Interior Motives - Spring 2012

The EXP 9F project started in July 2011 with a presentation to Bentley boss Dr Wolfgang Dürheimer. "On one board we had what we called a 'Shanghai Limousine' – a chauffeurdriven business car that could also be driven by the customer, with lots of business packs and entertainment systems in the back," reveals Head of Interior Design, Robin Page. "On the other we had a 'Utility Vehicle' based on the British country sports lifestyle of some of our customers, who go to events like off-road driving days, polo matches and shoots up in Scotland. When we asked whether we should focus on the limousine or the utility vehicle, he said 'Yes.' So that became our brief, really: create a car that fulfi lls both requirements."

The NS4 is Toyota's next-generation hybrid vehicle concept, and is and intended to move the company a step beyond Prius. This exploratory concept board illustrates a desire from the outset to place technology at the centre of the cockpit experience. "We wanted to create an innovative, synchronised twin-display interface that advances the Toyota human-machine interface and combines the ease of use of a touch display with the visibility of a remote display," says Yoshinori Yamada, Manager and project lead for NS4 within the Advanced Design Division. 'Information fl ow' indicates the dual-screen set-up so central to the NS4's design, while 'Hold/Open' is an "interior spatial concept," says Yamada. "The aim was to achieve a comfortable and fi tted feel from the waist down while conveying a sense of openness in the upper portion."

From the outset of the project in 2007, the idea behind the 208 was to 'Re-generate' the B-segment. Re-generate became the theme and the name of the architecture that the interior design was built around. "It was developed by our specialist team from the advanced design department – primarily Andre Mermoz and Yong Wook Sin, working under Pierre Remond," says lead interior designer Adam Bazydlo. "They put this synthesis of cluster, steering wheel and screen together."

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The LF-LC was designed at Toyota's CALTY design studio in Newport Beach, California, in response to a brief from the Lexus Center in Japan to create a future hybrid 2+2 sports coupe concept for the 2012 NAIAS show in Detroit. "We had the idea that they [Lexus Japan] wanted us to create a new sense of premium sport for Lexus that didn't rely on any traditional elements," says Project Chief Designer Interiors, William Chergosky. "So we tried to create a new kind of design alchemy – an avantgarde mix of shapes, materials and layer coordination." The research and planning phase began in October 2010, as he explains: "The whole team went out and looked into combining organic and non-organic shapes, did a lot of research into fl owers and electronics at CES; the idea was to create a new form language by combining these disparate elements together."

From its earliest conception in June 2011, Pininfarina's Cambiano concept had a simple goal: "to represent the design and design philosophy of Pininfarina in its entirety". To fi nd the balance of purity, innovation and elegance, design director Fabio Filippini sought an aesthetic that was simple, beautiful, clean and free of superfl uous decoration. As you can see in this early research brief, this focused around distilling the technology to its most minimal form, with clean touchpads for all onboard controls and a simple but luxurious space for passengers. Through the use of entirely digital panels and touchscreens for the instrument cluster, the Italian design team was able to minimise the impact on the overall ambiance and focus instead on colour and materials.

"Among the sort of concept cars you sometimes see at the Tokyo motor show, this is more in the direction of reality," the Regina's project leader and exterior and interior designer, Yasukazu Yuuki, told us at the Tokyo motor show in November 2011. The brief for the Regina was not about alternative powertrains and farreaching conceptual ideas, but to explore what could be achieved for a Suzuki Alto-sized car through intelligent aerodynamics and lightweight optimisation around a conventional petrol engine – in this case a 0.8-litre unit already in use in India. The result is a 730kg concept with a turbocharged engine, continuously variable transmission and a stop/start system that harvests deceleration energy to produce a claimed 70g/km of CO2. To refl ect this aerodynamic lean, Yuuki created a swooping exterior that fl ows and wraps around a closed grille and covered rear wheels, and an interior that suggests the movement of air through the cabin – in this case via a two-part white dashboard which, unusually, is split at the centre.