Innehållsförteckning för No. 230 från AUTO & DESIGN

Designing your own car from the first to the last line and organising the entire project without even needing a computer, is certainly no easy task. Unless your name is Giorgetto Giugiaro. "He starts with his black and white drawings, obviously with paper and pencil, defining ergonomics as if it were a standard model, then he details the styling", confirms Fabrizio Giugiaro as he tells us, along with his father, how the Sibylla was born. A luxury saloon that goes beyond conventional canons, unveiled in Geneva in the year of the Master of Car Design’s 80th birthday. This is not, however, a compendium of his career, Giorgetto Giugiaro insists: "I have designed cars of all kinds, from those hedonistic, low-slung, sporty types of the ‘60s and ‘70s, to the provocatively…

There are two ways of looking at Le Fil Rouge, the concept presented by Hyundai in Geneva. The first, at the moment when the Korean company’s designers introduce the concept of Sensuous Sportiness, is - in the words of Luc Donckerwolke (Executive Vice President and head of the Hyundai Design Center) - "the reinterpretation of a design DNA that originated with the historic Giugiaro-designed Pony Coupé Concept of 1974". A link, he says, that "will allow us to open up a new era in Hyundai design based on our tradition of creating a distinctive, sporty character in our models”. Le Fil Rouge, therefore, as a common thread. The second way, which is not the negation of the first, is to welcome this concept as "the start of a new era…

At times, a generational change in the career of a model demands stylistic reflection to the point that the visual structures have to be reworked to such an extent as almost to redefine the relationship that binds the product to the user. This is what happened with the latest iteration of the compact Kia: "We have reached a new level of maturity”, explains Grégory Guillaume, head of brand design. "If the first generation, dated 2006, was a well-crafted but rather bland offering, the second, in 2012, marked a decided change in approach through elements like the advanced cabin, the short nose and the very sharp angles. The result? An unquestionably eye-catching car. But perhaps excessively so. The time has come now to turn to a more refined look, one that…

Hypothesise what the mobility of the future will be like through the projects of young designers, engineers, architects, artists or design enthusiasts. This is the aim of the Research Contest on Future Mobility in Cities, the research contest into mobility solutions for the cities of tomorrow that ltaldesign has launched to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of its foundation. "We are on the eve of a revolution in the world of mobility and this contest open to young creatives from around the world is absolutely in line with our strategy. The ability to interact with participants will help us to better understand what will happen in the future”, said Jörg Astalosch, CEO of Italdesign. A company where two souls coexist, the first attentive to the present and the second looking to…

Two worlds compared. What could have been more different than the lifestyles of Europeans and Americans after World War II? From cinema to eating habits, from literature to music, these differences and needs obviously permeated how cars were designed and built. While American taste preferred huge cars with baroque, overloaded lines, in Europe the watchword has always been practicality, expressed through low consumption and compact forms. To show the public the style of the period, the Turin car museum (MAUTO) has staged a new exhibition, "David and Goliath", in the permanent exhibition area. On display in this section are the Cadillac 62 of 1947 and the Cadillac Sixty Special of 1958, but also the micro BMW Isetta 300 of 1962 together with the giant Packard Super-Eight. Impeccable in style, elegance…

A revisitation of the dune buggy icon in a futuristic, fun and functional way. This was the brief for the Hyundai Kite, the concept car developed by the students of the biennial Master in Transportation Design at the Ied of Turin in collaboration with Hyundai’s Design Centre Europe and on display at the latest Geneva Motor Show. Starting from the historical vehicle, one of the leading lights of the 60s and 70s and symbol of freedom and fun, the 15 students - coordinated by teachers Alessandro Cipolli and Davide Tealdi - asked themselves how to update it with a more modern look and a strongly characterised architecture. After a first individual design phase, the students worked as a team on the styling of this eye-catching two-seater beach buggy equipped with…

"We will see a change in the world of car design when people stop thinking conventionally, associating every form with a particular category. We are still too tied to our habits, we don't have the courage to take risks and call everything into question". So says Chris Bangle, as always with the resolutely ironic tone that distinguishes him. We met him in Geneva to hear his take on the cars on display and to ask him his opinion on what direction car design is heading. A question that the American designer had actually answered with Reds, the concept car presented in Los Angeles in 2017, which was shocking for its unusual (to say the least) proportions. "Reds symbolises my willingness to look to the future. Until now, the car has…

It cannot have been easy to adapt to a transition from American to Italian design, without confusing one situation with the other. But from the way he speaks about it he clearly succeeded. Klaus Busse is the German designer who has headed design for the European FCA brands for two and a half years, therefore with responsibilities affecting Fiat, Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Maserati and Lancia. After being with Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge and Ram for ten years, latterly as head of interior design, his work has followed a path of discovery in order to understand - he explains - what Italian design really is. Not an easy task. "Sleepless nights", he admits. Yet the secret was there before his eyes. "In Italy”, he observes, "designers are surrounded by beauty in their…

You will have to get used to it. And quickly. A car without a steering wheel, without a dashboard, without pedals or a gear lever - in short, without a driver – has all the flavour of science fiction. Yet it is only just around the corner and, on an experimental level, already today’s reality. The concept for electric, connected and autonomous mobility presented by Renault at the Geneva show - called EZ-GO, short for Easy Go - traces a path that is already feasible today (the concept is perfectly operational) and that its production heir will bring to our cities by 2022. Four years from now. Tomorrow, in a word. “I would never have thought”, says Laurens van den Acker, head of Renault design, “that I would have designed…

The braking system as an element of style. The idea of colouring calipers came to the people at Brembo in 1992, and over time it has become a veritable signature that makes this brand’s products recognisable at a glance. In 26 years the design of alloy wheels in cars has also evolved, and they tend to be more and more open, thus making visible many technical and structural components that were once hidden. Today, the same manufacturers offer coloured brake calipers as hallmark styling of their cars, to bolster and characterise their image. And as demand has increased, so has supply. In addition to the 100 different shades available, Brembo is also able to tailor make new colours for manufacturers. The attention to aesthetics is also found in Stylema, the…

A new design language? "No," says Ian Callum: "The language remains typically Jaguar. It’s the proportions that have changed. The graphics have a familiar look about them, because we want the user to recognise it as a Jaguar, but you just have to look at the I-Pace on the road and you realise it is something completely different”. In a nutshell, the Jaguar design chief explains the crucial turning point of the British brand, which by presenting this relatively compact Suv in Geneva has launched itself into the world of electric cars. This is just the beginning, because according to Callum the I-Pace represents the template for other Jaguars to come, an entire electrical family that will be able to exploit the same mechanical structure. The hallmark feature of this…

"I started at Calty as a designer in September 1997, two weeks after graduating. It was love at first sight, this year I celebrate 21 years with Toyota, although it feels like yesterday. I have never changed companies because the variety of products is such that the work here is always fun”. Ian Cartabiano has been the new President & Design Director of Toyota’s ED2 studio since January this year, a role that sees him succeeding Simon Humphries (promoted executive general manager of Toyota’s Advanced R&D and Engineering Company). As is typical of his character, Cartabiano is thrilled by the new challenge that has taken him from California to the south of France. "ED2 is a small studio but is really competent and able to do incredible things”, he tells…

With its 50 years of wagon pedigree and radiant with joy at the Suv XC40 being voted Car of the Year, Volvo had no choice but to present its new V60 with all the glitz of the big occasion. The new V60 is the intermediate wagon that is bigger than the model it replaces (at 4.76 metres it is 10 cm longer) and boasts more premium character, the result of painstaking design and cutting-edge outfitting. "Refinement" is the word that Robin Page, the Swedish company’s design manager, uses repeatedly when speaking about it in Geneva, although the car’s true success will depend on its functionality. "I am very satisfied”, he explains, “with the levels reached for both the exterior and the interior, to which the SPA (Scalable Product Architecture) platform,…

Just one look at it and there can be no doubt. The HK GT unveiled in March at Geneva is a Pininfarina through and through, the result of balanced proportions and skilful management of lines, distinctive but never over the top. A car in the name of continuity and at the same time the first assignment, in order of appearance, directed by Carlo Bonzanigo, Pininfarina’s design head since the beginning of 2017. The two key words of the project - the fourth developed by the Turin design house for Hybrid Kinetic, an emerging Hong Kong brand - were hi-tech and premiumness, explains Bonzanigo, who has always been a supporter of design as a means of expressing brand values. "Our mandate was to create a 2+2 gran turismo flagship, not hypersporty…

A dynamically reactive firm, with working methodology based on the use of the latest generation information technology and a young, cohesive team that handles inputs from the vibrant world of design with aesthetic sensitivity and technical expertise. This is the formula behind He.Sa Design’s offering of services dedicated to design and modelling in the transportation and industrial design sectors, but also in interior architecture. We met Salvatore Mannillo, the owner, and Filomena Altamore, CEO, in their offices in the heart of Turin. They told us about the origins of He.Sa Design, born in 2001 from an idea of Mannillo himself – a designer with an artistic background and a vast professional experience in the field of automotive modelling - and his growth path that permits him to boast many assignments…