The New Trend in Automibile Design

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The new trend in Automobile Design

 

The Vehicle Design Masters program at the RCA held its annual degree show a few weeks ago, showcasing an array of transport designs created by the graduating class of 2008. In all, 18 students—including three PhD graduates—developed projects which dealt with the current issues of accessibility, aerodynamics, environmental impact, ergonomics, legislation, materials, production, safety, and technology, as well as the aesthetic principles of vehicle design.

 

It is quite interesting to see the designs that are basically extrapolations of the present state of automobile design into the future with each designer showing a certain leaning to some particular aspect of the experience of driving.

 

So you have designs that are energy efficient (an all too common concept today) to ones that try their hand on the customisation of the space to suit the rider.

Its also interesting to see how the current range of materials available are dictating the forms possible. Clearly, the limitations of sheet metal is being discarded to make way for the fluidity of plastic and glass derivatives

 

Another interesting concept is the issue of the driver’s interface with the vehicle. One of the concepts offers no windscreens but something of an electronic screen that relays the exterior environment to the rider inside. While the other has a complex system of pipes to generate the engine noise that drivers instinctively identify the vehicle’s movement with (and which, with the advent of silent engines will be a thing of the past). Then there’s the vehicle that has essentially a formless interior with a flowing strips of plastic forming waves that respond to the user’s body and mould themselves (a hyper sophisticated form of a bean bag)

 

It is my personal view that automobiles like footwear are at the forefront of design evolution in the manner they are evolving and responding to the change in design and material. They then become the initiators of a style language that is then picked up by the other fields (eg architecture being amongst the laziest of the lot)