A car that drives itself through traffic jams and does the parking for you was showcased alongside shape-shifting OLED headlights by German car brand Audi at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Above: banks of LED headlights and indicators
Audi also unveiled electronics systems to integrate the car with services such as Google Maps and Google Earth View as well as social networks like Facebook and Twitter.
Piloted driving will soon allow drivers to let the car take control when stuck in a traffic jam, Audi engineers believe.
Above: OLED technology creates a continuous light surface
The self-driving technology will be able to stop and start the vehicle in slow-moving traffic, as well as manoeuvring it in and out of parking spaces.
Cars could also be networked to alert each other to hazards such as icy roads or heavy traffic, Audi suggests, while communication with traffic lights would enable the vehicle to drive itself through green lights.
LED headlights are already available in many car models, but at CES 2013 Audi unveiled its Matrix LED system, which uses a camera to detect the road and vehicles ahead so that it can swivel its headlights or lower the intensity of the beam when needed.
Above: LED headlights that can bend and swivel
OLED (organic light-emitting diode) technology would also turn the car’s rear into a continuous light surface with many tiny points moving together like a shoal of fish. The lights would flow to the right when the car turns right or flow rapidly forwards when it brakes, for example.
“Electronics trends over the next decade” will be the banner for Audi’s presence at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which will be held in Las Vegas from January 8 to 11, 2013. At the world’s most important electronics trade show, the brand is presenting its technologies of today and its solutions for tomorrow. The spotlight will be on networking the car with its environment – with a particular focus on future piloted driving and mobile communications.
Audi will be showcasing a wide range of assistance systems already on offer that make driving more comfortable and safer. These assistance systems are closely integrated, providing them with a high degree of intelligence and outstanding capabilities. Tomorrow’s systems will be even smarter – they will reduce the driver’s workload should the driver so wish.
Piloted driving will be technical feasible before the decade is out – Audi will be showcasing what being caught up in a traffic jam will entail in future. In congested traffic at speeds up to 60 km/h (37.28 mph), Audi’s piloted driving helps the driver to steer the car within certain limits. It also accelerates and brakes the vehicle autonomously. In future, piloted driving will also be able to maneuver the vehicle autonomously into and out of parking spaces – such as in tight roadside parking spaces, in garages, or even in parking garages.
“At Audi you’d be hard pushed to find an innovation that isn’t related to electronics nowadays,” explains Ricky Hudi, Head of Electrics/Electronics Development. “These enable us to implement full networking. A defining feature of the last decade was that we integrated all the functions in the car. This decade will see us network the car seamlessly with the environment, under the Audi connect banner – with the driver, the Internet, the infrastructure, and with other vehicles.”  Audi connect services and technologies bring the Internet into the car and the car onto the Internet. For customers the new technology means greater comfort and greater driving pleasure. The new wireless communication standard Long Term Evolution (LTE) will soon support communications with the World Wide Web, opening up the possibility of high-speed transmission of large amounts of data.
Audi connect provides the driver with tailor-made services, ranging from navigation with Google Earth images and Google Maps Street View, through Audi online traffic information and social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. In the new Audi A3 and in the Audi A3 Sportback the driver can have e-mails read aloud and dictate (SMS) text messages. Audi intends to expand this range of services further.
Audi is working flat out on new operating and display concepts – concepts like the freely programmable instrument cluster. The driver can switch around the virtual displays to suit their own requirements. Visually they are barely distinguishable from the physical instruments, but provide much more flexibility.
The brand also has new technology for hi-fi aficionados – 3-D sound brings a three-dimensional, large acoustic stage to in-car music playback. This inspirational technology can be experienced in the “Audi Q7 sound concept” directly in the vehicle and on the booth.
The architecture of the modular infotainment platform enables for the first time hardware components to be kept constantly up to date with minimal effort.
For many years Audi has been a leading brand in terms of lighting technology – at present LED headlights are available in many model series. Electrics/electronics also pave the way for major development advances in this technology area. The lighting on tomorrow’s Audi models will react actively to environmental conditions, thus increasing active safety further.
Audi has developed a broad spectrum of expertise in all areas of vehicle electronics, thus enabling it to explore new ways of co-operating with its suppliers. As part of the Progressive Semi Conductor Program (PSCP) seven semiconductor manufacturers have acquired the status of strategic partners and are therefore integrated into development.
“In all our technical areas the innovation cycles are short, and the competition is cut-throat,” says Ricky Hudi, Head of Electrics/Electronics Development. “At Audi we see that as an obligation to become even more progressive, more agile, and more innovative.”
News: the yacht commissioned by Steve Jobs before his death has been cleared to sail again as his family has come to a temporary agreement with French designer Philippe Starck in their dispute over an unpaid design bill.
Jobs and Starck had reportedly agreed on a payment of €9m for the design work – or 6% of the estimated €150m building costs. However, the Apple co-founder’s estate say the designer should receive 6% of the actual total cost, which came in at €105m.
Named Venus, the boat was completed in October, just over a year after Jobs’ death.
News: a yacht built for Apple’s late co-founder Steve Jobs has been impounded in Amsterdam following a dispute over an unpaid bill to French designer Philippe Starck.
Jobs and Starck had reportedly agreed on a payment of €9m for the design work – or 6% of the estimated €150m building costs. However, Jobs’ estate say the designer should receive 6% of the actual total cost, which came in at €105m.
The yacht will remain in the Port of Amsterdam until Jobs’ estate hands over the money, the lawyer told Reuters.
Earlier this year we reported on the unveiling of the 80-metre-long yacht, named Venus, which was built over six years at the Koninklijke De Vries shipyards in Aalsmeer, the Netherlands. See all our stories about Steve Jobs and all our stories about Apple.
News: German car brand Audi has announced a new design strategy, bringing the interior and exterior design studios together to encourage faster innovation and stimulate greater dialogue between the teams. “You can’t survive if you just depend on one brain to do a complex thing like a car,” said Audi head of exterior design Achim Badstübner.
Head of Audi Group design Wolfgang Egger has set up a satellite studio in Munich where the interior, exterior and colour & trim teams come together for workshops and to share ideas. Until now the teams, which together employ 200 people, have worked in separate buildings at the main Audi plant in Ingolstadt.
The Concept Design Studio has already produced a prototype vehicle, called the Crosslane Coupé which, the brand claims, shows greater design unity between interior and exterior.
“We tend to make the mistake that we have an exterior department, an interior department and a technology department, and they all know what they’re doing but the connection is not so good,” Badstübner told Dezeen.
“I think it’s very important to basically lock them in one room, literally speaking,” he added. “Then there is an interaction: you talk to the guy who does seats and he tells you something about his expertise and you might take something from him that helps you to develop a new wheel, for example.”
A new dedicated building to house all the design teams together is under construction at the Ingolstadt plant, but in the meantime designers will be brought together in workshops at the Munich studio and through exchanges between departments. “Right now there are four people from exterior design working downstairs in the interior studio and there are four people from Munich in the exterior studio,” says Badstübner.
A key aim of the new arrangements is to break down the culture of individual authorship and encourage cooperation. Badstübner explains how fierce competition in car design schools and for jobs nurtures a tendency for designers to to keep their ideas close to their chests and resist collaboration.
“It’s extremely competitive, especially in exterior; it stays like that your whole life,” says Badstübner. “Interiors can work differently because it’s impossible to do an interior as a one-man show: you have somebody doing the seats, somebody doing the steering wheel, somebody doing the dash, the next one doing the trunk, so it’s a team of people. In exterior, most of the time you’re talking about one sculpture and you get used to thinking ‘I am the designer for the car.'”
This attitude can be detrimental, he adds, because when individuals work intensely on one aspect of the car they can lose sight of the bigger picture. “You have to be en expert and there is an advantage in digging deep, to really know every screw, every system and pattern for a specific thing, because you have all of the information at the point where you need it, but it is misguided in another way. If you dig too deep, it’s a little bit like digging a hole: you’re in the hole so you can’t see the world around it.”
Egger asserts that “teams come up with the best ideas” and his Concept Design Studio aims to break down this culture of individual experts to create holistically designed vehicles. “You get a different result,” Badstübner agrees, “because through this method you get the best of every brain. I think you can’t survive if you just depend on one brain to do a complex thing like a car.”
“This approach is pretty new. I’m not saying that other brands don’t work with a team effort, but most of the time I think we’re talking more about a team than really actually working with it. We’ve proven with these cars that we’re working as a team and that everybody gets the benefit.”
In addition to faster innovation, Audi hopes this more unified design strategy will give it the edge over competitors by lending a more distinctive identity to its products. “Only when design and technology mesh perfectly does an automobile make a statement for the Audi brand,” says Egger.
“We’re using design as a tool of communication,” says Badstübner. “You can either do commercial adverts somewhere, or you just have the product on the street. The message has to be strong and it has to be clear, so people understand it. With our show car it’s very obvious that it has a robust look.”
The defining feature of the resulting Crosslane Coupé concept car is its singe piece space-frame chassis, developed in collaboration with Audi’s Lightweight Design Centre. This is visible both inside and outside the car: around the grille at the front and through narrow openings in the bonnet, and round the sills of the doors inside.
“We started from the single frame and really tried to bring that into the interior,” says interior designer Ulrich Beierlein. Instrument covers and grilles take on the trapezoidal shape of the headlights and vents of the exterior, while large, low vents in the front bumper to cool the engine are repeated inside to cool passengers.
“In this car we really break some rules in Audi interiors,” said Beierlein, explaining how the lines of the interior would normally wrap around the driver and passengers then across the front of the windscreen. In the Crosslane Coupé, however, these lines shoot forwards to align with exterior seams running down the bonnet. “
We call this the ‘vector wrap’ and it’s to bring the dynamic of the exterior theme to the interior theme,” explains Beierlein. “The cabin opens in the direction of travel and continues as an unbroken line in the engine hood,” adds Karl-Heinz Rothfuss, head of interior design.
Meanwhile Audi’s Lightweight Design Centre been collaborating with Clemens Weisshaar and Reed Kram to develop a chair using technology from the car-racing industry that was unveiled at Design Miami this month.
News:Alex Moulton, the British engineer and designer best known for inventing the small-wheeled Moulton bicycle and the rubber suspension system for the Mini car, has died aged 92.
After an apprenticeship at the Bristol Aeroplane Co during the second world war, Alex Moulton became a consultant for British Motor Corporation.
The rubber suspension system he developed in the 1950s was eventually used in the iconic Mini, which launched in 1959. Moulton’s system allowed for the car’s small size without compromising on handling and comfort.
In 1964 he launched the Alex Moulton Bicycle (pictured top), which had a small, lightweight frame without a top bar, 16-inch wheels and a rubber suspension system. In 1967, Moulton was forced to sell to rival cycle maker Raleigh, which made Moulton designs until 1974.
After commercial production ended, Moulton continued to produce a small number of the bicycles, which became collectors’ items. He was appointed CBE for services to industry in 1976.
Industrial design studio Priestmangoode drew inspiration from domestic interiors to design a first-class cabin with sofas and wardrobes for Brazilian airline TAM.
The TAM First Class Cabin is based around the theme ”home away from home,” and Priestmangoode‘s designers describe how they wanted to bring “the comfort of home” onto an aircraft.
Sofas take the places of footstools, so that families and small groups can choose to sit facing one another, like they would in their own homes.
Seating is upholstered with soft fabrics for extra comfort and each passenger has access to an adjustable reading lamp, a wooden table, a touchscreen control panel, a television screen and a selection of magazines and city guides.
Wardrobes are provided for each passenger to store their luggage and these are lined with leather and suede.
The designs are being rolled out across TAM’s entire fleet of Boeing 777 aircraft carriers, plus Priestmangoode has also developed new interiors for the economy and new Space Plus cabins.
“The designs present TAM as an important international player and give them the tools they need to compete with the world’s other major international carriers,” said Priestmangoode director Luke Hawes.
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.
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.
Car brand MINI has launched the Paceman: a cross between a sports activity vehicle and a coupé (+ slideshow).
“It’s an innovative concept, a car that the world has never seen before in that shape and form,” head of design at MINI Anders Warming told Dezeen at the launch in Mallorca.
With much of the front of the car based on the five-door MINI Countryman, the three-door Paceman model has some significant changes to the roof and rear design to make it look more sporty. “Where MINI so far had the vertical lights sitting on the out board of the fenders, we have now horizontal emphasis at the back with the tail lights that give an impression of width. That’s completely new to MINI,” says Warming. “It’s very precise and go-kart-like, so I think horizontal tail lights emphasise this road holding.”
Large doors allow easy access to the back of the car, which has plenty of head room for a coupé and two individual chairs rather than an integrated back seat. Other features include a large, circular speedometer in the centre console and a built-in smart phone dock.
MINI presents the world’s first Sports Activity Coupé in the premium small and compact vehicle segment; MINI Paceman is the seventh model in the brand family and offers an innovative combination of sporty, extrovert design, hallmark MINI driving fun and an exclusive interior ambience; unique, yet typically MINI, vehicle concept opens up new target groups for the brand’s inimitable style; two doors, large tailgate, lounge concept with two individual seats in the rear.
Expressive, emotionally powerful body design with prominent horizontal lines and powerfully curved surfaces; dynamic proportions in hallmark MINI design language create superbly sporting impression; sporty and elegant appearance and powerful stature of the MINI Paceman symbolise the innovative combination of go-kart feeling on the road and enhanced versatility through optional all-wheel drive.
Upright front end exudes power and presence; hexagonal radiator grille with broad chrome surround, black bordering on the lower edge of the body and other typically MINI design elements lend an individual touch; coupé-style stretched side profile with long doors, dynamically downward- sloping roofline and greenhouse tapering towards the rear; muscular flared wheel arches; distinctive roof form adapted to the car’s coupé lines with integrated rear spoiler; roof can be specified in body colour, white or black; sloping rear window; rear lights in horizontal arrangement for the first time on a MINI.
Bespoke interior design creates typically MINI impression; powerfully formed, horizontally structured instrument panel with newly designed surrounds for the air vents; large circular Centre Speedo, also with new surround in black and decorative inner rings in high-gloss black or chrome; surrounds for the central control panel in a contrasting colour; window buttons arranged in the door panel trim; three-dimensional door ellipses reaching into the rear compartment (illumination optional).
Full-size individual seats in the rear offer high levels of comfort and lateral support, plus generous shoulder room and headroom; legroom optimised through cut-outs in the front seat backrests; integrated armrests in the rear side panel trim; two-section version of the MINI Centre Rail storage and attachment system comes as standard, full-length variant available as an option; variable use of space possible through individually folding rear seat backrests; load capacity: 330 – 1,080 litres.
Particularly powerful engines and standard lowered sports suspension accentuate the trademark MINI go-kart feeling; regular suspension and ride height are available as a no-cost option; two petrol and two diesel engines offered from launch with an output spread from 82 kW/112 hp to 135 kW/184 hp; MINI John Cooper Works Paceman version is in the pipeline; all variants come with a six-speed manual gearbox or a six-speed automatic as an option; MINI ALL4 all-wheel-drive system available for the MINI Cooper S Paceman, MINI Cooper SD Paceman and MINI Cooper D Paceman; outstanding efficiency thanks to state-of-the-art powertrain technology and extensive MINIMALISM technology fitted as standard; Sport Button available as an option.
Sophisticated chassis technology featuring MacPherson spring struts and forged cross members at the front axle, a multi-link rear axle and Electric Power Steering with Servotronic function; Dynamic Stability Control (DSC) as standard, Dynamic Traction Control (DTC) including Electronic Differential Lock Control (EDLC) optional (standard on the MINI Cooper S Paceman, MINI Cooper SD Paceman and MINI Cooper D Paceman ALL4); 16-inch light-alloy wheels as standard (MINI Cooper S Paceman and MINI Cooper SD Paceman: 17-inch); 18-inch or 19-inch light-alloy wheels available as an option.
Outstanding occupant protection provided by crash-optimised body structure and extensive range of safety equipment; front and side airbags, side curtain airbags, three-point inertia-reel seat belts on all seats, belt tensioners and belt force limiters at the front, ISOFIX child seat attachments in the rear and a run-flat indicator fitted as standard.
Array of standard equipment includes air conditioning, sports seats for driver and front passenger, Centre Rail and radio MINI CD; high-quality items of optional equipment and wide variety of individualisation options in typical MINI style; selection includes xenon headlights, Adaptive Headlights, rain sensor, Park Distance Control, Comfort Access, electrically operated glass roof and trailer coupling; large choice of exterior paint finishes, bonnet stripes, upholstery variants, interior surfaces and Colour Lines; MINI navigation system, Harman Kardon hi-fi loudspeaker system and unique in-car infotainment functions available via MINI Connected.
This mobile home by Chinese studio dot Architects consists of a quilted cube attached to the back of a tricycle.
At first glance the facade could be mistaken for padded fabric, but the two-metre-wide structure is actually made from spray polyurethane foam (SPF), which dot Architects injected into a timber and fabric mould held together with pins and string.
“SPF is normally concealed behind the finishing surface and functions only as supplementary material,” explains principal designer Ning Duo. “Bao House tries to explore this common material and reinterpret it in a new fabrication system.”
The foam expanded as it set, so that when the moulds were removed they revealed a bulbous lightweight structure that is both water-resistant and thermally insulated.
“Bao House gets its name from this bubble-like surface, since ‘bao’ in Chinese means bulge,” says Duo.
The architects created the structure for Get It Louder 2012, an exhibition of visual art and design at the Sanlitun Village shopping centre in Beijing, after being asked to design a mobile living space that is human-powered.
A roof of transparent polycarbonate lets light inside the shelter, where a mattress covers the floor to allow enough sleeping space for up to three people.
There’s no door, but one of the walls slides open to let residents climb in.
It’s time to get in the laser-projector zone with none other than a design by the name of “Bike Zone”, complete with red beams for signaling. If you want to turn left, this beast of a light shines several arrow-looking symbols down at the ground to the left – the same is true of the right – imagine that! The only ones we worry for now are the squirrels – watch your eyes, guys!
This design creates a one-meter “safety zone” for the cyclist with lights that allow drivers at night to tell where the cyclist is going. Animated signal action makes for twice the safety and clarity in representation of direction while the whole design is contained in a tiny backpack-storage-ready container.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
