San Paulo motor show & biennial of brazilian design
Motor Show - For more than a hundred years Brazil has thought of itself as “the country of the future,” a future that always managed not to arrive as predicted. That may be about to [...]
Detroit 2009, panic and hope
It may be extreme to say that the overall mood at the Detroit show — the North American International Auto Show, to give it the full pretentious name — was sheer panic, but that is [...]
Mercedes F700, marine influence
The German company Mercedes-Benz makes very few pure concept cars, and when it does, it is to express new technology more than stylistic trends. While the Bionic car and the F600 concept seen in 2005 [...]
Everyday objects
The domestic, the mundane, things used to keep the table tidy and to help in the kitchen, objects given as gifts at special occasions and things that seem useless and purely ornamental but actually conceal [...]
Frankfurt show, cut down to grow
Do you remember the 1980s, when the first thing they mentioned when launching a new car was its Cd? Achieving the lowest possible drag coefficient was something to boast about and the figure was listed [...]
Citroën C-Airscape, conceptual poetic
The Citroën range is becoming increasingly bipolar and moving towards a distinct dual personality. The early signs of this can be seen in the products of the marque’s advanced design, which are developed along clearly [...]
Berman, the “Duchy” of car design
The worth of an initiative, especially if some form of competition is involved, is essentially measured in terms of its results: namely, the number of participants, the quality of the projects represented and the growth [...]
BMW 1 Coupé, the timing of a concept
“This isn’t just an additional model to the 1 Series range, we’ve been planning the Coupé since the start”, begins a straight-talking Chris Bangle at the unveiling of the new sports model at Frankfurt. “This [...]
Audi A4, perfect balances
“It’s so simple, it’s almost difficult to describe” begins Walter de’ Silva, director general for design for the Volkswagen Group, as he introduces the new A4, presented at Frankfurt this September. The A4 is the [...]
Frankfurt, teutonic gigantism and Fiat fun
Visiting the great IAA motor show at Frankfurt is hard work. The Frankfurt Messe fairgrounds site is too big, individual halls are too big, German cars themselves are often overblown, oversized, and over-powered. The whole [...]