Best car designs of 2018: Luxury, clean, autonomous

It has been an interesting year for the motor car as the auto world navigates the post-petrol age. Whereas sustainable driving used to mean compromising on style and performance – think the awkward-looking G-Wiz – it appears we need not lose much, if anything, from the golden age of the motor car. As it happens, electric cars are an awful lot of fun to drive and the new mechanics allow for a great deal of creative imagination. Here are my top car designs of 2018.

Design Talks | The Textile Building | 29a Chatham Place | London | E9 6FJ | UK
Design Talks is published by Spinach Design
All rights and labelled images are covered by ©

New books: The Current by Gestalten

Against the noise and pollution of modern industrial cities, a group of creatives, inventors, idealists are pioneering a new age of mobility. ‘The Current‘ by Gestalten takes a closer look at the conceptual studies and production cars, motorbikes, scooters, bicycles and progressive movements leading the way. It is a lively episode in transport design. Take a closer look

The Current - New Wheels for the Post-Petrol Age by Gestalten 2018

Design Talks | The Textile Building | 29a Chatham Place | London | E9 6FJ | UK
Design Talks is published by Spinach Design
All rights and labelled images are covered by ©

Top five creative moments in car design in 2016

As we start to bid farewell to 2016 and welcome a new year with all its fresh promises, I started to put together a list of my top five interesting speculative car design moments of this year. BMW Group’s Vision Next 100 collective of concept cars for MINI, BMW and Rolls-Royce was the first to come to mind as these vehicles are a bed of vibrant ideas, begging to be explored. Then came Bentley, and the marque’s softly radical approach to the future of luxury in the world of ecological, autonomous driving.

Tesla, of course, had to be included for its dismissal of the strict automotive codes in so many ways – with the products, the people, the stores, the approach. Jaguar Land Rover ‘s impressive contemporary life cannot be ignored.

And Volvo, for as skeptical as I initially was about the company under a very different ownership, the brand has really moved forward in new and exciting ways to remain Swedish in spirit yet rather than be a Scandinavian parody, the marque now represents a nation that is global, connected and therefore exciting.

There are, of course, others doing equally interesting work too – Lexus with its uniquely brilliant vernacular, Mercedes-Benz and its confident design language, Maserati’s successful venture into new segments, Audi’s clear visual language, Volkswagen’s brilliant electric world car proposition. But five was my number so…

… here’s my list and in no particular order: via ForbesLife

Design Talks | The Textile Building | 29a Chatham Place | London | E9 6FJ | UK
Design Talks is published by Spinach Design
All rights and labelled images are covered by ©

Exploring the narrative of shopping

I try to shop locally, favouring smaller groceries, the butchers and fishmonger, fruit and veg markets, the independent bookstore and the few boutiques in my neighbourhood who support smaller designers. It involves a little more effort trekking from shop to shop and navigating crowded markets in the rain, but the experience is hugely rewarding. Each one of these establishments offers a very different experience, an unexpected find, fun conversation, a laugh, a cry… I come away with much more than a transaction of money for goods.

I’m not alone in actively wanting to return to the old culture of shopping – you know when you’d made a trip to the town market to buy the weekly groceries, did a little bartering, caught up with the politics of the day, learnt the latest gossip, married off your sons and daughters. Shopping was an event yet somewhere along the way we have lost that element of fun. Allowing for Amazon to decide on our reading list, Spotify to predict our listening and Ocado to deliver our food to me is soul destroying.

Earlier this week I caught up with the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, founder of the exciting practice OMA, who seems to share a similar belief. Recent political events, the ‘digital representations of reality’ as he rightfully says, should be a good wake-up call to pop the liberal bubble and make some fundamental changes. ‘There’s a lot of disruption going on in the world. These events demand that we have a rethink. Do we address consumption in the world?’

Koolhaas was talking at the Vision: Future Retail, a symposium in Amsterdam attended by various companies and creatives. In reality, it is time to reinvent the retail narrative not only from a nostalgic viewpoint, or political, but simply because the current model is no longer commercially working. We connect and consume products in a very different way than we used to. Access is replacing the physical – we are still buying products but for very different reasons. Experience is our new status symbol and it is having a profound impact on how we shop.

What this means is really rethinking the retail space to engage with the consumer, provide excitement, experiences, friendship and a sense of community, help share thoughts and ideology. This could involve experimental retail, spaces that are artistic, pop-ups and temporary structure in unusual locations purely for the purpose of brand awareness. Perhaps they don’t sell anything but brand experiences. It means more and more collaborations with artists and creatives who share a similar vision, and working with social and political causes that also identify with the company’s underlying principles. In the new age of retail, stores need to be become more glocal so the design of the shop floor is locally responsive even if the brand is global.

Although theoretically the digital age should have made shopping easier, more than ever consumers want to connect with the brand in order for a purchase to take place. They want to feel, smell, touch the object, but also bond with the brand itself be it ideologically or otherwise. The internet has become that last purchasing tool, the last click-and-pay.

Some brands are actively doing this. OMA’s Fondazione Prada in Milan is a cultural complex with huge gallery spaces replete with a cinema. More recently the firm has worked with KaDeWe in Berlin, Repossi and Boulevard Haussmann in Paris and the Fondaco dei Tedeschi in Venice, a homage to the old market square. Collectively they are not only making strong architectural statements but are also expanding the customers’ retail experience into an urban architectural experience. They provide retail as part of your ‘city wonder’ says the firm.

Car companies are also reviewing how to sell cars going forward. On the one hand the collections are now so huge that no physical space, certainly none in congested city settings, can house the full range. Added to this the auto world is in a bit of a puzzle as the next generation refuses to connect emotionally with cars and even less with individual car ownership. Audi City in London, for instance, is a fully digital car salesroom built on the Apple model that hopes to connect with the millennials. In the same way, BMW says it will like to work closer with the likes of OMA to explore shopping as an experience.

Michele Fuhs, head of Premium Retail Experience believes that by 2020 the BMW Group will need to be the ‘point of experience. We cannot remain simply sales focused but address what is mobility in the future, what is car ownership. We are competing with the entertainment industry. For this we need partners. Our brand will be at the centre but it has to move forward.’

Koolhaas says we have been pampered and should be more ambitious and more interesting. ‘We are too placid and predictable’ and need to engage with choice, alternatives and reality and ‘discover pleasures outside the immediate comfort zone.’

In the future we will see more and more of a shift towards brands as media, ones that offer other services, that are inclusive, spaces that are more fluid and flexible in their delivery, and crucially companies need to offer a personal, bespoke experience. Perhaps the shop of the future will be a gallery of sorts, an interactive and exciting exhibition space, and maybe at the end of that experience, that city wonder, we click a button and make a purchase, much like we would a souvenir.

Nargess Banks

Design Talks | The Textile Building | 29a Chatham Place | London | E9 6FJ | UK
Design Talks is published by Spinach Design
All rights and labelled images are covered by ©

Autonomous motoring in Shanghai

The first computer was nicknamed Moneypenny – named so after an Audi engineer spotted the 007 number-plate on the car it piloted. Bobby raced the RS 7 concept that at top speeds of 149.1mph autonomously completed the Grand Prix racetrack at Hockenheim last year. The test vehicle that cruised from Silicon Valley to Las Vegas earlier this year was named Jack.

This week we got to experience autonomous motoring ourselves as Lu Ban, named after the Chinese inventor, chauffeured us on the roads of Shanghai in the same Audi 7 Jack drove.

We are in China for CES Asia – the inaugural consumer electronics show for the region. As we drove from the expo halls in the Pudong financial district to the river Bund Lu Ban, the compact computer tucked away in the boot, took control whilst our driver confidently removed his hands from the steering wheel, swivelling in his seat to talk to us.

The computer will only take control if traffic conditions allow so, and only on straightforward routes as such. It will drive up to 60mph after which it alerts the ‘human’ driver to take control. If this fails, the car will go into emergency mode igniting the hazard lights and slowing down to a halt then notifying relevant rescue services to respond.

Shanghai’s hair raising driving habits certainly added flavour. Whilst the A7 stayed politely in the middle lane, local cars overtook and undercut without warning at terrifying speeds as the (now slightly nervous) co-pilot explained that the scheme is investigating local driving habits to configure regional driverless cars. Shanghai may require a few extra sensors.

Lu Ban may not be quite on par with Knight Rider’ Kitt, nevertheless the A7 piloted drive represents very impressive technology. Google and Apple have made promises in this direction, yet Audi is the first car manufacturer to have created a piloted production car available in the A8 production car in just two years time.

Later that day we saw the world debut of the electric R8 e-tron with piloted driving function. This isn’t a production vehicle, yet the marque is expressing the intrinsic sexiness of semi-autonomous driving with such a performance car.

Yes it may sound like a contradiction offering piloted driving in a performance car where the sole purpose is to entertain the driver. But it does make complete sense. When stuck in traffic jams, or in need of an urgent text, the computer takes over and the car is manoeuvred autonomously so you have time to rest arms and feet for the open, twisty road… when you can perform all sorts of racing shenanigans.

The stats are impressive – two electric motors, each supply power to the rear wheels generating combined 456bhp and maximum torque of 679lb ft. This is a very fast machine that can race to 62mph in just 3.9 seconds topping up a limited 155mph. Energy comes courtesy of a large lithium-ion battery with 92kWh and an impressive electric range of 450km.

The central driver assistance control unit (zFAS) makes a crucial contribution to the lead Audi has in this technology field – it processes information from sensors to generate a detailed picture of the vehicle’s environment. By separating the electronics and the mechanical side, Audi is able to keep up-to-date with technological advances.

Audi’s decision to debut a car in China and at a tech show is telling. The country comprises the largest single market for the German marque. And as the car is increasingly morphing into an complex electronic gadget, it doesn’t feel that odd to reveal one that relies so much on high technology at a consumer electronics show.

Rupert Stradler says that the car is ‘the biggest tech gadget.’ The Audi chairman offers, ‘we are experiencing a digital revolution stronger than the industrial revolution. The question is how we shape the digital future. We are ready to take risks.’

Nargess Banks

Design Talks | 5 – 25 Scrutton Street | Old Street | Shoreditch | London | EC2A 4HJ | UK

Design Talks is published by Spinach Design

All rights and labelled images are covered by ©