Tabla de contenidos para 261 - July / August 2023 en AUTO & DESIGN

A drian van Hooydonk, Senior Vice President BMW Group Design, and Domagoj Dukec, Head of BMW Design, unveiled at the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este 2023 the Concept Touring Coupé, a shooting brake derived from the Z4 and described by Giorgetto Giugiaro, present at the event, as “a BMW with a strong character, with bold lines and a great deal of personality”. How did the Concept Touring Coupé come about? Van Hooydonk: “We thought of a luxury car that would be perfect for long weekends travelling through Europe. A true touring car, ideal for crossing the Alps and coming here to Villa d'Este, leaving everyone speechless and having fun behind the steering wheel. It has everything you need in terms of ultimate exclusivity: it was handbuilt in Italy and it has…

Mercedes-Benz Vision One-Eleven Concept car Looking to the past to seek inspiration for the future is not a novel concept. What matters is to do it in an original way. “That's the difference between retro design and futuristic styling with nods to our iconic past”, explains Gorden Wagener, Chief Design Officer of MercedesBenz. “We have so many stunning models to choose from that it is easy to fall into the trap of being carried away by past legends. The Vision One-Eleven concept is, however, clearly an object for the future while remaining recognisable as a Mercedes”, continues Wagener, whom we met up with in Stuttgart in a studio a couple of kilometres away from Mercedes-Benz headquarters. Before us, a splendid speedster with sleek, flowing lines (some credit also goes to the…

As has been the case for several years now, Audi was present at Milan Design Week as a leading representative of the automotive industry. This time round, the House of the Four Rings’ intention was to share its vision of the future with the public through an installation at the House of Progress in Corso Venezia. After the experiences of 2017 and 2018, this marked a return to Piazza Quadrilatero, the publicly accessible private courtyard of the Portrait Milano hotel, a new addition to the Florentine Lungarno Collection hospitality brand owned by the Ferragamo family There could hardly have been any doubt that the dominant themes would be sustainability and the circular economy, areas to which Audi is actively committed. What wasn't so clear was how these themes would be…

How important are tactile perceptions in a car nowadays? How do they stimulate the emotions of those who are drawn to them? And does the impact of the trim remain concentrated in the passenger compartment or can it already be revealed through the outer shell? In Milan, at the peak of the Salone del Mobile week and just a few days after the launch of the Cupra Tavascan, the most sought-after and dynamic of the Spanish brands put forward a fascinating response with its “Absolute Surface” exhibition. “We wanted to propose a journey into the possibilities allowed by technology to characterise the most important portions of a project, even with a hint of provocation”, argues Francesca Sangalli, head of Colour&Trim and Concept&Strategy: “In a way, it is an in-depth analysis…

At this time of seismic, electrification- induced change, the automotive world is also going through a phase of motor show renewal. While, however, in Europe and the United States the classic shows are having a tough time, in China the format continues to generate plaudits. The Shanghai Motor Show 2023 is proof of this: those who thought that the pandemic would put a stop to the Motor Show have been proved wrong. This year's event attracted throngs of exhibitors and visitors. The public (of about a million people) was able to check out the latest products from more than a thousand brands in the 360,000 square metres of the show, and the mainly local manufacturers took the opportunity to show off their cutting-edge innovations. Design remains the key factor, with…

“It is easy for young designers at the start of their career to think that it is enough to produce a good drawing to design the car of the future. That's not actually true, you must first respect the company you work for and learn. Learn a lot from the past too: that is the fascinating part of our job”. This statement by Luc Donckerwolke is enough to explain why it is so important for Hyundai, of which he is President & Chief Creative Officer, to physically revive a historic model such as the Pony Coupé Concept designed by Giugiaro almost half a century ago, showcased at the Turin motor show in 1974 and then long forgotten. Hyundai had announced in Seoul last November that it had commissioned the faithful…

The exhibition created by Alcantara for visitors to the ADI Design Museum in Milan during the Salone del Mobile was dedicated to Alice in Wonderland, whilst the Auto&Design Car Design Award was being held there at the same time, and the reason is quite fascinating: “Just as Alice in Lewis Carroll's visionary novel discovers a myriad of unknown worlds, so our material opens up a host of possibilities that match unexpected lifestyles”, reasons Andrea Boragno, CEO and Chairman of Alcantara S.p.A. Amongst a drape of material elegantly unfurled from above and a mirror reflecting its colourful texture, emerge the contours of a wonderfully… concrete outlook: the creation of a special version of Alcantara made with 68 per cent post-consumer recycled polyester. Sustainability has always been a pillar of the company's…

The return of the traditional appointment in April brought good results for the Salone del Mobile, which closed its doors with a fifteen per cent increase in attendance driven by China, the first country after Italy. This edition will be remembered for a renewed layout, with all the exhibitors on the ground floor of the fair, orphaned of some big brands “exiled” to their showrooms, and for the major investment in the relaunch of the biennial Euroluce, redesigned after four years with an “urban”, ring-shaped approach for a better experience. Under the banner The city of Lights, this event appeared a bit like a Salone within a Salone, integrating not only the Satellite Pavilion but also interdisciplinary contents such as cultural exhibitions alternating with the commercial offer. From this point…

Some models mark the turning point in a brand's history by reshaping the public's perception of it. This was exactly what the Toyota C-HR did in Europe: valued till then above all for the technology and reliability of its products, the Japanese maker surprised observers by unexpectedly switching its focus to style. And it is precisely this original design, however polarising, applied to an SUV-coupé architecture that has decreed its success since the market launch in 2016. The time had come to transition to a new generation. To find out where the Toyota C-HR project was headed - that's right, Toyota is part of the name, as the illuminated logo spells out at the base of the rear window - we went to Zaventem, not far from Brussels. This is…

How do you pick up the threads of a century-old narrative? After years during which Lancia has been content to wallow in its home market with nothing but the Ypsilon, the decision to re-enter the global market has given a touch of urgency to this brand story revival. “We started from the speedform introduced in November, that we called Lancia Pu+Ra Zero, where Pure and Radical are part of our design language”, explains Jean-Pierre Ploué, head of Stellantis design as well as of Lancia design. “In recent months, we have evolved it, integrating some features already in production, without betraying its incisive spirit. And we have used a number of key features from the past”. The give-and-take between different eras was a great stimulus. While from the word go there…

Aehra “I too inefficient, and cer- don't like SUVs. They are tainly not ideal for electric mobility”. Filippo Perini, formerly at Audi, Lamborghini and Italdesign, and now head of design at Aehra, does not mince his words, yet the first car he designed for the new brand looks just like an SUV. “It has the space and ground clearance of an SUV but, in reality, it is not” says the designer from Emilia with a smile. “Let's put it this way: it is an SUV with the efficiency of a sedan: now with electric platforms we can do anything”. The Aehra is high, but not too heavy (2 tonnes, which is not bad for an EV that is over 5 metres long and with a range of 800 kilometres). The…

Bringing an open top sportscar to the newly revived MG brand has been at the top of the agenda for the team at SAIC Design for several years, and finally the time has come to unveil the production version of the car. The project was originally conceived at the UK based SAIC Design studio led by its Design Director, Carl Gotham. The work began in 2017 when the UK team set about creating a series of concept sketches and full-size models to showcase the idea. SAIC Design's newly appointed Chief Design Officer, Shao Jingfeng also shared the same passion to produce a halo product to complement the line-up of cars on sale, and quickly became the ambassador for the project after seeing the work produced at the UK studio. In…

Edgar Heinrich, head of BMW Motorrad Design Centre, is a true “biker buddy from next-door” with deep Bavarian roots. He is authentic and has no delusions of grandeur. With his extraordinary knowledge of motorbikes and, above all, his experience as a rider (in his private workshop he loves to tinker with his 14, mostly classic, motorcycles), he is an absolute luminary. Not bad for someone who says of himself that after leaving school he ‘only knew how to draw’…. As a teen, Edgar was fascinated by the raw power of technical machines. He loved sketching cranes and trucks, but it was at the age of 17 that his passion for motorbikes really began to blossom. He started studying architecture but then switched to the University of Design in Munich. For…