Table of contents for No. 198 in AUTO & DESIGN

To hear American industry executives tell it, 2013 is going to be a great year, with increased sales, profits and personal glory for all the brilliant executives who have so ably orchestrated this great comeback. To hear cynical journalists and lower-level industry people talk about what’s going on is to wonder just how long optimists can continue to convince themselves that “all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds.” Seasoned industry observers were making estimates of just how long it will be before GM falls into a second bankruptcy, led as it is by men who simply don’t know the automobile business and — above all — don’t know that they don’t know. The big event of the show was the unveiling of the seventh generation…

If it’s true that hardship must be faced with courage and determination, then the motorcycle is on the right path. The market is in decline as a result of the recession (sales for November were down by more than 16% compared with 2011), with the scooter and 50cc segments taking a significant knock (-20.7 and -29.7% respectively) and less drastic losses for motorcycles (a little over 4%). And yet, going by what the recent seventieth edition of the EICMA show in Milan had to offer, the two-wheeled genre continues to appeal to enthusiasts and stimulate manufacturers, creating a dynamic and exciting scenario which is in contradiction with the stark reality of the figures, and gives hope for the future. The motorcycle has not lost its appeal and continues to…

The story of Enthoven Associates, the company founded by Belgian Axel Enthoven, covers almost four decades and the company has established itself as an inspiring centre of industrial design in north-western Europe. Over the years the company has expanded its product portfolio which now ranges from furniture, audio equipment and luggage to home appliances. But transportation design has always been a core activity. With good reason, Axel Enthoven (with his small but competent team of specialist designers) can be proud of his latest interior design for the Air France A380 as he can be for the study he carried out for French state railway company SNCF. “This has seen us in a different role to usual,” Enthoven says. “We have only set some parameters but are in the jury for…

The story of a life, talent and passion told in the words of the writer, journalist and design critic Decio Carugati, in a book that is half biography, half interview and which, through photos from the past and present and a multitude of drawings and sketches, paints a vivid picture of Walter Maria de Silva and every aspect of his work. The book is divided into three parts. The first, titled ‘Nei modi di Walter Maria de Silva’ (Inside the Walter Maria de Silva method), is dedicated entirely to drawings from the most significant projects by the Lecco-born designer, whose perfectionism and unique character transpire from the lines and tones prefiguring cars that are familiar to us all today. This first section begins with an introduction illustrating what is the…

Until the early Nineteenth Century, normal houses did not have glass windows, which were considered an extravagance reserved for the very small affluent class of the era. Who would have imagined that something we take for granted today was, in the not too distant past, pure luxury? And how have the parameters for exclusivity evolved over time? These were some of the fascinating questions broached during Design Talk, an event held by BMW at Paris on 26 September in parallel with the preview presentation of the marque’s new brand store in Avenue George V, in the heart of the French capital, to discuss the concept of contemporary luxury. “Luxury is different for everybody, every individual, and consists of the things that are exceptional for us. So it’s an illusive thing,…

Change and evolution are vital if you want to stay at the cutting edge. This is a golden rule for all successful products, which Audi follows to the letter. So after years of excellent and enthusiastic public acclaim, the four-ringed marque reveals yet another change in course in its design language with a preview of a forthcoming model range with an even more distinctive character. While well-proportioned and attractive with elegant volumes and surfacing, Audis have been drawing criticism in recent times for looking too much like each other – they look good, but they’re all pretty much the same. But this ends now, promises Ingolstad. The first glimpse of this avowed evolution is called the Crosslane Concept, a prototype unveiled at the last Paris Motor Show which prefigures the…

After the last edition, in which the relationship between cars and cinema conjured up dreams of intriguing new protagonists and scenarios, this year’s edition of the Los Angeles Design Challenge pitted the advanced designers of the world’s most important car design centres against one another in a competition to imagine the police car of the future titled “Highway Patrol Vehicle 2025”. According to the designers from BMW, Honda, GM, Subaru and Mercedes-Benz, the roads of the not too distant future will be dominated by drones and flying pursuit vehicles. The teams that best interpreted the theme of the challenge were those which conceived multi-role vehicles suitable not only for highway patrol duty, but also for service with the world’s main civil defence organisations. On the basis of these precepts, Tom…

An animated ceremony was held in November 2012 to inaugurate the new Italian premises of the Changan Automobile Designing Center at Rivoli, near Turin. It also offered the occasion to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Changan, a company now firmly established as China’s leading car manufacturer. R&D in the automotive sector as well as car manufacturing itself have always been the company’s core activities although output has so far been channelled into the local Chinese market. The company is now ready to move into export markets with its sights focused as ever on innovation. Changan has achieved numerous goals and records such as the creation of China’s first off-roader and first hybrid car, as well as holding the position of top ranked company in terms of sales volumes for an…

Subaru Forester has turned up trumps with its fourth generation which marks a decisive change in direction and reveals something of a split personality. Born originally in 1997 with new series following in 2003 and 2008, this vehicle has gradually abandoned the concept of taller and more versatile family car to move into the SUV area while respecting its historic technology such as all-wheel drive and the 4-cylinder boxer engine. The evolutionary process comes to an evident close with this fourth generation: dimensions grow to 4,595 mm in length, with a 2,639 mm wheelbase and 1,697 mm height (respective increases of 25, 35 and 22 mm). And the aesthetics – totally developed in Japan – change in favour of greater dynamism and attitude. Further, the range comes in “Standard” and…

An attractive front with the trident very much in evidence, a sculpted bonnet and slim body notwithstanding a length of over five metres: the new Quattroporte immediately strikes the eye as sporty in nature and strong in character, possessing that Italian beauty that guarantees status without being monumental. “Beauty designed to last and a total rejection of passing fads”, adds Lorenzo Ramaciotti, Fiat Chrysler’s Head of Global Design. So timeless aesthetics is the design premise of the new Quattroporte just like its predecessor launched in 2003 which Ramaciotti is well acquainted with as he headed up the project when he was Pininfarina’s styling supremo. The Quattroporte which has just debuted at Detroit is the sixth generation and takes the stage exactly half a century after the first, launched in 1963.…

Design dream cars, invent new ways of moving around, throw out all constraints and imagine something new, giving free rein to your fantasy and creativity are delightfully stimulating exercises for design students. Work on construction machinery, on the other hand, is very different and unquestionably less entertaining and certainly highly demanding given all the structural and applicational restrictions that stop you from thinking out of the box. There is a fundamental connection between a construction vehicle and where it is used. In order to improve and simplify the use of this machinery as well as rationalise its potential in accordance with the work situation in question, the fourth term students of the Industrial Design course at the Fh-Joanneum of Graz as part of the project “The future of earth moving”…

Free-spirited and emotive is how the top brass of the Volvo Car Corporation sum up the character of the new V40 Cross Country, which joins the “normal” version and transfers the entire set of performance capabilities of the latter into an offering inspired by the off-road world. The new variant literally doubles the presence of the Swedish car-maker in the premium C-segment, and continues a tradition originating in 1997 with the V70 Cross Country, in its day a genuine ‘all-rounder’ alternative to conventional road models. The style of the V40 Cross Country is the product of a joint effort between the marque’s style centres in Sweden, Spain and the US in a project headed by Exterior Design Director Simon Lamarre. Its most distinctive trait is the “light off-road” character conferred…

This November, in a picturesque little piazza in the centre of Turin in front of the premises of Italia Independent, the brand founded by Lapo Elkann presented “I-free to move” in collaboration with the company Able to Enjoy. This is a multifunctional wheelchair created for the differently able by the young Turin designer Danilo Ragona, who is also the founder of Able to Enjoy. “Since the creation of the first model in 2006, I have had a growing desire to make a wheel-chair with something to offer that no other product had. I was attracted to the idea of a new concept for mobility that users can ‘wear’ with a style that appeals to themselves and to others, expressing their identity with a product that looks and actually is different”,…

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