Luc Donckerwolke, the design director at Centro Stile Lamborghini, will leave Lamborghini to become the design director at SEAT on 15 September 2005.

Audi chief design Walter ‘de Silva, who is responsible for Design of the Audi brand group, which includes Lamborghini and SEAT, will take over Donckerwolke’s responsibilities until his replacement is decided upon.

Donckerwolke, now 40 years old, was responsible for last minute finishing touches on the Bertone-designed Murcièlago and the Italdesign-Giugiaro-designed Gallardo; the original Gallardo being designed by Fabrizio Giugiaro. Both the Murcièlago and Gallardo won the famous ‘Red Dot Award’ in 2003 for their clear cut designs.

Donckerwolke was also responsible for the Murcièlago Roadster and the Concept S, which has recently been confirmed as a future production model. Two examples of Donckerwolke’s latest work will include the Gallardo Spider and Gallardo Pitón which will both be unveiled at the Frankfurt IAA in September.

Luc Donckerwolke is a Belgian citizen and was born on 19 June 1965 in Lima, Peru.
 

He attended school in various South American and African countries before going on to study Industrial Engineering in Brussels and Transportation Design in Vevey, Switzerland.

In 1990 he began his career as a designer at Peugeot in France. Two years later he moved to Ingolstadt to Audi Design. From 1994 to 1996 he worked at the Skoda Design Center Mlada Boleslav in the Czech Republic. In 1996 he returned to Audi and was responsible for concept development at Audi Design for a year in Munich and a year in Ingolstadt. Since Audi’s take-over of Lamborghini in 1998, Donckerwolke has been working for Lamborghini in Sant’Agata and has been Head of Design there since March 2003.

His hobbies include motor racing, old cars, foreign cultures and learning languages. He speaks Italian, French, Spanish, English, German, Flemish and Swahili.