The contrast between past and present was clear, as you walked along the corridors of the wing in the Biscaretti di Ruffia Motor Museum that had been set aside for a display of graduation thesis projects by students from Turin’s Institute of Applied Art and Design (IAAD). On one side, a selection of historic Lancia cars, on the other, the ideas young second and third year students on the IAAD’s Transportation Design course had come up with (with a little help from Lancia and Aprilia), when challenged to invent a new concept of luxury.
The project for Lancia was supervised by Flavio Manzoni (Director of the Lancia Style Centre), Roberto Giolito (Fiat Auto Advanced Design Manager) and Salvatore Cacciatore (Chief Designer Fiat Auto’s Advanced Design Concept Lab). Both second and third year students worked on the design of a new HPE vehicle, aimed at the 30-50 year-old executive with an interest in travel, fashion and life style.
By contrast, only second year students were involved in the Aprilia project, which required them to design a scooter that introduced a new level of luxury and comfort to the two-wheeler segment.
The supervisors for the Aprilia project were Andrea Strassera (Product Development Manager) and Jannis Xanthakis (Scooter Styling Manager), who had this to say about their own involvement: “We let the school take charge of all course-related matters. Our role was simply to contribute our specific expertise in the rather special area of two-wheeler production”.
Both Lancia and Aprilia had demanded a careful analysis of materials and historical storyboards, as well as manual and digital renderings, but not, to the student’s regret, the construction of scale models.
The article continues in Auto & Design no. 141
