When AFR Weekend meets with the founder of design firm Banda, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi – also known as the husband of Britain’s Princess Beatrice – Sydney is putting on a show, even in the middle of winter.

Northerly sun is flooding the 2500-square-metre harbourside site in Darling Point, accompanied by the gentle clinking of yacht rigging and the slapping of bobbing hulls in salty water.