Table of contents for No. 168 in AUTO & DESIGN

With over fifty world premiers, including production models and concepts, the first show of the year, NAIAS 2008, asserted itself as one of the most important of all international events of its kind. Unfortunately, and continuing a trend seen in recent editions of the show, the large number of new models on display did not correspond to an equal abundance of truly interesting offerings in terms of aesthetic innovation. In spite of persisting concerns over the environment and a general awareness that the industry needs to come up with viable alternatives, the American Big Three in particular seemed more focused on products destined for the immediate future rather than on advanced research. Ford unveiled the latest generation of its version of the most American vehicle of all, the gargantuan –…

The design of future Volkswagens will be simple yet iconic, expressing images of functional, robust and universal products. Witness to this is a trio of small concept cars, which stood apart from the crowd at recent motor shows for their fresh formal approach. The Up! – with an explanation mark emphasising its positive character – which debuted at Frankfurt, introduced a new rear-engined architecture that is highly effective in keeping down external dimensions while optimising internal space in this three-door, four-seater. In October at Tokyo it was the turn of the two-box five-door Space Up!, followed a month later by the electrically powered Space Up! Blue version, unveiled at Los Angeles. In all three cars, the message is clear: this is a turning point, in which Volkswagen is looking towards…

The Japanese know that the time has come to radically rethink the conventional car. Unwelcome in tomorrow’s cities and forced to change drastically to preserve what little is left of the environment, the car is under fire in Japan more than anywhere else. This was the general feeling at the fortieth edition of the Tokyo Motor Show held this October. Every two years, the show offers a colourful showcase for its increasingly attentive international observers. More so than through its production models, the Japanese car industry expresses itself through its concept cars. This is how the nation’s carmakers demonstrate their knack of understanding what consumers want and, even when the stakes are high, they always manage to include a fun element. The most important thing is to wow the thousands…

The goal of the creators of the RiN, an unusual, upright, compact four-seater (measuring almost 1.7 metres in height and just 3.25 metres in length) was to make something that will get you to your destination healthier, more serene and fitter than when you set off. The external form consists of a transparent green cylinder intersecting a white base enveloping the wheels. To explain the meaning of the car, Mino Tokuharu – the designer who worked on the exterior under the direction of Masaaki Otsubo – resorts to comparisons with natural elements. “The inspiration for the project was the yakusugi, a Japanese cypress with deep roots that grows very tall. We imagined a car that was constantly in touch with nature, hence the enveloping shape of the cabin, which is…

Audi’s recent history has been marked by successful growth in the upper premium segments. But environmental obligation has also put pressure on the Ingolstadt brand to rethink its product strategies, which eventually led to a return to Audi’s roots of building small cars. But since it is a full human generation ago that the compact Audi 50 was put onto the market, creation of the concept and design for a future small Audi required a fresh start. Planned for 2010, Audi’s coming baby is already baptized A1. It will be based on the VW group’s Polo architecture, yet with Audi’s own body style as well as drive train and handling characteristics. And the first impression of how such an A1 could look was publicly unveiled at the last Tokyo’s auto…

Today’s interest in the outdoor lifestyle is even sweeping through furniture design. This can clearly be seen in furniture shows, with exhibitions or entire halls dedicated to the theme, and is corroborated by statistics, which show a growing number of terraces and garden areas in modern homes. This renewed interest in outdoor furniture goes beyond familiar old garden chairs and tables, to include reinterpretations in an open air key of traditionally interior objects, such as lamps, for instance. There are also many solutions that redefine – in terms of both design and materials – classic outdoor objects, to blur the distinction between indoors and outdoors. Some of the materials most commonly used include synthetic fibres instead of natural materials such as wicker and rattan, which usually necessitate additional manual processes.…

While to the casual observer, the design of work tools may appear to have reached a state of perfection after thousands of years of continuous improvement, it is actually a field that offers much scope for innovation. This is also because in many cases, their shape has been defined in response to functionality alone, with no regard for aspects such as aesthetics and ergonomics. This is the thinking behind the new Profiline series of fixed blade and folding blade saws designed by MM Design for Stocker, a South Tyrolean manufacturer of secateurs, saws and gardening tools. Developed on the basis of studies of professionals at work (gardeners, farmers and forestry corps personnel), the tool consists of a rigid body forming a single piece with the blade, with soft material coating…

The Croma is one of the most comfortable, roomiest cars on the market today, matching class-leading cabin space and accessibility with respectable performance. However, the model launched in 2005 (see design story in Auto & Design No. 153) was beginning to look a little dated compared with the rest of the range, and in particular, with its two latest additions, the Grande Punto and the Bravo. The Fiat Style Centre’s answer to this was a well-judged facelift, one which leaves the basic proportions and configuration of the original design by Italdesign Giugiaro untouched, yet significantly changes its overall image. The transformation was executed under the direction of then Fiat Style Centre director Christopher Reitz, who has since been appointed head of the new Group Style & Material Scouting division of…

The proposals produced by the students of the Umea Institute of Design at the end of their five year course in Transportation Design were fresh, creative and imaginative. The thesis projects once again demonstrated the outstanding teaching standards of the school, with detailed sketches illustrating the students’ imaginative and innovative visions of the automotive world’s near future, and giving a glimpse of what their professional future holds in store. The development process followed the same pattern as the many styling and training exercises carried out by the students during their studies, but with one key difference: these end of course projects were developed individually and in complete freedom. Each student not only defined the characteristics of his or her own project, but was also responsible for selecting and contacting a…

“When I asked the designers to come up with proposals for this project, they were so enthusiastic about it that they almost immediately produced about a dozen scale models” begins de’ Silva, citing the enormous creative potential of the Wolfsburg design centre headed by Klaus Bischoff. The numerous proposals initially conceived for the Up! were not, however, the product of unbridled stylistic improvisation. The project was preceded by in depth studies into Volkswagen’s formal DNA to define the elements of an identity that was running the risk of fading away, as creative director Flavio Manzoni explains: “Two of the aspects we focused on were honesty and purity, a harmony of form perfectly matched with function. These are universal values of products created for people”. The initial studies to define the…

While the RiN was designed by Toyota’s advanced design studio in Tokyo, the style centre at the carmaker’s headquarters in Aichi has been working on a concept that is decidedly much closer to production reality, the FT-MV. The large minivan is a clear indication of what the next generation of the Alphard will look like (the name FT–MV actually standing for ‘future minivan’). The design was based on the existing Alphard, but with a number of specific objectives in mind. “Initially, we evaluated a number of options. We then focused on the presence of the vehicle. It had to be majestic, but in the modern sense of the word, and capable of making the owner feel proud and positive. We didn’t want to take the typical MPV approach of a…

Almost forty years have passed since Nissan first used the GT-R moniker for one of its cars, and during this period the name has become synonymous with sports performance and a competitive spirit that has never been lost, from the PGC10 GT-R of 1969 through to the R34 GT-R of 1999, and which lives on more strongly than ever before in this new model. After years of press releases and previews, the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show set the stage for the official launch of the new GT-R, a 480 bhp supercar that takes on its European rivals without trying to copy their style but, rather, with state of the art technology and a broader sales strategy. On sale in Japan from December, in the US in Spring and due to…

Bentley shamelessly introduces the Brooklands as “the world’s most exclusive coupé”, claiming that it is destined to become an instant classic and an object of desire among collectors. This latest offering from Crewe has everything it takes. First of all the name – between 1919 and 1931, the English Brooklands circuit, which celebrated its centenary in 2007, set the stage for the unforgettable sporting exploits of the ‘Bentley boys’. Then there is the aura of rarity, as Bentley has decided to limit production of this coupé, derived from the Azure convertible but sharing many characteristics with the Arnage saloon, to just 550 units. And lastly there is the fact that the Brooklands is a veritable four-wheeled monster: the 530 bhp delivered by its twin turbo 6.75 litre V8 endow it…

“The recipe used is the same as the Touareg, just with smaller quantities, to achieve a product with the same levels of quality and aesthetic appeal, but in a smaller package.” Volkswagen design chief Klaus Bischoff ventures into gastronomical metaphors to present the latest addition to the Wolfsburg family, the Tiguan compact SUV, which joins its larger brother the Touareg, launched in 2002. At this year’s Frankfurt show, where the official public presentation of the Tiguan was held, there was a whole spate of scaled down SUVs, matching better agility in urban traffic with versatility outside the city. Klaus Bischoff and his team did a somewhat conservative job in defining the styling of the Tiguan, essentially adapting the marque’s existing family look to the new proportions: “At the moment, being…

According to Albert Einstein “logic takes us from A to B, imagination can take us anywhere” or, in this case, from A to V, from architecture to vision, as in the name chosen by Arturo Vittori and Andreas Vogler to describe the work they began together in 2003 specialising in aerospace: Architecture and Vision (AV). If you think that designing for space means having your head in the clouds, though, you couldn’t be further off the mark, and the work by these two architects (an Italian, the brother of astronaut Roberto Vittori, and a Swiss), is proof of this. The team has already earned international acclaim and its designs have been exhibited in numerous locations or included in permanent collections (MoMA, New York; Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago). At…

An incredibly successful model with five million units sold in ten years meets an innovative new design language. The new generation Ford Focus will first reach the market in the 3-door, 5-door and estate variants, which will be joined during 2008 by the Coupé-Cabriolet and the high performance ST. “By updating the new Focus”, said Claudio Messale, Chief Designer of Ford Europe, “we have extended the traits of Kinetic Design, describable as a sensation of energy in motion, even when the car is at a standstill, from the upper segment to the mid segment. With respect to the previous series, these changes will include style among the other great strengths of the model.” The changes made have been extensive, with only the roof and glasshouse remaining the same. At the…

Movie blockbusters such as the recent “Transformers”, which transport spectators into a not-so-distant future characterised by increasingly far-fetched urban scenarios and technologies, served as inspiration for “Robocars 2057”, the title chosen for the 2007 edition of the annual design competition at the Los Angeles Auto Show, which was won by the Volkswagen team with its Slipstream project. The core theme of the competition was urban mobility, expressed in designs that were both fascinating and bizarre, yet also somewhat familiar, as they echoed scenarios and solutions already seen in sci-fi films and comics. Once again, the California-based design centres of the world’s leading carmakers were pitted against one another, producing original ideas and sketches in total freedom and, of course, with no production constraints. Mature, experienced designers were given free rein…

Naked and nasty or classy retro, these are two of the most popular themes today for the motorcycle, a means of transport which, over the years, has earned and consolidated a reputation as an object of passion. When Ducati launched its Monster about fifteen years ago, it took everyone by surprise. In a period dominated by fully faired sports bikes, here was a high performance yet completely naked model. At the time it seemed provocative, but it was in fact the beginning of a new era. Without digging up the old cliché that the motorbike was born naked and, therefore, should remain so, it must be said that by eliminating additional structures and revealing the actual components within – the chassis, engine, exhaust, steering yokes, handlebars and suspension – the…

The whole point of the biennial Tokyo motor show has long been presenting absolutely absurd and impossible concept vehicles with deadpan total seriousness, as though the speakers actually believed what they were saying. Tokyo has usually been a loud, garish and extremely entertaining event, good for more disbelieving laughter and incredulous amazement than any two other car shows put together. Not this time, though; the 40th show was the least irrational of the last eleven that I have attended. In truth, that was actually disappointing. Oh, certainly there were still absurdities, like Toyota’s Hi-CT, looking for all the world like a Thirties American “streamlined” railroad locomotive, the Honda Puyo bubble covered in flesh-like plastic (as used in many Japanese ball-point pens), or Nissan’s Pivo2 development of the rotating cabin device…

Chinese cars are often perceived as clumsy copies of their rivals with inferior quality standards and technological content. Yet the automotive industry of the world’s most populous nation is working on ever more innovative products, conceived from the ground up. At the Canton motor show last November, the Chinese carmaker GAG (Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., Ltd.), known up until now for its joint ventures with Toyota and Honda, presented the first ever concept car bearing its own name and developed by its own research and development centre. This is the A-HEV, a proposal for a saloon-MPV crossover with drive by wire controls and a hybrid drive system developed by GAG itself. The sleek lines and roomy cabin of the A-HEV were designed for the Chinese company by Torino Design, which…

Amid bizarre proposals and cars that are basically already production models, Toyota stood apart from the rest at Tokyo with its 1/X concept, representing the results of genuine research into a lightweight car with hybrid drive. The 1/X weighs approximately a third (420 Kg) of the benchmark model used for the project, the Prius, while offering the same interior space, and has double the range, made possible by an electric motor with plug-in recharging and a 550 cc flex-fuel internal combustion engine (which can run on a variety of different fuels). Perhaps out of fear of giving anything away about the appearance of the next Prius, the 1/X is clad in a basic carbon fibre reinforced plastic shell and has no real exterior design or a complete interior. While the…

One of the concepts that drew the most attention at the recent Frankfurt Motor Show was the Toyota iQ. The car was presented again at the Tokyo Motor Show in October, where it elicited just as much interest and admiration. The concept’s take on the compact city car genre, designed to offer a small footprint and to consume and, as a result, pollute as little as possible, is decidedly different from that of the Volkswagen Up. The iQ is a front wheel drive car with a much more designed style than the minimalist look of its German counterpart. The 3+1 interior layout is also original, and would make it the only four-seater on the market measuring under three metres in length. At 298 cm, it is just 20 cm longer…

The majority of concept cars produced by major carmakers are destined to exist solely for the duration of a single motor show. Some are luckier, however, and come back again a year or two later in the form of a primordial idea for a production model. Very few, with the exception of a few historic examples by famous coachbuilders, will ever go on to have a life of their own and continue to evolve. This is the case with the Kizashi concept presented in September at Frankfurt which, just over a month later, returned at the Tokyo motor show in such a revised and improved form that it was deemed worthy of a new name – Kizashi 2. This can mean one of two things: either that an initially sceptical…

At first glance you can tell that the designers themselves must have been involved in the creation of this building. The architecture expresses its function unequivocally: safeguarding the secrecy of what goes on within its walls – an absolute priority of any concept and design centre. While elsewhere this is made known through the application of rules, Seat’s new design centre in the heart of the technology park at Martorell, near the brand’s production plant, communicates this idea through the metal surfaces enveloping the building, punched through only by grilles that filter the light and allow those inside to see out, but without revealing anything of what lies within. The guiding idea behind the architecture of the building is of a ‘square within a square’, delimiting the area within which…

Renault has enthusiastically embraced the new return to purity in the car, devoid of crossover, fusion or multifunctional connotations, presenting not just its new D segment offering at Frankfurt, but also a sports coupé version of the car, still in concept guise, with elegant, classic lines and a design intended to stand the test of time and resist transitory fads. This is an extremely prolific period for the Régie, with a busy launch schedule which, by 2011, will bring the total number of different models produced by the three brands Renault, Dacia and Samsung Motors up to 26. “With such a huge product range, we focus very much on the identity of each car. It will be a big family, with common traits, but each child will have its own…

Since 2002, the Mazda6 has spearheaded the Japanese marque’s march on the European market, with sales of 470 thousand units to date, of which 125,000 in Germany, 77,000 in the UK, 39,000 in Russia and 29,000 in Italy. The new model, presented at Frankfurt and due to reach showrooms in Spring ‘08, will be challenging more established models in the segment, such as the VW Passat, BMW 3 series, Audi A4 and Ford Mondeo. Mazda’s target of 90 thousand sales in 2008 compared with 75 thousand in 2006 seems realistic, also because the car itself, which we tested on the roads of the Côte d’Azur between Saint-Tropez and Saint-Paul de Vence, has much more to offer than the outgoing model. Due to be launched simultaneously in all three versions (3-box…

Any visions for the mobility of the future must consider a system that integrates both mass transit and individual transport solutions. Individual mobility is deeply rooted in our culture and represents our desire for total freedom. For this form of mobility to survive into the future in truly sustainable guise, it must take two fundamental characteristics found throughout Europe into account: first and foremost, that driving is still seen as a pleasure and secondly, that in the name of independence, over 60% of vehicles are driven with just a single occupant on a daily basis. In light of this, the solution is clear: reduce vehicle size and concentrate on driveability, safety, the environment, performance and exciting technology and design. With this in mind, the Turin-based company TTW (standing for Three…