Pforzheim Winter 2019/20 Degree Show
Masters’ projects from the February exhibition
Many a graduate of Hochschule Pforzheim has gone on to great things in the automotive industry, and when you visit their degree shows you begin to see why. The breadth and depth of ideas on display is always worth a closer look, so let’s give you just that, with a focus on Masters students. Projects range from a shape-shifting city car and a monorail pod with inbuilt scooters, to a transportation system for colonies of bees…
MA Thesis
Dong Yi
Mazda Koshi
Dong Yi’s Mazda-themed project (nicely topical, given their recent centenary) is two urban transport solutions in one. The jade pod in the middle, with its ribbon-like windows and pantograph doors, contains a space that has you sitting cross-legged on the floor playing checkers. The ‘Koshi’ can either operate as a Level-5 autonomous car, or the front and rear axles can separate and transform into scooters.
When this happens, the main body can be hoisted onto a suspended monorail system, or sit there as your own private space. The scooters can zip around being used by different people before being summoned to join back up to the main body and create a car again.
Jiaqi Wang
Jaguar ‘Jag-i’
Jiaqi Wang’s Jaguar took inspiration from the D-Type Le Mans racer of the 1950s – especially its distinctive offset dorsal fin behind the driver. The goal was to have the most minimal, compact form possible for a future sports car. However, to avoid it looking like a bar of soap, she added a down-pointed DRG at the front by cutting away at the front end and inserting simple lighting and cooling elements to give the look of a prowling big cat. At the rear, a short overhang is counterbalanced by a wing extending out behind to carry the taillights.
The cockpit is accessed by lifting a large section of the top body, whose shutlines are denoted by lines of perforations reminiscent of the riveted D-Type body. A narrow section allows a single driver to enter, or a wider section can appear for a passenger to come along for the ride.
MinJoo Kim
Rimac GT2027
This all-terrain Grand Tourer by MinJoo Kim centres around the relationship between sound and emotion. One key point of contention with car enthusiasts when it comes to EVs is the lack of any remotely tuneful noise – just a distant whirr from the motor/transmission or some cooling fans. The key concept of this GT car for 2027 stems from Kim’s observation that a music record, when viewed under a microscope, has contours and ridges very much like an off-road terrain. So, the high-riding Rimac you see here will be able to create sound from the surface like the needle of a record player.
JinYoung Yoon
Lexus AI concept
JinYoung Yoon did that rare thing in the world of AI mobility solutions, and looked outside the city. Even in a world of connected cities full of autonomous pods, the countryside and small rural towns will (hopefully) still exist, and the people there will still need to get around. This Lexus provides those people with private transportation (instead of relying on poor rural bus and rail services), which includes an AI assistant.
As well as sorting out your journey and performing infotainment duties, the AI – mounted and displaying at the front – will be able to provide companionship and emotional support to those with lonelier lives out in the countryside. The exterior design reflects this mixture of AI up front and the human sat in the back by starting off very sharp and technical at the front, before flowing into more organic forms at the rear wherein a ‘wraparound’ effect is achieved in three axes using different surfaces. In side view, the shape looks simple and almost architectural – until you spin it around and its complexity reveals itself.
Francesco Ercolani
Sii Studio _Code
The _Code electric supercar designed by Ercolani in collaboration with Sii Studio in Germany centres around its modular in-wheel motors, which can be swapped around and upgraded to suit different requirements and developments in technology – two-wheel-drive, four-wheel-drive, high or low performance. The exterior’s forms are clean, low, tense and compact, with the shortest possible overhangs at each end.
The main bodyside volume, which expands to hold the rear wheel arch, seems to shoot out from the air vent behind the front wheel, while the dome-like DRG appears to almost float, suppourted by sharkfins on either side. The rear is simple, blacked-out, and inspired by product design with the aim of achieving an “iconic” look.
The cabin and DLO mounted as far forward as possible – so far forward, in fact, that the glass reaches under the air duct on the nose to appear as a tongue-like graphic in the middle of the front bumper. The front half of the DLO lifts forward to provide interior access, while the rear half behind the sharkfins (which also mask a structural element) can slide back and down onto the rear deck to create a targa-style convertible roof arrangement.
Andrea Caffieri
Antitesi
Caffieri’s car combines manual and autonomous operation, and symbolises this by its aesthetic switching from low and glassy to large and private. Two occupants can sit up front in the former configuration, or slide back into an enclosed space during autonomous travel. The tall kammtail encompasses side-mounted luggage compartments which can also be accessed from within the car, opening up the opportunity to store things like food or large mobile devices which can then be to hand in AV mode without having to get out of the car.
The side profile is defined by a single curve joining low nose to high, tapering tail. The little aero fins trailing the rear wheels are a subtle nod to the Bertone-Alfa Romeo B.A.T cars of the 1950s.
