Hasta La Ideas

Today we’re launching the Dezeen and MINI World Tour, which will see us visiting eight cities to discover the most exciting new talents, the hottest trends and the most important themes in architecture and design in 2013. Find out more and watch the movie »

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MINI’s head of design Anders Warming predicts that “we’re not too far away” from driverless cars in this interview with Dezeen, recorded at the launch of the new MINI Paceman in Mallorca (+ audio + transcript).

Above: listen to the interview with Anders Warming

“It’s very clear that self-driving cars are part of the future that we’ll be living in, in one shape or form,” says Warming. However, he is not convinced that driverless cars will appeal to everyone. ”I can understand the need for something like a self-driving car, on the other hand I like to be able to drive my own car, decide how I want the car to handle around a corner. I like to drive cars, so that’s a hobby of mine that isn’t going to go away either,” he explains.”I think a lot of people feel like that as well.”

Other advances he mentions include the increasing the amount of interactive technologies drivers will have access to in their vehicles, and the integration of social media into new models. ”It is very important for us is to expand on the world of user interface, that interactivity that people are used to in their everyday lives.”

“What you can do with a phone these days means that a very important area of innovation will be in the adaption of this user interface world within the car realm. With the edition of what we call MINI Connected, it’s the first time anyone has launched the concept that you have Facebook directly in your car and you have this connectivity in a level not known before,” he continues.

When asked about what the BMW group are doing to reduce the amount of cars on our roads, Warming describes a car-sharing project that has already in place in Munich and Berlin and is due to launch in other cities. ”Drive Now is a program that allows someone who might not own a car to get in BMW product within five minutes. This car sharing thing I think is a sign of the time. Is car driving and the fun of car driving equal to owning a car? I think that is going to change, just like people over many decades having to deal with leasing rates as opposed to owning a complete car.”

Anders Warming has been the head of design at MINI since 2010 and has worked as a designer for the brand for 16 years.

The interview took place at the launch of the Paceman (above), MINI’s latest model that is a cross between a sports activity vehicle and a coupé – see our story about it here.

See all our stories about MINI »
See all our stories about cars »

Read the transcript of the full interview below:

Anders Warming: My name is Anders Warming and I’m Danish, but I’ve been working with the BMW group for a good part of 16, 17 years as a car designer. I’m a car designer by education and that obviously means that I’ve been located in Germany or America for many, many years designing cars. For a couple of years I’ve been responsible for the MINI design team, meaning I’m responsible for every car that MINI has designed that is coming out: the interior, exterior and the whole colour and material programme.

Dan Howarth: Could you explain the way you go about designing a car?

Anders Warming: Well there’s two answers to the question. On the one hand, there is the process of how you go about things and the other thing that is important for me of course is the brand that you are designing and working with. Starting with the process, you usually have to take into account the car that has the most fans and the most customers out there, and in order to do that we do ask customers, we do gets some feedback as far as who would be interested in a certain kind of a car, and based on that we’ll start the design process and a design project. Once we know the size and dimensions of a car, we’ll go into a design competition where we’ll have different proposals for the interior, exterior, and for the colour and material, and through a bandwidth of options we’ll select down to the one car we then prefer. That process usually takes from three and four years altogether, sometimes more. Particularly the Paceman was a very short process, so it took us just under three years to start from the first idea to test the car into production.

The other side of car design is obviously pertaining to MINI as a brand, and MINI is for me personally a very important brand because it’s a car that started from a very highly engineered level. Obviously the MINI classic was designed in the fifties and had such an impact on the world of mobility. A small, clever package that everyone liked, that’s why it sold millions and millions in the fifties, sixties and seventies, and also the eighties and nineties as well. When we reintroduced the brand we found that the hatch is a strong product, people really need a little hatch and for MINI this is very important for its history but also for right now. When the car was introduced it was important within the context and today, eleven, twelve years after the brand was relaunched, we are finding that brand is becoming more and more important to people. Why? Because it’s a car with so much character and so much emotion that you identify with when you see it, and you like the car on a couple of emotional levels. The car rides like a go-kart and it looks, I would say, beautiful. It’s a great looking car and it’s got superior quality. This is something I think is part of what we have to think about when designing every MINI. But designing every MINI we have to take two things into account. One is the heritage I mentioned, where we come from, and the other thing is always to be on the cutting edge of new innovation. So the balance between maintaining what is successful is a part of our design process, always to look at where we come from, and the other side of that obviously is to say where do we innovate and where do we go new ways.

Dan Howarth: And what sort of innovative features does the Paceman have specifically?

Anders Warming: Several, on a couple of different levels. One, for example, is the overall concept. It’s an innovative concept, it’s a car that the world has never seen before in that shape and form. The concept it called the Paceman obviously, but the concept is a so-called SAV or an SAV coupe, meaning it’s a sports activity vehicle with a coupe roofline. This is a vehicle that has never been launched in that unique format. There has been three-door and five-door versions of these kinds of cars, but never a specific three-door coupe on a sports activity vehicle. That’s one strong innovation, the concept in itself, it’s a car that’s new that will find fans, but in that sense it has never been done before. What we really focused on is to create a design of a car that takes MINI into a next innovative look, especially in the rear where you see for the first time, in the Paceman, the horizontal tail lights. Where MINI so far had the vertical lights sitting on the out board of the fenders, we have now horizontal emphasis at the back that gives an impression of width. That’s completely new to MINI. So far MINIs were more narrow and tall from the dynamic look but now we’re actually talking about the impression of width and have made the shoulders even wider on this car. Third thing I want to mention is the interior concept, that it’s a coupe with superior rear head room. And that for me is an innovation that we are able to get something that emotional, that sporty, you are actually able to sit in the back very comfortably and you have two individual chairs that give you that feel of sitting in a lounge.

Dan Howarth: Going back to the width, is there a reason you decided to emphasise that particularly on this model?

Anders Warming: Well the impression of width I think is the expression of the dynamism, it makes the car look dynamic on the road and it’s something that has been learned throughout generations, also with other car brands. I think it fits the dynamic of the car MINI, the way it handles. I believe it drives very well and it’s very precise and go-kart-like, so I think horizontal tail lights  emphasise this road holding. The other reason is that the car has a very specific technical basis out of the Countryman, and with the horizontal lights on the Paceman we are differentiating the rear view from the Countryman which looks taller and has more vertical emphasis with the vertical lights, and the Paceman has the horizontal. So in that sense we keep these two concepts looking more unique in the rear view.

Dan Howarth: Is it more energy efficient than other MINIs?

Anders Warming: Let’s say the engine work we’ve been doing in the BMW group overall is part of what we call the efficient dynamic program, which means that everything is measured, every gramme is being looked at, little improvements to the engine performance are being looked at, improvements in aerodynamics is being looked at. These cars, and any car from the BMW group, is right now on the highest level you can get as far as the convergence of aerodynamics, lightweight and energy efficiency. So efficient dynamics is sort of the thing in the foreground. We at MINI call it minimalism but in essence it’s got the same meaning as far as fuel saving and the whole balance of the ecosystem. This car is a larger MINI based on the Countryman, so it’s larger than the hatch and therefore has a little bit more weight to the concept itself, but what we’re really happy with this car is that it still is, in a MINI-typical way, the smallest car in its segment. That means that any car that would be a competitor to this car would be larger and heavier than this one.

Dan Howarth: Looking forward, are there technologies that you are already thinking about integrating into new models?

Anders Warming: The world is a extremely fast-paced and changing, we have so many things that are happening all over. Like I mentioned the words efficient dynamics or minimalism in the case of MINI, the technologies that we apply are all geared towards lowering the weight, lowering emissions, and making sure that the car is even more fun to drive within those parameters. Obviously I hope the cars will be even more beautiful for every generation, this is our goal, but I think as far as technology goes this is going to be a prime focus. The other thing that is very important for us is to expand on the world of user interface, that interactivity that people are used to in their everyday lives, especially due to computers and phones, and what you can do with a phone these days means that a very important area of innovation will be in the adaption of this user interface world within the car realm. Right now I believe that MINI has got a great level as far as navigation system works for example, because with the edition of what we call MINI Connected, it’s the first time where anyone has launched this in a car where you have Facebook directly on your car and you have this connectivity in a level that is not known before. Right now we are seeing a lot of other people doing it as well because it is logical and it’s the logical thing to do, but these are two areas of innovation: focus on the minimalism and efficiency and focus on the adaption of user interface and connectivity.

Dan Howarth: So integrating things like social media, and other technologies, touch screens – I know that’s not particularly new – but is that developing quite quickly?

Anders Warming: It’s developing quite quickly but my feeling is that there are so many things developing that quickly that it you listen to everything all at once you might get the impression that certain things are set in stone. I don’t believe they are set in stone, I believe there is so much due to the fact that the development processes are being sped up all over the world, there will be technology that will develop very quickly that no one will foresee. Maybe a mix of different kinds of user interface concepts, whether it’s through our iDrive controller, or the MINI controller or touch-screen technology or header displays. At the end of the day, the customer would like the choice of different technologies, just like the customer would like the choice of colours, whether they want a black or blue or yellow car.

Dan Howarth: So customisation is going to be key in the future?

Anders Warming: Customisation and adaptability of technology within product life cycles.

Dan Howarth: And even further ahead, there are ideas being thrown about a lot at the moment about driverless cars. How far away do you think we are from that?

Anders Warming: I think that we’re not too far away from these technologies, I do know that most major brands are developing programmes for these issues. There are also non-automotive brands that are also doing this, so it’s a very clear thing that self-driving cars are part of the future that we’ll be living in, in one shape or form. When and how and in what context, obviously as a mere designer, I’m not to say. But I do know there is a huge drive for innovative ideas. On the one hand, that is something that is just washing in, these new ideas. On the other hand I think the customer is always going to went to have a great slash beautiful car to drive everyday. So I wouldn’t take away too much from the customer that actually likes to interact with this car. So also I think it’s a case of adaptability. I’m a car enthusiast and I can understand the need for something like a self-driving car, on the other hand I like to be able to drive my own car, decide how I want the car to handle around a corner. I like to drive cars, so that’s a hobby of mine that isn’t going to go away either. I think a lot of people feel like that as well.

Dan Howarth: A lot of governments and city councils are trying to cut down on the amount of cars on the roads. Are you developing any alternatives?

Anders Warming: Definitely, the BMW group has been very active in a pilot project called Drive Now that is working in Munich and Berlin and will be launched in other cities. Drive Now is a program that allows someone who might not own a car to get in BMW product within five minutes. This car sharing thing I think is a sign of the time. Is car driving and the fun of car driving equal to owning a car? I think that is going to change, just like people over many decades having to deal with leasing rates as opposed to owning a complete car. It’s about mobility concepts for the future, and BMW group, not only MINI but other BMW products are right now all being aligned and function in the market as mobility packages that really will help people find their way of getting into the brand. Not my way of getting into it, but if they want to purchase it they can, if they want to lease it they can, if they want to take part in car sharing they can, but whatever way they can get access to a MINI.

The post “We’re not too far away from driverless cars”
– MINI head of design Anders Warming appeared first on Dezeen.

Focus sur Efim Graboy et Daria Turetski, de véritables amoureux de la ville de Kiev en Ukraine. Armés de leur Canon 550D, ils ont filmé pendant 5 jours la capitale ukrainienne pour obtenir cette vidéo en technique time-lapse et tilt-shit réussie à découvrir dans la suite de l’article.

Previously on Fubiz

• Finding Oregon
• Floating Chicago
• Canary Sky – Tenerife

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Slideshow: car brand Mini will present a panel-van version of the Mini Clubman at the International Geneva Motor Show next month. 

Two hinged doors at the back of the Clubvan open onto a flat loading compartment in place of the Clubman’s rear seats, separated from the cab by an aluminium screen and stainless-steel mesh at the top, but otherwise the dimensions are the same.

The rear side windows are covered and, as with the Clubman, there’s a rear-hinged door behind the driver’s door to give access to the back compartment.

The interior of the loading compartment is covered in anthracite-grey cloth and Mini claim the premium vehicle would be ideal for a fashion designer, gallerist, caterer or photographer.

See the Mini Rocketman Concept they launched at last year’s show in our earlier story and check out the original Clubman here.

The International Geneva Motor Show takes place from 8 to 18 March.

Here are some more details from Mini:

More space for style: The MINI Clubvan Concept. Compact lifestyle van for business and leisure – First concept of its kind in the premium segment – World premiere at the Geneva International Motor Show 2012.

Stand-out-from-the-crowd style can also be amazingly practical – and practicality surprisingly attractive. The MINI Clubvan Concept brings apparently conflicting profiles together into a single package, paving the way for an innovative vehicle concept without parallel in the premium small car segment. The MINI Clubman-based concept car, scheduled for its world premiere at the Geneva International Motor Show 2012, combines the driving fun for which MINI is renowned with increased load-carrying capability. The MINI experience will therefore find its way into new areas of life, the brand’s distinctive character gaining new popularity among target groups not previously on the MINI radar.

The closed-off load area behind the front seats and the opaque rear side windows of the new concept set it apart most strikingly from the MINI Clubman. The MINI Clubvan Concept uses its broader skill-set to open up new usage possibilities – both business and leisure. Where a business’s customers, product range and operating environment demand a particular style for its vehicles, a premium model can make the perfect delivery solution. For example, a car in the mould of the MINI Clubvan Concept would fit excellently into the fleet of a fashion designer, art gallery owner or event caterer. And its abilities as an all-rounder also tick the right boxes for a photographer with a stack of camera, tripod and lighting equipment to ferry around during the week – and bulky sports and leisure gear to pile on board at the weekend.

The MINI Clubvan Concept pulls off the trick of blending enhanced practicality and a well-judged lifestyle focus with natural ease. This ability is based on the impressive adaptability that goes to the heart of the MINI brand’s heritage. Calls for maximising the load capacity of the classic Mini began as early as 1960, just a year after the car’s birth. And they were soon heeded. With its 10-centimetre-longer wheelbase, separate load compartment and split rear doors, the Morris Mini Van was perfectly equipped for commercial use. It also provided the basis for the fully glazed, four-seat Morris Mini Traveller, one of the precursors of today’s successful MINI Clubman. And so, more than 50 years on, the MINI Clubvan Concept sees history repeating itself – albeit in a slightly different order.

Two seats, five doors, endless usage potential. Limiting the car to two seats creates the capacity its owners will need on a day-to-day basis, as well as opening up a whole new world of customisation potential. The load compartment of the MINI Clubvan Concept embodies the car’s fresh and rigorous interpretation of the principle used in the classic Mini – of providing the maximum amount of interior space on the smallest possible footprint. The load area reaches from the split rear doors right up to the partition grille behind the two seats. The totally level floor makes full use of the interior’s depth, and that allows the concept car’s load capacity to exceed the maximum achieved by the MINI Clubman.

Six attachment loops recessed into the load compartment floor use elasticated straps to hold items of varying lengths, heights and widths in place – without the risk of them sliding around. Added to which, the partition grille, which is fixed securely to the car body, ensures that items stowed in the load compartment cannot find their way into the front seats, even under extremely heavy braking. The lower section of the partition is made from solid aluminium, while the upper section consists of a silver-coloured stainless steel honeycomb grating. The side walls and floor of the load compartment are trimmed in high-quality anthracite-coloured cloth. The anthracite roof liner, meanwhile, extends along the full length of the interior. This uniform colour scheme emphasises the pure-bred, practicality-oriented character of the MINI Clubvan Concept.

Like the MINI Clubman, the MINI Clubvan Concept is a five-door car with a twist. Two front doors for the driver and front passenger, two side-hinged doors at the rear and the rear-hinged Clubdoor on the right-hand side create comfortable access to the interior. The Clubdoor gives owners the option of loading or unloading smaller items from the side of the car as well as the rear.

The generous levels of space on board the concept car can be exploited in a variety of ways. Commercial users will be particularly pleased to discover the scope for configuring the load compartment to personal requirements. For example, tools and goods can be stored neatly and securely in made-to-measure drawers or shelving units. 12-volt plug sockets in the rear area of the load compartment provide additional practicality.

Exterior design: shields from prying eyes, cuts a distinctive figure. Impressive practicality and the brand’s time-honoured style lend the MINI Clubvan Concept its unmistakable character. Sharing the exterior dimensions of the MINI Clubman and boasting cleverly increased storage capacity, the concept car is the first premium model in the small car-based van segment. The exterior appearance of the MINI Clubvan Concept marks it out immediately as a MINI – and therefore as a premium product. The function-led design modifications have no impact on the car’s proportions and hallmark MINI design language, but they do give customers the opportunity to combine the demands of commercial use with an appreciation of individual style.

The MINI Clubvan Concept comes with British Racing Green exterior paintwork, which extends to the roof, C-pillars and exterior mirror caps. As is usual for vehicles charged with transportation tasks, the rear side windows of the MINI Clubvan Concept are opaque. Polycarbonate sections – their outer surfaces painted in the car’s body colour – and heavily tinted glass for the rear doors make it difficult to see into the load compartment.

The unbroken paintwork along the car’s flanks offers extensive scope for individualisation, which the MINI Clubvan Concept highlights to eye-catching effect. The sealed side windows bear the logo of a sign design company based in the MINI’s native Great Britain. The hand-applied graphics lend the vehicle a personal look. Indeed, the ultra-versatile MINI carries both its cargo and the company’s promotional message with a uniquely stylish verve. The MINI Clubvan Concept presented in Geneva lends this form of customisation a piquant authenticity – on two fronts. The British company that has literally left its stamp on the MINI Clubvan Concept creates similar vehicle graphics for its customers. And the MINI Clubvan Concept showcases how these might look when applied to a MINI van.

Show your mug to Berlin for a chance to win your favorite car from Mini

For the next two weeks people passing through Berlin’s Kurfürstendamm shopping boulevard will notice a giant campaign from Mini, telling them “It’s Personal.” The BMW offshoot is hitting Germany’s capital with an interactive Photo Box, a booth that captures the faces of Mini fans and blasts them onto a massive video screen along with each participant’s favorite Mini model for a chance to win their preferred car.

Contestants have four colors and four models choose from, including the Mini Hatch, Convertible, Clubman and Countryman. Fans around the world can join in the fun through the Facebook app, where you can snap a picture with your webcam wearing a pair of virtual headphones in your favorite Mini color.

Participating is as simple as that. The lucky winner will take home their favorite Mini with customized side mirrors that match their favorite color. To get in on the action, check out Mini’s live stream of the giant video screen consuming the side of a building on Kurfürstendamm, take your photo and upload to win. The contest ends 29 May 2011.