Detroit design students showcase contrasting visions for mobility’s future

It is always a treat to visit the A. Alfred Taubman Centre. Home of the College for Creative Studies, the Albert Kahn-designed building is a formal exercise tempered by art-deco symbolism at its summit. Kahn’s brand of functionalism is evident across Detroit. Though the city once had an official civic architecture board, it is the German émigré who is widely viewed as its de facto city architect.

In keeping with Detroit’s automotive heritage, Kahn’s building was initially commissioned by General Motors as a research lab. It remains a lab of sorts, shaping young car designers for careers in the industry rather than future products. And that is why CDN is here, for the college’s industry evening where young hopefuls respond to a series of design briefs set by the likes of Ford, GM, Stellantis, BRP and the American Chemistry Council.

Despite the inclement weather, there was a respectable turnout to view the work on show, a mixture of models and expansive visual displays. As always with CCS, a scrappy, can-do attitude permeates the projects, underlined by the rough-and-ready space.

BFA student Madison Blood was on hand to explain her Urban Crawler 2035 project for Stellantis’ storied Jeep brand. Based on research that pointed to a consumer class dubbed “energisers” by global trend forecaster WGSN, Blood designed a go-anywhere, park-anywhere off-roader aimed at people looking to escape the pressure of everyday life and have fun. It is nicely executed, with a coherent origin story and scope to expand into a lifestyle brand befitting of the marque.

Hailing from further out in left field is master’s student Kirtish Gaood’s Sherpa rescue vehicle, created in response to a design competition launched by BRP, a company best known for Skidoos. It is designed to solve the very specific regional problem of extracting people injured in mudslides and flash flooding in northern India. The Sherpa, to that end, is a dynamic-looking off-road quadracycle with a stretcher incorporated into the vehicle frame. Gaood’s work impressed as thoughtful, pragmatic and well planned, augmented by strong storytelling and aesthetic brio.

The retiree who buys a motorhome and travels the States engaging in chilli cook-offs is a well-trodden trope in American car culture. But what happens if you are infirm and short of cash? Design team Owen Shaw, Samson Desroches and Mao Huang think they have the answer in the GM Wanderer, which takes the fictional Walter as a case study, a 72-year-old widower who is unsteady on his feet. The team tackled the project from a variety of angles, including safe and easy ingress and egress, modular and reconfigurable interiors, nostalgic aesthetics and smart technologies.

Slightly madder, and all the more intriguing for it, is Ioannis Loutrides’ Urban Planning project, which features a flying-wing Aeroblade 2060 that works as a sail for barges and harvests wind energy when not in use. The wing is the central component in a neatly organised city development that divides its constituent parts, residential, industrial, farming and logistics, into overlapping circles of increasing size. Living essentials, goods and services are delivered via the wing. Though the design exercise is clearly a fictional settlement, Loutrides suggests localised manufacturing as a key part of his project, with Made in Michigan as one of the subsections. In an era when global supply chains are subject to political change, reshoring manufacturing could help ensure jobs and security.

A good complementary mobility element for Loutrides’ city rings is Jensen Moock’s Trek Nexus, a robust-looking cycle that includes LiDAR sensors with haptic feedback for blind-spot awareness in traffic and integrated turn signals. Safety is the watchword, but Moock has also built storage into the pared-back frame. Less of a hypothesis, Moock’s proposal looks like a market-ready product.

The wider discussion around the purpose of higher education will likely always be subject to debate. 

Should it be a space for intellectual and creative experiments, or focused on producing oven-ready graduates who integrate seamlessly into the professional world? There is no binary answer to this question, no matter what your point of view. However, the more opportunities students have to speak to industry, the better.