This is not just a pre-packaged theme but a problem to be solved: think of a future mobility need, then develop an answer. With this highly conceptual approach, unrestrained by limitations, Renault asked the students of transportation design at the Institute of Applied Art and Design in Turin (IAAD) to design “My first Renault”, a vehicle to be slotted into a future scenario.
While the brief apparently allowed total freedom, it was in reality strictly bound to the design philosophy of the French marque, which assigned a number of directors from its Design Industriel division to guide the young students. “After an exploratory approach at the end of 2005, we began the project in earnest in January this year”, explains Luciano Bove, design manager for the Espace and a member of the Comité Ecoles Design Renault.
The first stage in the project was a workshop held by chief of commercial and industrial vehicle design Louis Morasse. Then Bove, Morasse and Fabio Filippini (at the time director of Renault design in Paris and now director of the M1 range), oversaw the progress of the projects with regular visits to IAAD, where the students were also assisted by two Renault designers, Massimo Barbieri and Stephane Maiore.
The goal of the initiative was to select at least four projects to be built as 1:5 scale models. The students also knew that there was to be a final presentation in Paris with top Renault design executives, and that the creator of the most interesting project would be selected for an internship. The projects as a whole represented a wide variety of different vehicle types, including sports coupés, a two wheeled means of transport that folds away and is carried like a backpack, a modular vehicle for goods transport and urban delivery and a single-seater capsule.
The article continues in Auto & Design no. 160
