technical director Giulio Alfieri, while Chrysler’s subsequent ownership influenced more rounded proportions in the Diablo’s styling.
The move towards an in-house design department was instigated in 1998 with the acquisition of Lamborghini by Audi. New design processes and facilities were established: Luc Donckerwolke joined from Audi as a project manager the same year and was appointed head of design in 2003. A Belgian, educated in South America and Africa, Donckerwolke oversaw the restyling of the final Diablo versions, and was responsible for creating the V12 Murciélago launched in 2002 and the V10 Gallardo two years later. Donckerwolke’s talent as an automotive designer was enhanced by his passion and emotional engagement with the brand, with both new cars setting the tone for a more modern, muscular design language with purer lines and clean taut surfaces.
“The Murciélago was an extraordinary design advancement,” says Borkert. “I personally remember seeing it at Geneva motor show and instantly recognised the emotion and presence of the Lamborghini brand. It delivered a pure expression of Lamborghini styling, and set the principles of ‘form follows function’ in the way it delivered advanced design and engineering for Lamborghini’s V12 flagship model. It not only carried the design DNA of Lamborghini but extended it in a remarkable way for the new millennium, establishing a new era for Lamborghini’s in-house design capabilities.”
At the beginning of the 2000s Audi’s then brand group head of design Walter de’Silva recommended to the board of Audi and Lamborghini that an in-house design centre should be established for the Italian super sports marque, and the new Centro Stile was announced during the 40th anniversary celebrations in 2003, a decision that reflected his vision of safeguarding Lamborghini’s DNA through creative independence and a long-term stylistic strategy. Stephan Winkelmann joined Lamborghini as President and CEO at the start of 2005 to oversee the fast-paced investment and development within Lamborghini, co-ordinating design, R&D, brand, commercial and marketing teams in a new, integrated way, with the inauguration of the Centro Stile later that year.
“This marked a time of exponential innovation,” says Borkert. “The in-house Centro Stile function allowed designers to think creatively but strategically in a team environment and, as importantly, work closely alongside other departments in a very dynamic way.”
With the Centro Stile fully operational in 2005, as Donckerwolke moved on to illustrious roles within the VW group and beyond, in 2006 Italian Filippo Perini was promoted to head of the Centro Stile from his role as Lamborghini’s head of external design. This marked an era of exceptionally fast-paced design and development, picking up from work started under Donckerwolke and de’Silva, who had also developed cars such as the Concept S and Miura Concept respectively, and early progressions of the Murciélago including the roadster. Under Perini an evolved Murciélago LP 640 was launched in 2006 followed by a roadster and the LP 670-4 SuperVeloce in 2009, with evolutions and derivatives of the Gallardo powertrain and dynamics across Spyder, Superleggera and Performante versions.
“Perini continued the in-house design strategies started by Donckerwolke but, like every head of design, brought his own inspiration to projects during a remarkable time for the company, during which the Centro Stile was a central force,” says Borkert. “The V12 Reventón in 2007 was an essential moment; it was the first few-off car based upon a current platform but delivering a distinctive new design and next-level performance. Perini drew on aeronautical inspiration for the sharper lines and more aggressive features, and adopted the now-familiar hexagon and Y motifs. The approach to Reventón’s styling, material use and iconic details were recognised as a design hint towards next generation production models: a tradition that remains with limited edition, one-off and few off models today created by the Centro Stile today.”
Perini and a small Centro Stile team of just seven was responsible for design of a fundamental new Lamborghini: succeeding the Murciélago, the Aventador was designed and developed entirely in-house and launched in 2011 and significantly moved on the Lamborghini design language, presenting breathtaking complexities of lines and surfaces. Perini credited the talent of the Centro Stile designers for understanding both the mechanical and aesthetic demands of car design in delivering the new V12 flagship: “everyone was aware of what was needed and how, for example, an airfoil works, a skill I believe is necessary for anyone designing a car like a Lamborghini.” Launched to critical and commercial acclaim, the Aventador was followed by the Huracán in 2013 – successor to the Gallardo – with the Centro Stile also laying the groundwork for the new Super SUV with the Urus concept unveiled in 2012.
The Centro Stile under Perini’s leadership further established its legitimacy as a design hothouse, creating not only production models and their derivatives but exploring new ideas and solutions: always with Lamborghini design DNA at the core while delivering the unexpected. The result arrived in cars such as the 2010 limited edition Sesto Elemento – the sixth element – that explored the lightweight and crystalline nature of carbon geometries, with the use of carbon fiber and other lightweight engineering embedded into Lamborghini’s future. The extreme Veneno coupé and roadster few-offs in 2013 cemented the ‘stealth bomber’ theme of track-oriented super sports models, with their focus on aerodynamics and radical futuristic design cues to be found in later SuperVeloce and ‘J’ versions of Aventador under Borkert. Concepts such as the more elegant 2008 Estoque and 2014 Asterion drew on Lamborghini’s Gran Turismo heritage to explore four-seater GT and PHEV technology respectively.
“Concept and few-off cars give the Centro Stile design team an opportunity to truly spread their wings, to ask questions of design, to not limit the imagination in what is possible,” says Borkert. “The Centro Stile ethos is to take inspiration from what interests and thrills: the roofline of the Aventador was inspired by beetle wings, separated along the median axis yet enveloping the body. The hexagon shape of carbon and honeycomb continues as a recurring theme in Lamborghini models, as do the stripped-back surfaces of extreme racing bikes and the instinctive, powerful shapes and emotions produced by fighter jets that particularly inspire me.”
With the arrival of Mitja Borkert as head of design in 2016, the Centro Stile entered a new era, increasing its studio space two-fold, and growing its international team members to 25. Born in East Germany, Borkert moved from Porsche to take charge of Aventador models such as the S and SVJ, and the Huracán Performante, and with the immediate remit to finalise design of the Urus Super SUV unveiled in 2017 to become Lamborghini’s third product line.
The Terzo Millennio ‘third millennium’ electric concept, developed with the Institute of Massachussetts in 2017, demonstrated how Borkert and the Centro Stile held true to the principles of rewriting the rules for future generations. The few-off Sián nodded to the silhouette of the Countach while its ‘lightning’ moniker reflected its powerful aerodynamics-inspired profile and new supercapacitor technology, while the Countach LPI 800-4 surprised again with a retrospective glance to Lamborghini’s heritage combined with its futuristic performance. Over nearly a decade the Centro Stile has evolved the Urus Super SUV including Performante, S, and the SE PHEV model of today, while Borkert headed the all-new High Performance Electric Vehicle (HPEV) Lamborghini Revuelto that succeeded the Aventador in 2023, bringing a refined athleticism to his designs while working with the demands of a new era of hybridization technologies.
“Revuelto is the first model we designed from scratch, and uses a very iconic and essential design language,” says Borkert. “It tests how Lamborghini design DNA opens the door to future designs. The essentially recognisable silhouette is immediate, yet some surfaces are smoothed while retaining the inimitable Lamborghini tension in its lines and planes. The iconically striking Y shape and hexagon motifs feature throughout the car, including the new generation interior with its ‘feel like a pilot’ philosophy.”
The design philosophy of ‘feel like a fighter pilot’ is topical for the Centro Stile today, as focused on cockpit ergonomics, the integration of ADAS systems, and Human Machine Interfaces (HMI) as the challenges of incorporating new hybrid powertrains, aerodynamics, lightweight engineering and complex electronics, collaborating alongside other departments innovating at the Sant’Agata headquarters.
The Centro Stile touches many company areas, including overseeing the Ad Personam department’s offering of virtually limitless colours and trims that harmonise with production models and few-offs, and expanding the expression of Lamborghini styling into collaborations with appropriate partners.
“The power of Lamborghini design is seen in the way it can be transposed into other environments, as diverse as motor yachts or electronics or fashion,” points out Borkert, “but the Centro Stile’s role is more than providing style inspiration: it is about extending the reach of Lamborghini design while maintaining the principles and rules that govern our brand.”
Alongside the inspirational evolution are the practical developments, in digital technology that has evolved through CAD CAM and simulations to 3D printing and now Artificial Intelligence. “Each head of design has their own vision, their own personality, their own way of developing ideas. Perini was attuned to a digital world, I like physical models. But seeing how the world has evolved over the last two decades reminds us how we must be open to embracing the developments of the next 20 years,” says Borkert. “I remember being amazed by 3D printing experiments. Now we use it all the time, even to create production car components. We are looking at AI, of course, to see how that can work for us, with the final decision always a human one. But the principles of Lamborghini Centro Stile mean we must always be curious, questioning the status quo.”
The HPEV Temerario that made its dynamic launch this year, completes the full hybridization of the Lamborghini production car model range: the first super sports car brand in its segment to do so, while in summer 2025 the V12 HPEV Lamborghini Fenomeno was presented in celebration of the Centro Stile’s 20th anniversary. The most powerful Lamborghini ever, it is a few-off in true Lamborghini tradition, delivering a design manifesto for the future.
“As Director of Lamborghini design and the Centro Stile, you are a visionary. It’s in the job description. We set the trends, we don’t follow them. We must always look ahead, to next year and the next 20 years,” says Borkert. “Although we are a very diverse team of people in terms of nationality, cultures and talents, we are all immediately united by a passion and commitment to Lamborghini as an Italian super sports car marque. It is ingrained in everything that we do. It is the ethos of Lamborghini to always question the status quo but within the framework of Lamborghini design DNA, which is remarkably unrestrictive. Our design history is a divergent one, covering a catalogue of more than 60 years from which we can draw inspiration but also affirmation. Lamborghini is not a one-dimensional manufacturer: our heritage combined with our relentless vision for the day-after-tomorrow is a privileged place from where our Centro Stile can celebrate its 20th anniversary.”
