Table of contents for No. 225 in AUTO & DESIGN

Designing the fifth generation of a car like the Ibiza, a model that has been a great success for Seat for over thirty years, was obviously a huge challenge as well as a great responsibility for the whole company. This made the task demanding as it was, but for Alejandro Mesonero the project, begun at the end of 2013, also had sentimental implications. “My very first car was an Ibiza, which was white because it was the only colour available at the dealership that day and I wanted it immediately. I was 18 years old and having a car like that was a dream come true,” the Seat head of design told us. “The Ibiza was also their first car for other designers at the Martorell style centre, so it…

Adelicate balance of cultures where the harmony of Oriental philosophies meets European rationalism. The D70, the second concept car of the Senova Offspace series developed by Baic Motors Design Centre in collaboration with GranStudio, foreshadows the design of the Chinese brand’s future premium saloon. “The aim with Senova is to create a brand with a strong identity. After the 2016 Offspace (see A&D 219), a concept car workshop that explored new styling features, the OffSpace D70 applies those formal elements to a realistic model, with a view to future production”, says Lowie Vermeersch, CEO and Creative Director of GranStudio. The styling idiom of the OffSpace D70 is firmly connected to the capital Beijing, "the City of the North", home of Baic. Here, tradition and innovation coexist and are expressed in…

Function narrated by form. The 720S project has moved in this direction since the earliest sketches. "You just have to look at it to immediately grasp its nature. We, as designers, have had the task of giving beauty to its function”. It is Robert Melville, the English brand’s Design Director, who fills us in on the origins of the latest creature from McLaren on their stand at Geneva 2017, where the supercar debuted. Looking this 720S in the eye, you have the perception of how the headlights have been integrated into the car’s aerodynamic system. But the surprise comes from trying to slip your hand in under the lights, as Melville invites us to do: that’s how you discover that they incorporate an air intake for channelling flow to…

No anthropomorphic touches, coquettish details or solutions inspired by the jauntily likeable: here, unlike elsewhere, no gamble is being taken on “playful” interpretation even for the entry level model. "It was a very specific decision”, explains Gregory Guillaume, Kia Europe’s head of design. "The aim was to propose a "mature" car, where the prevalent impression made on those observing it would be a feeling of value-for-money, in the noblest sense of the term. In other words, we wanted to create a product that would also communicate generous visual content with respect to the category it belongs to”. As the designer goes on to say, the styling approach used in the model’s history has always been to abide by criteria of rationality and "substance", while remaining firm on a globalised approach…

The Peugeot 406 Coupé has turned twenty and for the occasion the Peugeot 406 Coupe Club Italia organised a concours d’élégance, on 3 June, 2017 in Milan, where prizes were awarded to the best preserved 406 Coupés. We walk you through the most important stages in the design of this iconic car with an article published in Auto & Design no. 101/1996 in which Lorenzo Ramaciotti, at the time head of Pininfarina Studi e Ricerche, recounts the creative process that led to the production of the car. The brief for project D85 – codename of the future 406 Coupé – foresaw the creation of a sporty and aggressive but at the same time elegant and comfortable car suited to long journeys. “It was a question of finding a stylistic vein…

Four years ago, Citroën’s premium DS label was at a crossroads. French luxury and savoir faire had taken over the design department but that iconic DS nameplate needed more. Then, the March-2014 appointed CEO of PSA Groupe Carlos Tavares decided to shift DS upmarket as an independent luxury brand. ”That is what we had hoped for,” Thierry Metroz, head of DS design, recalls. “We had already developed a DS design strategy in 2012 which we implemented on the existing Citroën DS 3, 4 and 5 models, distinguished by a more prominent grille design. With Tavares’ decision we were able to take a further step forward.” In 2013, Metroz set his mind to creating a larger DS7 crossover model that would, however, still be branded as a Citroën. But Tavares’ decision…

How is the interior of a modern small car born? What keys move the architecture of the form and the functional paradigms of an environment that potentially addresses millions of users? And what future evolutions of mobility need to be picked up and analysed from now on? We discussed these issues with Amko Leenarts, head of Global Interior Design at Ford, during a meeting that also includes a number of students from the IED design institute in Milan: “Designing a segment B car today is complex, because this model is “suspended” between several generations of motorists. It needs to be both simple and advanced. In fact, numerous psychologists were consulted when the interior of the new Fiesta was defined, and specific instruments were employed – such as eye-tracking technologies –…

The new Scania S-Series was elected truck of the year 2017, universal recognition for a vehicle that has always been known for its build quality with a touch of technological and stylistic "conservatism": today it is completely new. Rethought out from scratch. In the past, the design of the "King of the Road" - as this Swedish truck is called - saw a lot of work from Bertone, as regards both the design and the modularity of the structure that allows the production of a variety of cabins. The new series was developed by Scania’s Inhouse Design centre. We interviewed Kristofer Hansén, head of Scania’s Styling and Industrial Design division. As soon as the new Scania was presented it created something of a stir for its strong resemblance to the…

It may be the sporty soul, the charisma of the sculpted shapes or the athletic image, but in the imagination of many young designers the dream of designing a Lamborghini is one of the factors driving their passion for cars. For Ivan Borisov (Russia) and Giuseppe Ippoliti (Italy), students at the Master in Transportation Design of the SPD (Polytechnic School of Design), this dream came true within the Encierro project, the electric hypercar designed to respond to the briefing proposed by the school in collaboration with the Sant'Agata Bolognese style centre. A Lamborghini with strong, muscular features that aims to reinterpret the brand’s Dna with citations from the world of aeronautics and sports racing combined with strikingly designed technical details such as lighting clusters, exhausts and carbon inserts. The silhouette,…

This motor show, with its ‘open air’ formula, is much more than a static display of cars. In addition to the stands of 56 different brands, the event offers a varied calendar of attractions, ranging from vintage cars and heritage events, which always attract huge crowds, to the vehicles of the future and displays of the latest concept cars from carmakers and body-work specialists. Ferrari marked its 70th anniversary by exhibiting its most iconic models; Volvo did the same to celebrate 90 years of activity. One area of the show that continues to grow is car design, which is of huge importance in Turin, the city that can be considered its home. The various events dedicated to this theme were inaugurated by the Car Design Award ceremony (see page 4),…

There’s nothing random here about the choice of name. For over twenty years up until 2011, the Eclipse was a highly successful Mitsubishi coupé. Passing on the name to this crossover means conferring attributes of sportiness to what is essentially an SUV. "It’s a blend of typical coupé lines and the dynamic mobility of an SUV”, says Tsunehiro Kunimoto, head of design for the Japanese manufacturer that in the arrival of the Eclipse Cross sees the first concrete step – apart from a handful of concepts - in the transformation of the Mitsubishi image: "The new design direction that I have introduced takes on board the Mitsubishi identity and incorporates its tradition. Through concepts of functional beauty and sculptural dynamism it creates new design values characteristic of our brand”. Everything…

Renew a model that continues to sell, so without transforming its features. Maybe try and hitch it to the premium comet – if not as part of the core at least in the wake – with more focus on the quality of the product and with one or two more explicit touches of sportiness. The third series of the Qashqai was born on these lines, as Koji Nagano explains: "When it was born in 2006 it was the only crossover on the market. Today it has at least twenty competitors, so it was necessary to renew it before it aged, and give it fresh allure”. In Nissan’s intentions, the package presented in Geneva offers, "a new, more sophisticated design with a dynamic premium style". Nagano and his designers reached this…