During the Car Design awards ceremony, Auto&Design held a Talk in Milan on the theme “Emotional connections”. As in previous editions, the discussion took place within the prestigious ADI Design Museum, alongside the winning objects of the Compasso d’Oro over time, with the involvement of actors and actresses belonging to multiple fields, not only related to mobility. In fact, the following participated: Domitilla Dardi, design historian; Joaquin Garcia, head of style at Italdesign; Eugenio Lolli, president and CEO of Alcantara; Andrea Rosati, at the helm of strategic design at Lotus Cars.
To structure the theme, an interesting dichotomy of our times: on the one hand, cars are becoming more and more technological (starting with virtual assistants and driving aids), on the other hand, the designers’ care for human experiences on board is growing. How do these different and complementary spheres interact?
Lolli, at the helm of a very refined company and partner of the event, begins by illustrating with a video the processes that bring the material closer to the sensitivity of those who elaborate or enjoy the final result, that is, through a flexibility capable of satisfying multiple personal or brand identities. A perfect approach for Dardi to emphasize the importance of “creating connections by looking at neighboring fields“, for example by formulating the discourse on the automobile starting from the inside and from the “domestic”. There is no shortage of historical examples in this direction, including the famous Kar-A-Sutra by Mario Bellini (1972), a precursor of MPVs based on the idea that the body could assume different positions in the passenger compartment. Even the notion of “common sense” – again reported by Dardi with reference to the inventions of two women, at the end of the nineteenth century: the heating system of the passenger compartment by Margaret Wilcox and the windshield wiper by Mary Anderson – exemplifies a non-obvious modality of the man-machine relationship.
Garcia’s point of view is grafted onto this subject, agreeing on concrete reasonableness since “the important thing is not the product, but rather what people do with it”, so it is necessary to “fully explore user behavior” and make it central. Later on, the concept will re-emerge in his words in a very interesting key, according to which “rationality itself represents an emotion” and the relationship with people is also created “in owning an object for a long time, becoming attached”, thus respecting an apparently “cold” criterion of sustainability and durability. First, however, it is up to Rosati to suggest a further reflection: if someone (especially the youngest) moves away from the emotional bond with the car, the interest can be reconstructed by telling the stories behind a metal creation, with special regard for participatory values such as collaboration and courage.
Again moderated by Silvia Baruffaldi, editor of Auto&Design, the debate then revolves around the “central dimension of feeling safe, in a physical sense and beyond” (Dardi), the car “extension of the home” (Lolli), the proposal that designers become “less self-referential, reducing the spectacularity of the dashboards to allow passengers to concentrate on the outside” (Garcia), the use of advanced but human-oriented solutions, such as “seats with air padding capable of gently vibrating to send driving signals thanks to a fabric with integrated air chambers, which therefore uses air as a material. In fact, we started from the concept of a wearable car, our co-founder Colin Chapman used to say that a Lotus is worn like a glove” (Rosati).
A kaleidoscope of ideas that is very varied and certainly a harbinger of future developments, which concludes with a promising intervention by Dardi: “We are now moving towards ‘technocraft’, a term capable of blending absolute modernity and craftsmanship”. Therefore, “synthetic materials will lose the negative aura associated with the ‘fake’, generating, instead of an imitative effect, a sort of ‘super-nature'”. It will soon be understood how much such a tendency can unfold on the car and on the personal interest it arouses.
