Table of contents for No. 174 in AUTO & DESIGN

Dossier do Brasil For more than a hundred years Brazil has thought of itself as “the country of the future,” a future that always managed not to arrive as predicted. That may be about to change. Sao Paulo, with more than ten million inhabitants, is probably the largest city in the world in terms of population within official city limits, although Seoul, South Korea, is very close. Only the Tokyo-Yokohama and New York City major metropolitan areas have bigger populations, albeit spread over much larger areas and multiple municipal jurisdictions. Today Brazil has numerous industries that are among world leaders in their specialties, including small machine tools and commuter and executive jet airplanes. It stands to reason that this huge country — fifth largest in the world, and the biggest…

Dynamism, fluidity, sportiness, sensuality and strength are the five basic precepts on which Renault has founded its strategy for the new Mégane family, which debuted in hatchback and coupé guise and will later be joined by four more variants. This is a family which, as Patrick Le Quément said at Geneva last year during the presentation of a concept for the coupé, “represents a new beginning and shows what future Renault design will be like, with a series of models that are obviously not identical, but which are all defined by a voluptuous, curvaceous look and a face with a decisive expression”. But “project X95”, as it was known within la Régie, was more than that. As Renault design boss Le Quément explains: “It was a completely digital gamble”. Two…

In essence, combining the canons of Ford’s new kinetic design language with the youthful, exuberant spirit of the original Ka would not have been such a tall order if it were not for the constraints of a major industrial alliance. The bodyshell of the new Ka – “All the visible parts are Ford”, says Martin Smith, director of design for Europe (and Asia, the Pacific and Africa), with pride – sits on a Fiat platform, that of the Panda and 500 to be precise. The new Ka even shares two of its engines with the latter – the 1.2 litre petrol and 1.3 litre multijet turbodiesel, albeit with different names. The assembly lines and production plants, at Tychy in Poland, in which Ford has invested 210 million Euros to upgrade…

It has been twenty-five years since Fiat decided to pull out of the American market, preceded by Lancia and followed not much later by Alfa Romeo, so today in the United States one almost never sees a popular Italian car on the road. But without Italy and its iconic cars, what would be left of the California Car Week, the automotive world’s premier celebration of the automobile as an art form, object of desire and inspiration? On the basis of what went on last summer, the answer would be: not much. Every August a more-than-week-long series of fascinating automotive happenings is held on the scenically superb Monterey peninsula on central California’s coast. Originally a simple adjunct to the sports car races run on narrow country roads in the Del Monte…

Founded in early 2008, the design studio Bloom Room is already reaching its target clientele. The most innovative carmakers came to see the proposals of this atypical, iconoclastic design team at a new event organised alongside the 2008 Mondial de l’Automobile in Paris. The inception of the new studio Bloom Room last spring is still fresh in our minds. To stand out in the pragmatic design industry, the French studio chose an unorthodox form of communication. Instead of presenting itself at motor shows, to vie for attention with the works of other studios, the design team organised short exhibitions preceded by official openings, as if they were art exhibitions. The first event was organised in the Marais district in Paris, just a stone’s throw from the Bastille. The second exhibition…

After the trams for the city of Montpellier decorated with swallows and flowers by the designers Garouste and Bonettifiori, and the trams for Mulhouse enlivened by the bold and colourful style of Peret, Alstom Transport – the leading producer of high speed trains and urban transport solutions – decided to involve the students of the European Design Institute in the definition of public urban mobility systems for the year 2018. The new lines were conceived for the cities of Turin, Milan and Rome. These three cities, which differ widely in terms of geographic location, habits and urban dynamics, were analysed by the students of the courses in Transportation Design and Industrial Design at the Turin faculty of the institute and by the students of Industrial Design at Milan and Rome.…

“I believe that the best works of design come from people who question everything and from people who have seen the same things that we all see, butwhile thinking of something different. A good design is linked to the true functions of an object, not just its appearance.” Dyson thinking is founded on basic concepts that are very close to the origins of industrial design: “Design means how something works, not how it looks; design must stem from function… Unfortunately, the majority of teaching systems still encourage kids to pursue an academic qualification, keeping them from getting their hands dirty by actually doing something.” James Dyson – an exemplary case of a design-driven industrial designer and famous for inventing the first bagless vacuum cleaner (which took 15 years and over…

An animal moves silently through the forest, perfectly integrated in the natural environment. The designers of Fiat’s Brazilian design centre use a zoomorphic image halfway between an insect and a predator to describe the character of the FCC II - Bugster, the concept presented at the Sao Paolo Motor Show at the end of October. To the European observer, this, essentially a high tech dune buggy, is a rather unusual subject for a show car. “It is a genre very much in tune with the realities of Brazil” argues Peter Fassbender, director of Fiat design for Latin America Latina, noting that endless beaches and untarred roads are more than just rare exceptions for Brazilian users. The running prototype built by Fassbender and his team is, however, far removed from traditional…

Who knows if the Mercedes designers were thinking of the marque’s motorsports heritage and the “Silver Arrows” when they imagined the Fascination. You would think so, as this concept, a shooting brake presented at Paris, seems to be inspired by an arrow, with its pointed nose, long and slender body and tapering tail. What is certain is that this one-off creation, which marks the arrival of Gorden Wagener at the helm of Mercedes design after years under Peter Pfeiffer, represents the image of a forthcoming new Mercedes family, that of the next generation E Class, due to arrive in at least four variants (saloon, coupé, estate and convertible) already this year. The arrow theme, whether intended as such or otherwise, is part of the new formal language with which Wagener,…

Economic crises like the one the whole world is going through today come and go, says Gert Hildebrand, but the Mini remains. This optimism from the director of design for Mini seems to contradict any doubts about the production future of a big sister for the Mini – the crossover previewed at Paris and ostensibly labelled a concept. Hildebrand hints further at the model’s future by summing it up with the number four: “This”, he explains, “is the first Mini with four wheel drive, the first with four doors, the first with four separate seats and the first more than four metres long.” He lowers his voice: “After the two-door Cabrio and Clubman, this larger Mini with state of the art technology could even be the number four in the…

“Ever since I have been able to think, my mind has been full of fantastic cars, planes, and all kinds of machines.” Futuristic design comes naturally to Daniel Simon, concept designer and author of the fascinating illustrated book Cosmic Motors, spaceships, cars and pilots of another galaxy - 177 pages with over 300 images of visionary vehicles, from spaceships and aircraft to motor cars, all of which piloted by beautiful cybernetic women – “my computer has a programme that can only draw female figures” quips Simon. Star Wars and classic Hollywood scifi, however, were not influences in his childhood, which was spent in the cultural isolation of Eastern Germany. Daniel Simon was born in Stralsund in 1975 and was 14 years old when the Wall fell. “We were suddenly exposed…

For anyone who still believes that only numbers can be infinite, Roberto Gatto, creator and head of GR Painting, is about to prove that the same also applies to colours. “Designers come to us with a particular colour in mind – sometimes without even a sample other than a detail in a photograph” he explains, recalling instances from his lengthy experience in the business which led him, after 15 years as workshop manager at Vecarmodel, to found GR Painting in 2002. This is a modern facility specialised in very high quality painting (the largest in the Turin area, with four prep areas and two ovens) for prototypes and models in the most diverse sectors, from the automotive to the aeronautical and from consumer products to furniture. The company does not…

Workgroups, very short timeframes, a major client company and all the resources of the school from the teachers themselves to internet connectivity were the ingredients with which the third year transportation design students at Northumbria University tackled a project conducted in collaboration with CGI, a research and design company based in Coventry, England. Two different themes were explored in parallel: one for the development of premium, eco-sustainable cars, the other for the creation of lifestyle products associated with an automotive brand. The students were organised into ten teams, five for each of the two topics, and, for six weeks, worked in close contact with Niki Yau (principal designer) and Jonathan Tatum (head of design), the CGI project managers who assisted them throughout the entire project. Premium cars are often excessive,…

“Europeans go shopping with their eyes”. In the Old Continent, design still ranks among the most influential factors in buying, and it was with this idea clearly in mind that Toyota’s management launched the project for the third generation Avensis, its mid-upper segment saloon. Naturally, being a Toyota, content had to be no less important than appearance, so engineering and innovation played key roles in its inception. The two previous iterations of the Avensis provided a solid base on which to work, explained Assistant Chief Engineer Akira Matsumoto, who was entrusted with the job of describing the project at the international launch of the new car in Milan, Italy. “The 1997 Avensis was the first D segment Toyota developed specifically for Europe. The second generation however, launched in 2003, represented…

A vibrant picture of a nation with a keen desire for design, plenty of enthusiasm and a clear understanding of the strategic importance of industrial design emerged from the Biennial of Brazilian Design held between October and November last year in the largest country in Latin America. This was no coincidence, as the exhibition hosted at the National Museum in Brasilia was organised with the patronage of the Brazilian Ministry for Development, Industry and Foreign Trade and the MBC – Movimento Brasil Competitivo – an institute founded by a group of local businesses in 2001. The exhibition brought together over 200 objects representing the most diverse sectors of industry, illustrating the state of Brazilian design at this crucial stage in the assertion of the nation’s identity. Alongside advanced technology products…

The 7 Series presented in 2001 raised quite a few eyebrows for its unusual design, with a noncomformist treatment applied to the definitive conservative product – the luxury saloon. At the world launch of the new 7 Series at Paris, we spoke with the director of design for the BMW brand, Adrian van Hooydonk, to gain insight into his approach to the project for the fifth generation of the marque’s flagship. “We knew from the start that everyone was just waiting to judge what we were going to do this time” he said with a smile, recalling the beginning of the project. “The first thing we did was to analyse how the car was perceived in its primary markets. In Asia it is seen as a car with lots of…

Toyota achieved several goals with the iQ. It is the smallest Toyota ever made and the world’s most compact four seater. It moves nimbly through traffic – even in the intensely overcrowded streets of Milan, where the Japanese marque chose to launch the car, and where it’s distinctive and original style attracted much attention. With its 1.0 litre 3-cylinder 68 bhp engine, it produces little CO2: just 99 g/Km in the manual version, as promised by Toyota in its research programme into sustainable mobility announced in 2007. But it is the results achieved in terms of design and vehicle architecture in particular that open a new chapter for Toyota products. The endless quest for a Japanese identity (the “J factor”), capable of eliciting the same interest as other Japanese products…

The Phylla (Latin for leaf) is an innovative, compact electric car conceived for the city and boasting lots of interesting aesthetic touches. The car is the product of a commitment undertaken by the Piedmont Region to promote a realistically attainable form of ecological transport, with the collaboration of the Fiat Research Centre (CRF), Turin Polytechnic and a number of businesses from the Turin area. This rolling prototype is the first step in a journey which could lead to the production of a small fleet for use by the municipality and public services. “This”, explains Nevio di Giusto, managing director of CRF, “is an ambitious project which, beginning with the involvement of the Piedmont Region, looks toward the future with a corporate mindset, bringing together different companies from the area and…

For professional designers obliged to work within the constraints of feasibility, the Los Angeles Design Challenge is a welcome opportunity to give their imagination free rein to explore what are always very futuristic topics – after the Robocars of last year, the topic for this year was Motorsports for the year 2025. Even if they may seem a little wild for the era for which they are conceived – which is just 17 years away – the race cars proposed by the designers of the California based style centres of major carmakers are unquestionably fascinating. Audi devised a car with a conventional layout for racing inside a tunnel, Mitsubishi designed an all terrain vehicle with omnidirectional tyres, Mercedes imagined a vehicle with solar power and a sail for a Formula…