Ducati North America (San Francisco CA)

Founded in 1926 and based in Bologna Italy, Ducati Motor Holding SPA is a motorcycle company with an esteemed tradition in European motorcycle racing. For motorcycle enthusiasts, Ducatis represent the finest in Italian design and for the non-enthusiast, Ducatis present as compellingly machined and sculptural artifacts. However, Ducati would not be the storied brand that it is today if it were not committed to performance as a principle for design across its product line. As a global outpost, Ducati North America is currently housed in a modest office park in Sunnyvale CA serving several administrative functions including customs processing, inventory processing, apparel distribution, marketing, dealer support, and customer service.

The architectural discipline must mature from asking questions such as “What does your architecture look like?” to more timely questions such as “How ought your architecture perform?”

As architects, our commitment to usability is a disciplinary requirement, however our enthusiastic engagement with the question of Performance guarantees the incorporation and measurable operation of design features that raise the value of architectural solutions for use both today and tomorrow.

This 4th year architecture design studio prompted students to design a new, mixed-use, and purpose-built Ducati North America headquarters that both expresses its brand and considers its own architectural performance.

Site: 1 Stockton Street, San Francisco CA, near the Union Square shopping district. Parcel: 0327-025, Parcel Dimensions: 90’-0” x 65’-0”. Existing 38’-0” x 15’-0” easement to the BART system must be maintained with an overhead clearance of no less than 12’-0”.

Program: Existing operations from Sunnyvale CA would be relocated to this new facility, and provide a showroom, a Ducati Caffe, “spec” corporate office space for company expansion or non-Ducati lease at market rates, office space for the Fondazione Ducati, and (8) residential units for short- or long-term use.

User / Client: Ducati North America Corporate Headquarters

Design studio objectives included:

• to develop a critical position regarding the role of performance in architecture for 21st-century use.

• to develop personal dexterity with the material vocabulary of stereotomics, tectonics, and atectonics.

• to develop a design solution beyond the Schematic Design phase into Design Development through the coordinated presentation of a proposal’s structural, architectural, mechanical, and lighting systems.

• to represent and satisfy particular NAAB Comprehensive Project requirements.

As prompted, final proposals must consider the synthesis of structural, operational, and aesthetic aspects. After all, if “every part of [a Ducati] has to look as good as it performs,” then it stands to reason this same expectation would be applied to the company’s own North American flagship. [Quote by Pierre Terreblanche from the film Ducati: A Story of Passion, 2007.]