These days, like never before, Milan Design Week finds itself as a creative focal point for a number of different industries, not just furniture and interiors. The irresistible draw of pure, concentrated creativity – and the eyes, lenses and social media accounts of the world’s media and content creators – ensure that making a Milanese splash is a PR no-brainer, bolstering the connection between creativity and commerce in as direct a way as possible.

Activations varied wildly, from traditional car reveals through to immersive experiences, bespoke commissions and the welcome opportunity for car makers to spread their reach and showcase some real cultural clout. Big names were in evidence – Audi enlisted Zaha Hadid Architects and Mini continued its long-running partnership with Sir Paul Smith.

Chinese brands were also in evidence, including Nio with its firefly city car, and Lepas, which used Milan Design Week as the backdrop for its European launch of the forthcoming Lepas 6, a sister car to the Jaecoo 7.

Admittedly, some of these displays could have taken place anywhere, demonstrating how Milan Design Week has effectively become a handy waypoint on the international exhibition trail, bolstering the role of a traditional auto show with way more buzzy, creative surroundings and attendees. Other brands chose to dig deeper into the context, playing up the Italian connection and the city’s rich backdrop.

We’re biased, of course, but the real automotive stars of Milan Design Week 2026 were Wallpaper’s quartet of Fiat Topolinos (see our editors’ Milan blog for more, and Fiat’s small car-focused exhibition), resplendent in the liveries of our recently relaunched Wallpaper* Travel Guides. Aside from these delightful four-wheeled tchotchkes, read on to find out what else made mobility news this year in Milan.

Range Rover ‘Traces’

Range Rover’s Milan installation at Galleria Meravigli was a comprehensive assemblage of the art and craft component of the British manufacturer’s more luxurious offerings. Overseen by Storey Studio, the ‘Traces’ exhibition starred the newly released Bespoke Pearl of Tay edition Range Rover, alongside a selection of contemporary Scottish crafts curated by Bard, the Edinburgh store and gallery founded by James Stevens and our very own Hugo Macdonald.

Bard’s selection of sparkling, earthy and authentic crafts was billed under the heading ‘Memory and Material'. The pieces on display mirrored the attention to detail and materiality used in the Pearl of Tay car, a demonstration of Range Rover’s ability to move freely in the same rarefied circles traditionally occupied by Rolls-Royce and Bentley.

These were joined by two more galleries, or chapters, ‘Memory and Colour’ and ‘Memory and Motif’. The former incorporated a film and projection by Felipe Sanguinetti, reflected across a series of mirrors, to trace the inspiration and emotion behind colour choices (one of the big USPs for clients using Range Rover’s Bespoke service).

‘Memory and Motif’ featured works by four artists, Hvass & Hannibal, Lisa Rampilli, Petra Börner and Jules Julien, transformed into embroidered pieces by the Range Rover Bespoke Materiality. These were then presented in a series of champagne-gold mirrored vitrines, connected to the first chapter by a continuous soundscape composed by sound designers Father.

The final space, ‘Memory and Material’, culminated in the Pearl of Tay car, alongside the 14 objects chosen by Bard. With black gravel underfoot and a rippling installation above, the space was both geometric and nature-inspired. This is the second consecutive year Range Rover has gone big in Milan. ‘Traces’ also included a café space, furnished with icons from Gubi’s collection of contemporary design.

RangeRover.com, @RangeRover

‘Origin’ by Audi x Zaha Hadid Architects

Are we living in a post-pavilion age? Audi clearly thinks not, enlisting well-established pavilion-wielding provocateurs Zaha Hadid Architects to create its installation, the ‘Audi Origin Pavilion’. Described as a portal to the company’s new design era, ‘Origin by Audi x Zaha Hadid Architects’ marked the German manufacturer’s 13th year of participation at Milan Design Week and celebrated not just the introduction of a new design language but also the company’s debut in Formula 1.

The structure was a classic slice of ZHA parametric whimsy – the practice uses the pavilion form as a testbed for software, design and structure. Located in the courtyard of the former Archiepiscopal Seminary on Corso Venezia, ‘Origin’ was a silvery spaceship of a structure, flanked by the Audi R26 F1 car and the new Audi RS 5. The structure’s matte metallic skin was very ‘Audi’ in its referencing of industrial processes, cutting-edge materials and sober perfectionism.

Audi.com, @Audi

‘Mini: A Garden of Curiosity with Paul Smith’

Moving away its focus on urban and domestic design prototypes, Mini dived straight into its most warm and welcoming collaboration of recent years, a partnership with Paul Smith. The venue was a ‘Garden of Curiosity’, hosted in the grounds on the Palazzo Borromeo d’Adda.

Not just a welcome contemplative spot to duck into away from the Milan madness, the ‘Garden of Curiosity’ was a spot of British whimsy, with delectable design presented by way of Lewis Carroll, Gertrude Jekyll and impeccable tailoring.

The House of Mini on Via A Manzoni was built around the latest Paul Smith Edition of the evergreen city car. Colour was, of course, preeminent, with a dedicated Colour Theory Room inviting visitors to compose their own Smith-style panoply of stripes.

There was also a listening room, replete with recordings of Sir Paul’s thoughts on colour theory, both set among the verdant surroundings alongside a Mini Cooper Convertible Paul Smith Edition. In the main courtyard, the automotive display consisted of three cars, starting with the original Paul Smith 40th Anniversary Mini classic from 1998, the pared-back Mini Strip and another contemporary Paul Smith Edition.

Mini.co.uk, @Mini

PaulSmith.com, @PaulSmithDesign

Lexus ‘Space’

Another Milan stalwart, Lexus presented a clutch of installations, including its own ‘Space’ and ‘Discover Together’ presentations at Superstudio Più. The automotive centrepiece of ‘Space’ was the six-wheeled Lexus LS Concept, set before a 360-degree screen that animated the car and its sumptuous interior.

This cinematic experience was paired with a group exhibition under the banner ‘Discover Together’. Included was the ‘Visible Invisible’ tearoom by Kyotaro Hayashi and Yumi Kurotani, ‘Wearable Space’, a coat emblazoned with fibre optics shaped by Guardini Ciuffreda Studio and ‘A Moving Sanctuary’, Random Studio’s reimagining of the automotive space as a serene, relaxing retreat.

Working with its own design team, the company also exhibited ‘The Crafted Cosmos’, a precision piece of crafted woodwork overseen by Shingo Yamashita, the company’s wooden model craftsman.

On display in the same space was another concept, the LS Micro 1 personal mobility machine, and the Lexus Catamaran autonomous luxury yacht concept first shown at last year’s Japan Mobility Show.

DiscoverLexus.com, @DiscoverLexus

Kia Vision Meta Turismo

Kia’s installation involved a collaboration with Bcomp, a Swiss company working in renewable, bio-based fibre composite material. Bcomp has contributed its ampliTex material to the interior and exterior of the Kia Vision Meta Turismo concept car, on show for the first time in Europe as part of the ‘Resonance of Opposites’ exhibition in Milan.

The Vision Meta Turismo was originally unveiled as part of Kia's 80th anniversary celebrations last December, an all-electric GT Crossover with an airy, lounge-inspired cabin replete augmented-reality windscreen. The concept foreshadows the evolution of the company’s already very distinctive design language.

The work with Bcomp is part of Kia’s ongoing search for sustainably sourced materials that can work just as well on exterior forms as well as interiors, conforming to all necessary safety and strength requirements.

According to Bcomp’s Nicolas Samson, senior sales manager of automotive interior, the project ‘shows that natural fibre composites are not only a design statement, but also a realistic solution for both interior and exterior applications’.

Kia.com, @KiaUK

Bcomp.com, @BcompLtd

Škoda’s ‘Sculptural Space’

Working with Spanish architect designer Ricardo Orts of Ulises Studio, Škoda went all out on playfulness with an exhibition entitled ‘Ooooh, that’s EpiQ!’. Rather than channelling the spirit of 1970s British sex comedies, the theme was colour, form and family-friendly entertainment.

Cars on display included the new Epiq EV (in bold camouflage) alongside a soft-bodied counterpart, the Epiq Sculpt – modelling clay was one of the key stylistic themes. The entire courtyard of the Palazzo del Senato was filled with illuminated inflatable forms that spilled out through the colonnades to create space for meeting, coffee, talks and even yoga classes and a soft play area.

Škoda-Storyboard.com, Škoda.co.uk, @SkodaUK

Ulises.Studio, @Ulises.Studio

Pininfarina at ‘10 Years of Open-Air Motor Shows’

Two of the centrepieces on the ‘10 Years of Open-Air Motor Shows’ exhibition on Via Tortona came from the studios of Pininfarina SpA. The event, which celebrated a decade of Andrea Levy’s urban motor show format in Italy, featured the Battista Nino Farina from Pininfarina Automobili and the one-off Honda HP X, originally shown at the 1984 Turin Auto Show in 1984. Restored and updated by Pininfarina itself, the HP-X resurfaced in all its 1980s glory at the 2024 Monterey Car Week.

The show also featured a presentation on the new JAS Tensei project, one of many automotive commissions being undertaken by the Italian design consultancy.

Pininfarina.it, @Pininfarina_official

500 Spiaggina by Garage Italia Customs

Away from the ‘Ciao Futuro! show at Magna Pars’, another facet of the Fiat empire showcased its latest venture into restomod design. Founded by Fiat family scion Lapo Elkann, Garage Italia Customs ventures into uncharted creative territory, transforming the company’s compact models into bespoke objets d’art.

For 2026, Garage Italia is showcasing its Icon project series, which focuses on the classic Fiat 500. In the company’s hands, the original 500 becomes the all-electric 500 Spiaggina. Shown in Milan in the context of the immersive Urbano Mediterraneo installation, the Spiaggina was represented in two editions. The first was inspired by the pink walls of the Palazzo Avino hotel on the Amalfi Coast, a one-off EV completed with custom fabric Pergola roof by Mariaflora.

A second Spiaggina was out on the streets for the duration of Design Week to celebrate the work of Milanese creative consultancy 10 Corso Como. The logo-spotted bodywork evokes the organisation’s branding and HQ, with jacquard fabric interiors by Mariaflora. Finally, Garage Italia also showed a 500 Spiaggina with a livery that embodied the diversity and colour of Design Week, with a white striped exterior and an interior featuring red Bonacina rattan seats.

Garage-Italia.com, @GarageItalia

If you want an electric Mini there are plenty of off-the-shelf options. If you want a classic electric Mini, then the option pool gets somewhat shallower. A few years ago we sampled the fizzing delights of the DBA Mini eMastered from David Brown Automotive, which set a high bar for customisation and specification.

Now there’s a new player in town. Classic electrification specialists Everrati have announced their own take on the Electric Classic Mini, unveiled on Valentine’s Day, no less, to stir the emotions and perhaps prompt romantic types to get an order in ready for V-Day 2027.

Established in 2019, Everrati certainly have form in the world of classic electrics. The company will add sparks to the Range Rover Classic and Land Rover Defender, give the shock treatment to the iconic 1960s Mercedes-Benz SL and put the vroom into voltage courtesy of their electric Porsche 911 conversion.

The Electric Classic Mini downsizes things somewhat, but the take-away from the launch announcement is that customisation, bespoke trim and special requests are still very much the order of the day.

Perhaps giving a nod to Sir Paul Smith’s long association with the brand, Everrati say their Mini will be ‘inspired by British tailoring traditions, including the craftsmanship synonymous with Savile Row.'

To promote this bespoke process, Everrati have shown two complimentary custom schemes, a 'his and hers' approach that ties in with the Valentines theme. Clubhouse draws on the storied, patinated interiors of the UK’s private members club, combining oxblood red paint and navy overtones.

Serenity, on the hand, is a little bit more retro, with a softer, more textural approach to interior trim and a dusky pink exterior. These palettes are only a guide, however, and the company is keen to explore whatever approach customers come up with.

‘This Mini celebrates one of Britain’s most loved automotive icons,’ says the Oxfordshire-based team, led by founder Justin Lunny, ‘It honours everything that made the Mini legendary: its character, proportions, and charm.’ We look forward to taking the reborn classic for a spin.

More information at Everrati.com, @EverratiCars

Munich’s IAA Mobility Show is a different kind of motorshow, reflecting the industry’s general shift away from big-budget events that have fallen out of favour with the public. In addition to an IAA Summit for professionals and media, designed to entice big-name manufacturers alongside start-ups, commentators and industry-watchers from all aspects of mobility design, and the regular show stand arrangement, there’s also the IAA Open Space.

The last is an open event for the general public, scattered around the streets, stores and exhibition spaces in the heart of Munich and designed to put new ideas and fresh launches in front of the very people who’ll ultimately end up buying them. The bi-annual event started in 2021, grew more in 2023, and this time around, there were even more manufacturers involved, with major announcements made across the board.

Some of the concepts on show have already broken cover, including the Vauxhall Corsa GSE Vision Gran Turismo and the Audi Concept C, as well as a major activation by Cupra.

Read on to discover our selection of key reveals from the show.

BMW iX3

The home-ground advantage was played by all the German manufacturers. Munich is, after all, the home of BMW. To consolidate this status, BMW chose the IAA to launch its ‘Neue Klasse’ iX3, the first production version of a new design language that’s been previewed by a number of concept cars.

In the metal, this new all-electric mid-sized SUV impresses with its restraint, and the apparent about-face BMW is taking with its signature kidney grilles – once huge, now daintily proportioned. The interior pairs a central touchscreen with a slim, wide display set just beneath the windscreen. There’s more minimalism here as well, especially on the pared-back door trims. With a promised range of up to 500 miles, the iX3 will be one of the first true volume cars to do away with range anxiety altogether.

BMW.co.uk, @BMW

Volkswagen

VW also had a slew of major announcements up its sleeve, both for the main Volkswagen brand and for wider activity in the VW Group. In addition to cementing the existence of a compact ‘Electric Urban Car Family’, featuring distinct but related models from Volkswagen, Cupra, and Škoda, all priced from around €25,000, VW also doubled down on a new naming strategy.

Turns out that the ID. name plate will no longer be the only sign of a pure VW EV. As of 2026, what would have been the ID.2 will now be known as the ID.Polo, with ID.Golf to follow. The realisation that these classic model names, with their decades of history and loyal following, could simply be taken into the electric era seems like a no-brainer – the only surprise is that it took VW so long to realise.

The ID.Polo, along with its GTI sibling, were both shown at IAA – albeit still in camouflage – along with the ID.Cross concept, a compact urban SUV. Both slot into the Electric Urban Car Family announced above, alongside the Cupra Raval and Škoda’s Epiq.

VW also showed the newest version of the popular T-Roc, another compact SUV. Finally, there was the ID.Every1, a concept with the task of bringing VW back into the ultra-compact urban car category like classic older models such as the Lupo and the Up!.

Volkswagen.de, @Volkswagen

Porsche 911 Turbo S

Porsche presented its new flagship 911, the 911 Turbo S. A legendary name, this latest version of the evergreen sports car goes heavy on the tech. Power output is at record levels (711 PS), thanks in part to a T-Hybrid powertrain that incorporates two electric exhaust gas turbochargers. There’s also all-wheel drive and an EV-bothering 0-62mph sprint time of 2.5 seconds.

Like all 911s, the new Turbo S is designed to be easy to live with, combining that massive power with a spacious cabin, great sightlines and a colossal breadth of dynamic ability, from everyday use about town to the challenge of the track.

Porsche.com, @Porsche

Mercedes-Benz GLC

Another big reveal came from Mercedes, which countered BMW’s iX3 with the new version of its equivalent model, the GLC. The all-electric Mercedes-Benz GLC with EQ Technology (the car’s official name) also demonstrates a company rowing back from the idea of separate lines of ICE and EV cars. The first GLC was introduced back in 2015 and a decade has truly transformed the model.

Instead of its rather lumpy forebears, the newest GLC is relatively slim in profile for an SUV, with neat rear-light treatment. The big grille rather lets the ensemble down – no lessons learned from BMW’s vogue for shrinking front-end graphics. Inside, Mercedes is still wedded to vast displays with the latest iteration of the dash-devouring MBUX Hyperscreen.

The car’s operating system uses a so-called multi-agent approach, taking the best bits of AI from both Google and Microsoft. As a result, Mercedes claims that ‘for the customer, talking to the MBUX Virtual Assistant is like chatting with a friend – it can provide detailed responses and answer follow-up questions without the need to repeat context’.

Mercedes-Benz.de, @MercedesBenz

Avatr Vision Xpectra concept

There were also plenty of Chinese brands represented, marked a fresh wave of new metal intended to increase the country’s Western market share. New models from Leapmotor, Deepal, GAC and Dongfeng included the GS7 SUV, with its quirky animated headlights, the Aion UT, as well as the arrival of Dongfeng’s new Forthing sub-brand in Europe and the Huawei-owned Aito brand, which showed three new crossover models.

Our attention was grabbed by Avatr’s dramatic Vision Xpectra, a vast new concept created by this sub-brand from Changan Automobile to express what it calls ‘emotive luxury’.

As well as the sheer scale of the 5m-plus limousine, with its near fully-glazed upper body, there’s a wealth of technology crammed into the interior, much of which is controlled via a VPA (Virtual Personal Assistant), the latest must-have for modern cars. Shown alongside production models, including the Avatr 06, 07, 11 and 12, the Xpectra is a bold statement of intent.

Vision.Avatr.com

Polestar 5

Polestar finally revealed the production version of the long-awaited Polestar 5 at Munich. As the EV company gets closer and closer to completing its projected line-up, the arrival of the 5 marks the most premium Polestar yet, with the Performance model starting at £104,900 for the Launch Edition.

Based on the original 2020 Precept Concept, the Polestar 5 is described by the company as a ‘performance grand tourer’. The dual motor model should be good for around 400 miles of range, whilst the rapid Polestar 5 Performance is rated at 351 miles. At 5m in length, the Polestar 5 is limousine-sized, with rear space and accoutrements to match.

Polestar.com, @Polestarcars

Mini John Cooper Works concepts

Mini created a large-scale installation in the heart of Munich, complete with faux Tube station entrances and lots of lovely British clichés. When it came to cars, the BMW offshoot chose to present a collaboration with the lifestyle brand Deus Ex Machina, which resulted in two one-off John Cooper Works cars, dubbed The Machina and The Skeg.

Drawing influences from drag racing and surf culture, the two concepts are full-blooded race cars and have inspired a capsule collection from the brand. Asymmetric styling cues and liveries are coupled with spoilers and slick tyres, with one car celebrating EV power and the other traditional ICE.

Mini.de, Deuscustoms.eu

Renault Clio

The Clio is an important car for Renault, even though most of the company’s recent attention has focused on the 4 and the 5. The Clio was a mainstay for many years, and now the compact car is back, this time with a hybrid powertrain. The sixth generation of this popular small car is actually larger than ever before and shares several interior elements with the 4 and 5 models.

There’s little evidence of retro design here, however, with a more aggressive front-end styling. Despite the hybrid power, it’s still a light car by modern standards, and should be impressively economical as a result.

Renault.de, @Renault_de

Škoda Vision O

We see hints of the 1954 Chevrolet Corvette Nomad in Škoda’s brave Vision O estate car concept. At a time when the practical, elegant estate has been all but decimated by the SUV, the brand’s decision to double down and reinvigorate the segment is a welcome one.

Look beyond those very conceptual doors and you’ll see a finely proportioned wagon that combines Škoda’s playful but practical approach with a new design language, ‘Modern Solid’. The dashboard gets the two-screen set-up also seen in BMW’s iX3, with the upper level dubbed the ‘Škoda Horizon Display’, while there’s also a softer, more natural approach to interior materials and aesthetics, as well as ‘Bio-Adaptive Lighting’ that uses natural light cycles to keep occupants feeling fresh and alert.

As well as 650 litres of luggage capacity, the Vision O also debuts new ‘Simply Clever’ features, the little design add-ons that have come to define Škoda’s attention to detail. The signature door-stowed umbrella is present and correct (no fewer than four of them), and the car incorporates a fridge as well as a detachable Bluetooth speaker.

Also on display was the new Škoda Epiq, a conceptual preview of the company’s contribution to VW’s quartet of compact all-electric city cars. Like its siblings, the Epiq will hit the streets in 2026, largely unchanged from the car you see here.

With a low price, above average range for the sector (c.260 miles) and a spacious, functional interior, the Epiq will be the first production car to incorporate the Modern Solid design language and shows the brand hasn’t forgotten its functional, affordable roots.

Skoda-Auto.com, @Skodagram

Hyundai Concept Three

This is the Concept Three, a preview of the next and smallest car to bear Hyundai’s Ioniq sub-brand EV badge. Expected to reach production as the Ioniq 3, if you overlook the tinted windows, lemon-yellow interior and purple highlights, you’ll see the fundamental silhouette of the next-gen compact car.

The Three actually brought to mind the 2007 Hyundai HND-3 concept, which in turn reached production as the quirky and asymmetric Veloster in 2011. Both cars had an unusual door arrangement, something that’s carried through to this concept, with its coach rear door.

The concept demonstrates what Hyundai is calling its ‘Art of Steel’ design language, doubling down on the industrial conglomerate’s impressive ability with the material, along with the Parametric Pixel detailing seen across the rest of the Ioniq range. All European EVs were on display at IAA Mobility 2025, as well as the Insteroid concept first shown at Seoul in the Spring.

Hyundai.com, @Hyundai

Back in the heyday of swinging London, the world’s most famous people’s car found itself sparring with Italian exotica and luxury offerings from British brands like Rolls-Royce and Jaguar. Thanks to the work of Bill Wood and Les Pickett, the humble Mini was transformed into a pint-sized luxury conveyance.

Wood and Pickett had trained at Hoopers, a coachbuilder best known for its work with Bentley, but after setting up on their own in 1947, they wanted other outlets for elaborate interiors and exterior embellishments. In the 1960s, the duo decided to create a rival to Harold Radford’s Mini de Ville GT, a bespoke update of the beloved city car that had found favour with newly minted stars of stage and screen. Radford Minis were owned by Peter Sellers, George Best, Britt Ekland and all four Beatles, among others.

Wood and Pickett’s contender was known as the Margrave. The duo went all out on extras and accessories, including full Connolly leather and interior trim and uprated mechanicals. The Margrave was hand-built at their Park Royal factory alongside other conversions, including Rolls-Royces and, later, Range Rovers; fans would include Mick Jagger, Twiggy and Elton John.

Now it’s time for a revival. With the famous name now owned by British classic car stable Motaclan Limited, the first Wood and Pickett Mini for the new century arrives courtesy of designer Ian Callum and his consultancy. Commissioned by the model and longstanding automotive aficionado David Gandy, the Wood and Pickett x Callum Mini is based on a restored Mk5 Sportspack Mini. With an uprated engine producing 110bhp, alongside improved handling and new exterior parts, the new Mini has been customised inside and out.

‘I knew if I hung around Callum long enough then they’d have to build me something,’ says Gandy. ‘I’ve known Ian for a long time, since his days at Jaguar, and my dream has always been to work with him. We sit down and chat about cars, as you do.’ Why a Mini? ‘A lot of [restomod] cars have been done to death – the Porsche 911, Jensen Interceptor, Aston Martin, but people forget about the Mini,’ Gandy continues, adding that ‘everyone’s got a Mini story – what other car has been so iconic? It was designed for a family of four but also turned into a Monte Carlo rally-winning racing car.’

Admittedly, there have been other Mini restomods in recent years, notably those by David Brown Automotive, which also builds the electric Mini eMastered, but it's the revival of the W and P name that seals the deal.

‘I’ve had five or six Minis,’ Callum adds, explaining how he’s always loved to work on Sir Alec Issigonis’s classic design, a masterpiece of packaging and mechanical simplicity. The designer is keen to stress that this is no mere colour and trim job. ‘There are also some revised body elements,’ he explains. ‘We’ve tidied it up and added new lights front and rear.’ There’s also a subtle bodykit to accommodate the wider track. ‘It’s been a fun project,’ he concludes, ‘ultimately we hope to make it a commercial success.’

Gandy was the perfect first customer. He chose a rich Anthracite metal finish (‘Steve McQueen had a bronze Mini Cooper,’ he notes), complete with centre stripe, alongside custom wheels and a new dashboard, and the car is certainly worthy of the Wood and Pickett name. ‘Perhaps people wouldn’t expect Callum to do a car like this,’ Gandy muses, ‘but we’re having a bit of fun with it. Cars aren’t fun anymore – they’re a bit mundane and forgettable. This has a very analogue way of driving. In a Mini, you really can have fun at 50mph.’

‘Part of the Mini’s charm is its size,’ adds Callum, ‘it is what it is, and you design around it. It was almost second nature to do what we did with the form. Hopefully we’ll continue to work with people who have personality and individuality,’ he continues, explaining how future W and P Minis will follow a highly bespoke path.

‘It’s been like having a suit made,’ Gandy says, ‘I’m 6ft 3in and the car has been tailored to my exact size. There isn’t an enthusiast in the world who wouldn’t want to work with Ian.’

‘The world needs a little texture these days,’ Callum admits. ‘I’m confident Wood and Pickett will appeal.’ Based in Warwick, UK, Callum was founded in 2019 as a design consultancy and full-service engineering business, capable of crafting its own bespoke products, which span from a reimagined Eames lounger to the upcoming Callum Skye EV.

A limited run of Wood and Pickett Minis will be hand-built over the next few months, with prices starting at £75,000.

For more details, visit CallumDesigns.com, @Callum_Designs

WoodandPickett.com, @WoodandPickett

In partnership with Mini

When Mini launched the newest generation of its iconic Cooper model, it also undertook a radical audit of its approach to interior design. As for any carmaker, the art of developing new colour and material schemes exists as an independent discipline within the Mini Design Studio. Over the past few years, Mini has not only developed new patterns, colours, and micro design details, but encouraged external collaborators to explore ways in which the signature Mini elements can be reimagined for a changing age.

The new Cooper is a case in point. With a more minimal approach to the interior architecture of the car, the scene was set for the design department to use materials and textures in a more structural and dynamic way. Enthusiasts will note there’s a new and more holistic Mini design language at play, inside and out.

With simplified bodywork and more graphic lights reiterating Mini’s playful character and scale, the interior has been stripped back in homage to the original 1960s car, with the world’s first circular OLED screen as its centrepiece.

To supplement this simplified approach, the emphasis has been placed on giving the upper dashboard surfaces, seats and door trims a more visual and tactile quality. Colour, too, plays a vital role. ‘We wanted to use colours that respect the heritage of the brand and at the same time create a fresh, contemporary aesthetic,’ explains Jeanette Ohlhäuser, colour designer at the Mini Design Studio. One signature colour for the new look is ‘Dark Petrol’, found inside the new all-electric Mini Aceman. It has an obvious antecedent in the British Racing Green livery that once adorned Mini’s rally-winning Coopers in the 1960s, but in the modern era the new hue also gives off a high-tech, contemporary approach.

Textures are also important. The Aceman’s ‘Favoured Trim’ brings together a number of new visual references, with a two-tone knitted textile on the dashboard and door trim that combines Petrol with an orange pattern, as well as sport seats made from perforated vegan leather with accented stitching. Another new exterior colour, ‘Rebel Red’, is designed as a dynamic paint surface, with different lighting conditions revealing shifting shades of red and orange.

Achieving these combination finishes has required new processes and techniques. Mini’s team developed a 2D weaving process incorporating recycled polyester fibre to create the sense of depth and warmth in the dashboard trim material. ‘This process allows us to create unique dual-colour designs that bring a special aesthetic and atmosphere to the interior,’ says Elena Schwörer, Mini’s textiles designer. ‘Woven materials are not only visually appealing, but they also offer a much more attractive tactile experience.’ Schwörer points out the 3D effect achieved with a lower layer of contrasting colour, which subtly shines through the upper.

Inspiration here has come from all around, notably the worlds of fashion and sneaker design. Screens and switchgear might be simplified, but the new processes furnish the new Mini with visual richness, giving the interior a unique depth and feel.

Other innovations can be found in the John Cooper Works trim. This performance variant includes headrests with specially 2D woven surfaces that extend into the shoulder areas. A new ‘Vibrant Silver’ accent colour has been used to off-set the contrasting stitching on the sports steering wheel. Practically no surface is overlooked – even the interior plastics are given a subtle but distinctive grain.

‘It is important to us that the texture of the surfaces harmonises perfectly with the other materials, such as the woven fabric in the interior,’ says Marlies Michel, the designer responsible for this surface ‘graining’. ‘The blueprints for the various surface textures used in the new Mini model family are based on influences that the design team draws from nature and science,’ Michel continues. ‘It could be the grain on wood or rock, for example – but it could just as easily be a satellite photo of the Earth, where geographic features become graphic elements, providing us with inspiration for new grain patterns and structures.’

By drawing inspiration from technology, fashion, art, architecture and even contemporary furniture, Mini’s interiors team have built a new aesthetic portfolio for Cooper and Aceman. This new aesthetic has become an integral part of the Mini experience, showing how many small individual elements come together to shape a harmonious, modern and high-quality whole. It’s a smart equation that matches the genius of Mini’s engineering package and exterior design. As the brand puts it, colour and material design = more character + more modernity. And ultimately, more Mini.

mini.com

The focus here is on both hybrids and EVs, despite the latter getting something of a rough ride in an increasingly partisan media landscape. Although it’s true that hybrid drive still makes the most sense for high mileage users, it’s worrying that some carmakers have seized on political hesitancy over electric vehicles with undisguised glee. That said, there are still plenty of new and upgraded EVs to get excited about, and even a few companies dipping a toe in hybridisation and electrification for the first time. Here’s our selection of what to watch for in the months ahead.

Audi Q6 e-tron

Audi still favours EVs that are at the larger end of the scale, and the new Q6 e-tron and performance-focused SQ6 e-tron models are no exception. Notable because they sit on the company’s new Premium Platform Electric (PPE) – which it shares with Porsche – the new Q6 has a longer range and much more intensive ‘digital experience’ for drivers and passengers.

Maximum range is billed as 381 miles, with the SQ6 model offering a 4.3 second 0-62 mph time (although physics dictates that these two stats cannot co-exist). Inside, the cockpit reads as a ‘Digital Stage’, helped by the addition of a new passenger screen and a curved driver display screen. There’s also an optional Augmented Reality Head-Up Display and Bang & Olufsen sound system. 

Audi Q6 e-tron quattro, available to order from €74,700, Audi  SQ6 e-tron, from €93,800, Audi.com

Porsche Panamera e-hybrid

Porsche is having a very busy year. Alongside this revision and the updated Taycan, there’s also the new all-electric Macan and the promise of the first ever hybrid 911 model to come. The Panamera range has now been joined by new 4 E-Hybrid and 4S E-Hybrid variants.

These pair petrol engines with an updated plug-in hybrid system, with an all-electric range of nearly 60 miles and the ability to charge the battery using the engine (an option sorely missing from many other PHEVs). A spacious, comfortable interior make this one of the great contemporary GT cars. 

Porsche Panamera 4 E-Hybrid and Panamera 4S E-Hybrid, available to order, Porsche.com

Porsche Taycan Mk2

Porsche has given its first fully-fledged EV a mid-life makeover, adding more range and refinement to all models, including the Taycan Sport Turismo and the Taycan 4 Cross Turismo. Upgrades include new headlights and revised front and rear styling, more advanced efficiency measures, adaptive air suspension across every model and even more performance.

All this is overshadowed by an impressive range increase of up to 35%, giving the longest-legged model a range of 421 miles, and making an already excellent car even better. 

Porsche Taycan, available to order, Porsche.com

Lamborghini Urus SE 

The newly announced Lamborghini Urus SE is the first hybrid version of the brand’s SUV. Following on from the hybrid-powered Revuelto (dubbed an HPEV - High Performance Electrified Vehicle – by the company), the Urus SE lays claim to a massive 80% reduction in emissions.

That’s not too hard to believe, given how the ferocity and volume of the standard V8-powered model gave the impression of necking fuel even when it was at a standstill. Nevertheless, the addition of an electric motor hasn’t dimmed the Urus’s power or performance, but there’s now the welcome option of a silent EV driving mode that won’t wake the neighbours. 

Lamborghini Urus SE, available soon, Lamborghini.com

Citroën C4 X Hybrid

Alongside the Citroën ë-C4 X EV, you’ll now find the new C4 and C4 X Hybrid 136. This isn’t as retrograde a step as it first appears, for the ë-C4 X disappointed with its middling range. As conventional, non-plug-in hybrids, the new models combine a 1.2-litre PureTech petrol engine with a battery, reducing overall emissions and allowing for all-electric driving when the occasion demands. 

Citroën C4 X Hybrid 136, from €33,900, Citroën.fr

Cupra Born VZ

The new Cupra Born VZ is the sporting variant of the Spanish manufacturer’s excellent compact EV. Designed in line with Cupra’s intention of becoming the sporty, emotional flipside of its sister brand SEAT, the VZ is mildly tweaked for better acceleration and top speed, as well as a revised handling package. There are also sports seats, larger wheels and a new range of exterior colours.

Cupra Born VZ, more details at CupraOfficial.com

Mini Aceman

Mini’s product range is growing with the introduction of the new Mini Aceman, an all-electric crossover that is bigger than the evergreen Mini Cooper but somewhat smaller than the Countryman model.

The styling is chunkier than the former, especially the wheelarches, although elsewhere it follows the company’s new pared-back design language inside and out. The cheaper E model is joined by the longer-range SE (with a still rather meagre 54.2 kWh battery), which should be good for 252 miles. 

MINI Aceman, from £31,800, Mini.co.uk

Ineos Fusilier

The Ineos Fusilier is the all-electric variant of the eccentric but durable Ineos Grenadier, the car that scraped up the last remaining DNA of Land Rover’s original Defender and turned into a cult but costly 4x4. Starting from the same utility-inspired automotive design, the Fusilier actually sits on its own EV platform and is a bit shorter and lower than its petrol- or diesel-powered sibling. 

With a choice of a pure EV or a range extender model (with a small petrol engine that only functions as a generator for the batteries), the Fusilier will make a striking alternative to the status quo. However, it'll have to go head-to-head with Mercedes’ newly launched electric G-Wagon, the G580.  

Ineos Fusilier, register for more interest at IneosGrenadier.com

Škoda Epiq

Finally, a preview of a car coming early in 2025. Škoda describes its forthcoming Epiq as ’a battery-electric city SUV crossover,’ all part of parent company Volkswagen’s ongoing quest to create a compact, desirable and profitable c€25,000 EV. The Epiq is clad in Škoda’s Modern Solid design language, measures just over 4m long and should have a range of around 250 miles.

Note that in the electric era, a ’people’s car’ can no longer be a compact hatchback, but instead an ’urban’ SUV – such are the tricky economics of making small cars profitable. 

Škoda Epiq, more details at Skoda-Auto.com

This round-up of 24 transportation design innovations for 2024 is driven by curiosity rather than any attempt to be comprehensive. The following machines – whether wheeled, winged or just seats or buildings – are all dedicated to making mobility just a little bit easier, more elegant and, hopefully, more efficient. Some are practically in the bag, while others may be subject to slight delays. Read on to discover some of the many ways we’re hoping to get around this year.

Transportation design innovations to expect this year

Lotus Emeya

Lotus’ Eletre SUV was a hugely credible start to the company’s latest revival. 2024 will see the launch of the Lotus Emeya, a four-door sports EV that’s aimed squarely at the current market leader the Porsche Taycan. Sharper styling, innovative tech and graphics and sharp handling are all promised. 

LotusCars.com

Porsche Panamera 

The latest version of Porsche’s mighty Panamera amps up the electrical content for more range and performance, all the while refining the design of the company’s original four-door sporting GT. The outgoing generation was one of our favourite fast four-doors, and the new model looks set to exceed it in every respect. 

Porsche.com

Volkswagen ID.7

Another big saloon, albeit cut from a slightly less sporting mould, Volkswagen ID.7 is the latest model in its all-electric line-up. With a projected range of around 384 miles, the ID.7 is set to be one of the longest-legged EVs to debut this year. 

Volkswagen.co.uk

BMW i5 Touring

BMW’s i5 Touring is the first application of electrification to the company’s traditionally styled estate cars. While estates have been overlooked for too long in favour of SUVs, there’s also an EV estate on the way from Audi, signalling a slight but significant shift in the scale of aspirational cars. 

BMW.co.uk

Hyundai Ioniq 7

Previewed by the Ioniq Concept ‘Seven’ from 2021 (shown here), the forthcoming Ioniq 7 is pitched as the Korean company’s flagship SUV model. Closely related to Kia’s EV9, the Ioniq 7 will be spacious and flexible, as well as distinctively designed.  

Hyundai.co.uk

Cupra Tavascan

Cupra is ploughing ahead with its conversion to a pure EV company. Next up is the Tavascan, a fast-back compact SUV that’s the most coherent representation to date of the Spanish company’s strangely gothic form language. 

CupraOfficial.co.uk

MG Cyberster

As the first electric convertible sportscar to market, the Cyberster is going to attract a lot of attention. Considerably larger than the compact MGs of old, the Chinese-owned brand is still hoping to capture some of their original magic. 

MG.co.uk

Polestar 4

Polestar previews its products well ahead of time, so the shape and style of the 4 is no surprise. Following on from the Polestar 3, an SUV, the Polestar 4 is an SUV coupé, a crucial stylistic distinction that gives this car an elegant silhouette. 

Polestar.com

Volvo EX90

Also incoming from Sweden is the new Volvo EX90, a seven-seater SUV that looks set to embody all the archetypal Volvo qualities – safety, practicality, steadfast style – in an all-electric package.  

VolvoCars.com

Fiat 600e

The upcoming Fiat 600e is much more than an upscaled 500e. Sharing a platform with Jeep’s accomplished Avenger, this modestly sized EV uses Fiat’s friendly design DNA for a more practical everyday proposition. 

Fiat.co.uk

Citroën ë-C3

Billed as the first ‘affordable European electric car’, the Citroën ë-C3 channels the spirit of its stripped-down Ami microcar and Oli concept. With an upright stance, simplified visual language and sub €25k price, the company is positioning this as a 2CV for the 21st century. 

Citroen.co.uk

New Mini EVs

The electrification of Mini gathers pace in 2024 with electric versions of the Mini Countryman and Cooper on the way, along with the Aceman crossover SUV. 

Mini.co.uk

Volocopter Air Taxi

While all the four-wheeled debuts are signposted way in advance, innovations in aerial transport rarely commit to fixed timescales. Air taxi start-up Volocopter has vouched to have a service up and running for this summer's Paris Olympics; will this prove over-ambitious? 

Volocopter.com

CityAirbus NextGen

Airbus Industry’s CityAirbus NextGen is still very much a prototype machine, but 2024 should see this all-electric, four-seater eVTOL aircraft take its first flight. The eVTOL market is crowded with concepts but the backing of Europe’s largest aeronautics company makes this one to watch. 

Airbus.com

Wisk Aero

US air taxi developer Wisk Aero is assembling the production prototype of its sixth-generation aircraft in California with a view to flying the fully autonomous four-seater craft sometime this year. Wisk’s strategy of skipping human pilots altogether is markedly different from potential competitors. 

Wisk.aero

Hill Helicopters HX50

Compared to the futuristic forms proposed by the eVTOL companies, Hill Helicopters is somewhat conventional. Building a traditional rotorcraft from scratch is still a tall order, and the UK-based is focusing on first-time buyers with its sleekly designed five-seater.

HillHelicopters.com

Passenger Terminal, Mumbai

Also coming online late this year are the passenger terminals and control tower at Mumbai’s new D.B. Patil International Airport. Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects in the firm’s characteristic expressive modernist style, the pavilion-like terminals will be surrounded by lakes and feature voluminous curved roofs. 

NMIAirport.co.in

LAX APM System

Although mass transit and the United States go together like oil and water, Los Angeles Airport has made an effort with its new automated people mover (APM) system. Linking LAX’s terminals with transport nodes outside the airport itself is a start, but in a country where Disney World’s monorail system is allegedly the 9th largest mass transit system, don’t expect any Elizabeth Line-style grand gestures.

LAWA.org

Lufthansa Allegris seating

Lufthansa passengers will finally get an uplift in every class in 2024, as the company rolls out its long-awaited new Allegris seating systems. First and Business Class customers flying the airline’s newest A350 and 787 will get the upgrade this summer. 

Lufthansa.com

Air New Zealand Skynest

Air New Zealand runs some of the longest-haul routes in the world. To make the journey fly by, the company is rolling out its innovative Skynest bunks for passengers flying to New York and Chicago, both 15-plus-hour routes. The pod-like system, designed by Kate Cameron-Donald and Zoe Wenn, offers six bunks that can be pre-booked for a chunk of in-flight sleep.

AirNewZealand.com

Frauscher x Porsche 850 Fantom Air

We’ve already previewed the sleek Frauscher x Porsche 850 Fantom Air electric speedboat, a collaboration between the sports car maker and the historic Austrian boatbuilder. This year will see first customer deliveries of this super watercraft. 

FrauscherxPorsche.com

Blue Innovations Group R30

Another electric boat to watch out for is BIG’s R30. A 30ft cabin cruiser, the R30 is designed for the big time, pitched at pleasure boat users seeking a multifunctional vessel with zero emissions, with a flexible interior and deck configuration. On-board solar helps top up the battery. 

BlueInnovationGroup.com

BMW Motorrad CE 02

Following on from the launch of the CE 04, BMW Motorrad is branching out with another electric scooter, the CE 02. With a chunkier, more stripped-back style, this is a bike aimed at riders of every ability. 

BMW-Motorrad.co.uk

Stilride 1

Stilride’s debut electric scooter is diametrically different in style to BMW’s offering, with an expressive body formed from origami-inspired bent steel. The Swedish company says the Stilride 1 will get around 120km of range, while its clever construction saves material, waste and labour. 

Stilride.com

This was the year that EVs went thoroughly mainstream, even as political dithering dented the emphasis on the urgency of the need to switch from ICE. There were still a few notable novelties in the latter sphere, perhaps buoyed by mixed official messaging and the belief that fossil fuels somehow deserved a future in the hands of the well-heeled. Whilst we thoroughly enjoyed the latest from Ferrari, Maserati, and Aston Martin, there’s an undeniable feeling of an era drawing to a close. Will the old guard manage to rewrite the rule book, or will new brands without the heavy drag of heritage be able to get ahead? Peruse our picks of 2023 (in no particular order)…

Top 10 cars of 2023

01. Audi e-tron GT

We loved Audi’s e-tron GT, a handsome grand tourer that shows that premium electric cars need not be about over-powered hypercars or hefty SUVs. Expect a face-lifted and lightly upgraded version of the GT to break cover in 2024 – we’re looking forward to it. 

READ MORE 

02. Hyundai Ioniq 6

Hyundai kept up its current winning streak with the sleek Ioniq 6, a streamlined electric saloon that showed that design could be bold and different without alienating anyone. 

READ MORE

03. Volkswagen ID.Buzz

VW has a hit on its hands with the ID.Buzz, a flexible MPV that’s equally at home as a car or a commercial vehicle. The high-riding driving position and acres of space recall the original VW Combi and 2024 should see 7-seater and campervan variants arrive.

READ MORE

04. Rolls-Royce Spectre

Rolls-Royce spoiled us with the all-electric Spectre, a mighty achievement that goes straight to the top of the luxury wish-list. Serene, majestic yet also sprightly and long-legged, the vast coupé epitomises the company’s long-held ethos.  

READ MORE 

05. Lotus Eletre

The Lotus Eletre follows the familiar playbook for all-new electric auto brands; start with a sizeable SUV and eventually downscale. Only Lotus is no start-up. The Eletre might not demonstrate the venerable sports car maker’s historic passion for lightness, but it’s a truly convincing piece of kit. Next year sees the arrival of the new Emeya electric saloon.

READ MORE

06. Ferrari Roma Spider

Ferrari threw open the roads of Sardinia for the launch of its beautiful Roma Spider, reasoning that the media would look most kindly on the car if it was in its natural environment. It succeeded; in the right location, the Spider encapsulates la dolce vita.

READ MORE

07. Aston Martin DB12

Something of a glorious anachronism, the DB12 is the automotive equivalent of a long-running film franchise that manages to stay fresh and relevant with each release. Essentially an uprated and restyled DB11, the DB12 retains the essential elements of beauty and brawn, only now it’s a little more user friendly. 

READ MORE

08. Maserati MC20

The MC20 was a mild surprise for long-time followers of Italian manufacturer Maserati. Just when it seemed the company had sacrificed over a century of history on the altar of the dreaded SUV, it came out with this magnificent mid-engined supercar. Old-school cool in all the right ways. 2024 marks Maserati’s 110th birthday, so expect some kind of four-wheeled celebration. 

READ MORE

09. Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale

Another modern Italian masterpiece, the 33 Stradale is a strictly limited-edition hypercar. Unveiled back in August, it pointed to a mini design renaissance for the firm, once the unrivalled masters of making beautiful cars at every price point. If just 10 per cent of the 33 Stradale’s good looks make it into the next all-electric generation of Alfa road cars, the company’s future looks bright.

READ MORE

10. David Brown Automotive Mini eMastered

Finally, a leftfield choice that merges truly iconic design with up-to-the-minute technology. DBA’s Mini eMastered is both strikingly brilliant and fantastically expensive. The ultimate luxury city car?  

READ MORE

Sitting eye level with the top of the wheel arch of a new Land Rover Defender is a good place to contemplate the wants and needs of urban transport. No one really needs a Defender, however good it is to drive and sit in, but such are the demands of image and lifestyle that JLR’s heritage-inspired machine has become a de facto city cruiser. 

At the other end of the scale are dedicated micro EVs like the ARK Zero, the Citroën Ami and its even more stylish sibling, the forthcoming Fiat Topolino, as well as a whole host of diminutive designs en route from the Far East. However, as the modern automotive landscape attests, microcars don’t really work at micro prices; SUVs are where all the profits are.  

So spare a kind thought for those enthusiasts who support the electric restomod community. This is still a niche within a niche, one that requires deep pockets and the occasional compromise, but the idea of keeping classic cars on the road without any untoward emissions is a noble one. 

Mini eMastered by David Brown Automotive

David Brown Automotive’s new Mini eMastered is a case in point. An electric conversion of the classic-era Issigonis-designed Morris Mini, it builds upon the British company’s experience with ‘remastering’ the conventionally powered original Mini but adds a bespoke electric powertrain on top of the highly desirable and finely finished interior and exterior. 

Each eMastered sold will be as meticulously specified as a Rolls-Royce (bringing to mind the Radford Mini de Ville built to order back in the 1960s for the likes of actor Peter Sellers). The demonstration model looks magnificent in tan leather with cream bodywork, wheels and a tan roof. Uprated equipment includes air conditioning, a satnav, electric windows, a punchy stereo system and finely machined metal switchgear. 

It's a shame to lose the distinctive circular display at the centre of the dashboard, but everything else about the Mini eMastered captures the spirit of the original. At just over 3m long, it’s a full metre shorter than a Smart car and can seat at least two more people. 

Pocket-size scale is the Mini’s most obvious benefit; it is still a superb city car and mixes the zip of electric power with tightly geared steering and excellent all-round visibility. See a gap in the traffic or a parking space that’s been overlooked by the aforementioned Defender, and you’re in there. Spinning up from south London, through the West End, around Hyde Park Corner and back down Park Lane, the eMastered feels in its element.

Although fellow drivers and pedestrians might be physically talking down to you, the eMastered received universal acclaim from all who drew up alongside it; the original Mini carries a bushel of positive cultural cachet and most likely always will. 

This cachet comes with a catch, naturally. With prices starting at around £125,000, this is never going to be a democratic means of transport. You could conceivably buy the top-of-the-line Defender 130 V8 and still have plenty left over for a conscience-salving second-hand Mini Mayfair from the likes of Car and Classic. For those who can indulge, their money will bring more communal joy than any SUV will ever manage.

Mini eMastered by David Brown Automotive starts at £125,000, DavidBrownAutomotive.com

Car companies are in the business of mobility. Increasingly, that means acknowledging transport solutions that go beyond cars. On the cusp of its reinvention as a primarily electrified car maker (see its recent electric Mini reveals), Mini is also venturing into two-wheeled territory with a new collaboration with Angell Mobility. 

Mini E-Bike 1, a two-wheeled adventure

This is the E-Bike 1, the first fruits of that partnership. Angell Mobility was founded by Marc Simoncini in 2018 and builds a smart e-bike shaped by the French industrial designer Ora Ïto. This light, elegant model has now been given the Mini treatment, in close collaboration with Oliver Heilmer, Mini head of design. 

The idea is to bring Mini’s verve and spirit to the e-bike industry, using Angell’s ultra-light aluminium frame as a basis for two striking limited-edition colourways. ‘With the introduction of the Mini E-Bike 1, we’re expanding our impact in transportation while staying true to our roots,’ says Sebastian Beuchel, head of Brand Management at Mini. ‘This collaboration underlines our commitment to sustainable, inventive mobility.’ 

Billed as the first of a series of mobility products, just 1959 examples of each specification will be made (a nod to the birth year of the original BMC Mini). 

With a maximum weight of just 17.5kg, the Mini E-Bike 1 has a range of up to 65km, although that drops to 35km if you’re using the dedicated ‘Fast mode’. Enhancements include integrated mud- and chain-guard, as well as a leather-free saddle made by Brooks England. There’s also in-built satellite tracking for security reasons, and an integrated digital cockpit with navigation. 

‘At Angell Mobility we’re fortunate to have Mini as a partner with whom we can think boldly about changing mobility,’ says Angell’s CEO, John Mollanger. ‘We are proud of the Mini E-Bike 1 and believe it is an honest translation of the impeccable Mini signature, complementing the way Mini consumers move in urban environments.’

For now, the E-Bike 1 is very much a luxury accessory (available at Paris’s Le Printemps and Berlin’s KaDeWe, for example); perhaps a more mass-market option will follow. 

Angell Mobility x Mini E-Bike 1, available in Elegant Vibrant Silver or Ocean Wave Green S in two frame sizes, M and S, €3,490, Mini-ebikes.com

The BMW-era Mini is many things, but it was never actually all that small. With cars creeping up in size over the decades – blame safety, security, self-consciousness or even battery sizes, or a combination of all four – the original ‘new’ Mini from 2000 slotted in nicely to what was by then considered the compact city car class. 

That original is now revealed in its fifth generation, seen here ahead of the 2023 IAA International Motor Show in Munich, alongside the third generation of the larger, more SUV-like Mini Countryman. Both cars are available in all-electric versions – the first time for the Countryman – and feature a more pared-back, straightforward design language. 

New Minis go electric and minimalist

This, what Mini calls ‘Charismatic Simplicity’, effectively re-sets three generations of creeping distortion of the original Mini simplicity, smoothing off surfaces and better integrating elements like the rear lights into the four-square, planted stance of the car.

It's tempting to see the influence of Paul Smith’s one-off minimalist Mini Electric on this pair of all-new models, particularly in the way materials and surfaces are rendered with less fuss and more emphasis on an overall minimal look.

The new Cooper, shown here in two-door high-spec SE trim, is particularly effective. Both models have an interior dominated by a 24cm circular touch-screen information display, the ultimate evolution of the original Issigonis Mini’s central speedometer.

Other bold elements include the abstracted houndstooth dash pattern and the new Mini Operating System 9, which includes an ‘intelligent personal assistant’, and the ability to select seven different driving modes, Core, Green, Go-Kart, Personal, Vibrant, Timeless and Balance. 

The Countryman has grown larger still, and shares the tech upgrades of its smaller sibling, along with integrated semi-automated Level 2 driving and sophisticated self-parking capabilities. While both models will be available with traditional combustion, Mini is pushing the EVs’ capabilities. The Countryman will get around 287 miles of range, whilst the smaller Cooper gets 190 miles in ‘E’ trim and 250 miles in ‘SE’, both substantial improvements over the current Mini Electric’s 145 mile range.

Both cars will hit the market next year, when we’ll explore what they’re like to live with. 

MINI Cooper Electric, from £30,000, available spring 2024

MINI Countryman, from £28,500, available February 2024

Mini.co.uk

David Brown Automotive has acquired a reputation for an unconventional approach to automotive classics. The company, started by the eponymous businessman in 2013, has two key product lines. The first is the Speedback GT, an upgraded and radically rebodied Jaguar that draws not-so-subtle inspiration from classic cars once built by Brown’s namesake in the 1960s. The second is the Mini Remastered, which takes the Alec Issigonis icon and gives it a thoroughly modern makeover. 

Coronation-edition Mini Remastered, at Linley

This special edition of the Mini Remastered has been created to celebrate King Charles III’s coronation. Presented here in the Belgravia showroom of bespoke furniture maker Linley, it marks another point of contact between the Royal family and this evergreen machine. 

The original Mini swiftly became a stalwart symbol of British culture, with high-profile appearances in films like The Italian Job and special editions by Sir Paul Smith and the late Mary Quant only adding to a friendly flag-waving image that didn’t have a jot of jingoism. 

David Linley, aka the 2nd Earl of Snowdon, is also well aware of the Mini’s legacy. His parents, Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon, and Princess Margaret, were frequently pictured in their own Cooper model back in the 1960s, helping the little car spread its social net far and wide. 

Linley’s team hasn’t actually had any hand in this particular Remastered edition, which uses DBA’s in-house team of craftspeople to uprate the interior, replete with sandalwood leather and tan stitching, as well as new instrumentation and equipment. The exterior falls back on that classic Mini trope – the Union Jack roof emblem – along with British racing-green paintwork and white wheels. 

Could this lead to a future collaboration? Up until now, the Linley touch has been seen on a special edition Bentley, as well as discreet consultancy work with Aston Martin Lagonda. A Linley Mini would continue a pocket-sized coachbuilding tradition that dates back almost as far as the original 1959 car and add the ultimate regal touch.  

DavidBrownAutomotive.com, DavidLinley.com

Sir Paul Smith’s association with Mini goes way back. His most recent collaboration – a conceptual version of the new electric Mini, the Mini Strip – was revealed in 2021 and immediately hailed for its combination of minimal trim and enduring materials. Back in 1998, the Mini Paul Smith Edition, a limited edition of 1,800 vehicles, added pinstripe chic to the original Sir Alec Issigonis-designed Mini. 

Now the designer has collaborated once more with Oliver Heilmer, head of Mini Design, to create the Mini Recharged, an upcycled original 1998 Mini that’s been given the electrification treatment.

Revealed at Salone Del Mobile 2022, the Mini Recharged hasn’t just been rewired from scratch; it also incorporates colours, materials, and trim that reflect a truly sustainable approach. Smith describes the car as a combination of ‘quality, sustainability and functionality,’ and it’s easy to be seduced by this stripped-back version of one of the most enduring designs of all time. 

Stabs of bright colour are a perennial Smith signature, and the Mini Recharge doesn’t disappoint, with orange seatbelts, a yellow dashboard shelf, and a lime-green battery box in the boot. The Recharged’s bodywork is finished in a bright blue colour originally inspired by one of the designer’s favourite shirts.

There are still plenty of classic Minis on the roads and the cars retain a strong cult following. Launched in 1959 as the ultimate compact car for a family of modest means at a time of the first oil shock of the modern era after the Suez Crisis, it was economical and cheap to run (if not to actually build).

Engineer Issigonis used a pioneering engine layout to maximise space; 80 per cent of the car’s volume was devoted to passengers and luggage. At 3.05m long, a classic Mini is barely bigger than a contemporary Smart car, yet could seat five. 

Swapping out the original engine for electric motors and a battery pack was a substantial operation.

New Mini partner Recharged Heritage Limited, a small company based in Lancashire, was responsible for the engineering, installing a 72-kilowatt electric motor to turn the car into a zero-emissions machine. 

Changes are subtle but striking. ‘When you move into your old aunt's flat, out of respect you don't change everything, but you do some modernising,’ says Smith, and his interior changes reflect this ethos.

For a start, there’s a distinct absence of interior trim – just as with the Mini Strip – helping reduce weight and creating a uniquely utilitarian finish. The bare metal footwells are covered with recycled rubber floor mats, while the instrument panel is just as stark as Mini’s original, with the round centre-mounted speedo complemented by a smartphone mounting. The gear selector, switch gear, column stalks and windscreen winders are all machined aluminium; and the steering wheel itself is removable, just like on a racing car.  

‘Ideas are never the problem, you can find them everywhere,’ says Smith. ‘The challenge is to implement them. Here it worked. A dream has come true… We have made a 1990s car totally relevant for today.’

While last year’s Mini Strip was a step too far for mass production, the bespoke nature of the Recharged project and the ongoing partnership with Recharged Heritage Limited hints at this being more than an elegant one-off.

When Oliver Heilmer, head of the Mini design studio in Munich, called Paul Smith last spring to talk about working together on a new project, neither of them knew quite what they were letting themselves in for. Heilmer had loved Smith’s stripey version of the original Alec Issigonis-designed Mini, one of three commissions (Kate Moss tattooed hers with spider’s webs, while David Bowie went for an all-over mirror finish) unveiled at London’s Design Museum to celebrate the Mini’s 40th birthday in 1999. So he asked Smith to come up with something similar for the new electric Mini.

The call came as a welcome distraction for Smith, who was alone in his Covent Garden HQ while his team worked from home. But he wanted to make more of a mark on the car than just putting his signature on the bodywork. When Heilmer came to London to talk to Smith about the latter’s involvement, he quickly realised that this collaboration wasn’t going to be limited to a colour scheme.

‘We started with the idea of how to make a more emotionally satisfying car,’ explains Heilmer. That meant staying focused on the essential qualities of the Mini, an unusual blend of frugality with charisma. ‘The Mini can be seen differently in different contexts. It can be surprisingly expensive in China because of the taxes, while in Europe it’s almost affordable enough for students, but our aim is to keep the identity of our car classless everywhere. We thought, let’s do as much as we can, while keeping it drivable. A lot of design work for the Mini is about common sense: keep it as small as possible, and please keep the round headlights.’

Smith agrees: ‘It’s very much about respecting the origins of the car.’ The starting point for Smith was a memory he had of seeing a car body before it had been painted and fitted with all the trim. ‘I didn’t want to change the shape, but talked to the team about how to show the steel with all its imperfections and the traces of the manufacturing process. It’s like the suit I’ve just had made. I asked the tailor to put the sleeve head in by hand. That way you get little dimples in the cloth, and the little imperfections that I love. Tadao Ando’s concrete architecture, with its perfect little circular indentations, has the same quality.’

Smith went to Munich to meet Heilmer’s team. They had taken a brand new car from the production line in Oxford before it reached the paint booths, shipped it to Germany and stripped it back to raw metal. The steel body panels were zinc-galvanised, but otherwise left as they were from the press. They took out the original dashboard, the trim on the inside of the door panels, the covers on the airbags, the door opening mechanisms, the instruments, the dashboard controls, the carpets and the steering wheel.

Seeing the car in that state gave Smith the idea for a radical new aesthetic for Mini. ‘A bit of my dad came out,’ says Smith. ‘He used to drive a Morris Oxford, and had a workshop. He did everything himself, rather than get someone in to do it for him.’ That’s why the wheel arches on Smith’s Mini are held in place by visible bolts, rather than the invisible internal fixings on a production model.

‘What was wonderful was how much the team embraced the project. They were brave to allow me to do so much to a car. I hope they like my lateral way of thinking, even the naivety of my rather childlike approach,’ says Smith.

For most of last year, a stream of samples went back and forth between London and Munich. ‘You need to feel the textiles and the metals when you are working remotely,’ says Heilmer. Instead of covering the inside of the door panels, Smith suggested a layer of mesh, so that you can see the steel inside. Exposed cables run up the middle of the car; and the driver’s airbag is visible behind a grille in the middle of the cork-lined steering wheel. The side airbags are held in visible cylinders clipped in place over the doors.

‘It’s a way of valuing things that are not usually valued. It’s the principle of making good and getting by,’ says Smith, who left a little cluster of hand-painted stripes on the edge of the door panel, as a memory of his previous project for Mini. There is also a dock for an iPhone on the dashboard, rather than a fixed satnav and music system, and a charging cap identified by a little doodle hand-drawn by Smith.

Tagged ‘Mini Strip’, the resulting car is a one-off – drivable but not exactly legal. It’s Smith’s love letter to the aesthetics of make-do-and-mend engineering. It’s a celebration of the essentially imperfect qualities of materials that the modern auto industry, focused on quality control, has spent billions on finding ways to hide under layers of glossy perfection.

INFORMATION

‘Mini Strip’ will be on view from 13–17 August 2021 at Paul Smith, 9 Albemarle Street, London W1, and from 7–12 September 2021 at IAA Mobility, Munich

paulsmith.com

mini.com

MINI began its electric drive experience at Plant Oxford, where we were treated to the making of a MINI Electric car, a complex scene that shows the newly electrified vehicles sharing their assembly line with conventional petrol and diesel cars. This facility can make up to 1,000 cars a day, one every 67 seconds, with the flexibility to build MINI Electrics on demand. So far, there have been 2,000 pre-orders in the UK alone.

The first electric MINI arrives after a hiatus, following concept cars and consumer tests. As we depart Oxford towards the Cotswolds, it's clear that MINI has captured the character of its regular models in this pure electric version; superbly sprightly to run, together with the familiar go-kart driving feel. There is improved weight distribution with the new suspension technology allowing a centre of gravity that is some 30mm lower than in the Cooper S, and there is some weight loss over the front wheels due to the positioning of the electric motor. All this, we are told, contributes to the dynamic driving experience.

Performance stays close to the hot-hatch MINI Cooper S. The battery pack is arranged in a T-shaped in the vehicle floor between the front seats and below the rear seats, for a capacity of 32.6 kWh. The motor is the latest, powerful version of BMW’s synchronous electric motor for a maximum output of 184 horsepower and torque of 270 Nm with acceleration to 62 mph in a decent 7.3 seconds. To charge, you can use a home and public cable, which come as standard with the car and are designed for AC and DC charging. At a 50kW DC fast-charging station, an 80 per cent charge is reached in 35 minutes. Then, to comply with EU regulations and to warn pedestrians on low speeds and in cities, the MINI Electric comes replete with its own distinctive musical note.

This may be a highly technical car, yet the design does little to convey this message. Instead, the looks and size are similar to the three-door MINI Hatch, with some aesthetic electric tweaks – embossed electric branded logos on the side scuttles, tailgate and radiator grille. The latter features the classic hexagonal shape, closed here since electric cars requires little cooling. This feature, alongside enclosed undercarriage, the rear apron and the 17-inch two-tone wheels, helps improve the car’s overall aerodynamics.

When we met the marque’s design director Oliver Heilmer a few months ago, he expressed strong views on the subject of visually communicating electric cars. Whereas some brands, he feels, need to be bold about their technology and sustainability ethics, MINI has a different response. ‘Our drivers care about the technology, but this is not why they buy these cars. They want to personalise them,’ he says, adding that the cars are largely seen as fashion items. MINI is encouraging customers to personalise their cars. So, regardless of the trim level, all exterior finishes can be combined with roof and exterior mirror caps in body finish, or in black or white. You can also customise your alloys in 16 and 17 inches, including the exclusive Corona Spoke alloy designed for this car. Heilmer feels customisation will be an even big focus for MINI in the future.

The interior design also evolves that of the non-electric siblings. The main differentiator is the digital dashboard with a 5.5-inch colour screen positioned behind the steering wheel through which the driver can select a preferable driving mode and monitor battery range, observe speed, traffic information and navigate to the nearest charging station. There are four driving modes to choose from – Sport, Mid, Green and Green+. The last is especially handy for emergency situations when the MINI autonomously deactivates all extra comfort functions such as air conditioning to save power. Tested, it works rather well to alarm the driver, even if it may also set off panic sirens. Finally, when charging, in a classic MINI cheeky way, the dash colour hue moves progressively towards green.

The MINI Electric design may seem a touch cautious, yet this is a highly accomplished product. The makers have spent time developing the car, since 2008 quietly testing the concept through the MINI E pilot project. Feedback and findings from potential customers’ interactions and reactions have helped form this production car. Sir Alec Issigonis's original, launched in 1959, was an egalitarian car born into volatile socio-political times when the Suez Crisis forced an oil shortage and the need for more affordable motoring. We’re now facing even more uncertain times and much bigger challenges. Our driving route during the second day takes us to a wind farm, where we are encouraged to brave the strong gusts and biting cold and climb inside a wind turbine as an engineer explains the mechanics of this slightly daunting object, energy from which will theoretically power the MINI Electric and its kind.

As we hand over the keys, we are presented with a selection of experts working towards a sustainable eco-system to support the growing number of electric cars occupying our roads. One discusses the possibilities of renewable energy, the other offers ideas on the reuse of end-of-life batteries. Making privately owned electric cars an ecological and ethical argument will require this kind of collective vision. It still feels like early days in the quest for a completely sustainable model, but it is good to see MINI starting to take a more holistic approach.

INFORMATION

MINI Electric, available from March 2020, from £24,400
www.mini.co.uk

MINI would like to be perceived as a urban lifestyle brand. The marque is undergoing self-analysis to evaluate its place beyond car making — to see where this archetype city commuter fits in within the age of clean, driverless, shared transport.



One strand of this puzzle is MINI Living, an initiative involved in creating alternative living and working spaces that are designed to enrich urban life. The handful of projects commissioned since 2016 have been purely conceptual — offering utopian visions and alternative habitats in London, Milan, Los Angeles and Beijing. Now, elements from these studies are informing a functioning live/work/play building that will open in Shanghai in April 2020.



The 7,600 sq m space occupies a former paint factory in the city’s central Jing'an district. The five buildings will offer a mix of private, communal and public areas, with 45 apartments on-site, a shared lobby and co-working space, shops and temporary pop-up stores, market stalls and a restaurant. There's also a rooftop gym and urban farm, a MINI car-sharing scheme, and a cultural centre open to the public. 



Working with architect Satoshi Isono from the London-based Universal Design Studio, the team are using the existing factory as their base, opening up the ground floor and connecting the five buildings via bridges and thoroughfares. Central to the design is the open shelf structure, ‘the window’ at entrance facing the city and theoretically inviting Shanghai residents in. Generously carved out from the structure, the frame will be an adaptable space curated by the Brooklyn-based and MINI-backed A/D/O to host cultural projects.

To understand the scheme, Wallpaper* met with architect Oke Hauser, creative lead at MINI Living...

Wallpaper*: The Shanghai project is still a construction site, so why invite the public to see the incomplete building?

Oke Hauser: It is important for us to showcase this to the outside world to see your reactions and get your inputs. This is essential to our project. What we are doing here is not static – it is in constant progress, and it is a public project to be informed by others. 



W*: The seven MINI Living concepts so far have responded to a whole range of city life concerns. How much have they informed this project?

OH: Elements from each of the concept designs has influenced our work here, not always directly but conceptually. For instance, at Milan Salone del Mobile we showed a concept that blurred the line between public and private space. Here, central to our design are the rotating walls that open a private area into a public space, then onto the city and the outside world. 



W*: You have said that the MINI Living projects will respond to place - to local architecture, culture and needs. The three Urban Cabin concepts in London, LA and Beijing were specifically about introducing local character and stimulating a dialogue with the past and present. Here too you are working with the Jing’an industrial site as well as traditional Chinese window design as a way of offering an overlay of symbolism. Can you explain the design?

OH: We are working with Universal Design Studio and theirs is a very human-centric approach. The design here is informed by the industrial background of this neighbourhood and the paint factory which was formally here on-site. And yes, our projects are and will be glocal; we are responding to our immediate environments. The Urban Cabin concepts were authentic to their place, and we aim to continue to connect with the cities we build in. 

W*: The Shanghai project feels like a continuation of some of the utopian visions of the early last century, which are possibly even more relevant today.

OH: Absolutely. Cities today are becoming larger and more disconnected, and they can feel lonely; people are isolated and there is this element of social silence. We think that design can tackle this. Therefore, this project is about inviting the city into the private space - to be involved. The rotating walls encourage openness with residents and non-residents, as does the cultural centre.



W*: A/D/O MINI will be involved in running the cultural events in the public gallery here. How else do you propose to involve the larger Shanghai creative community?

OH: We have been scanning the city to find businesses who share our values and ones that we can collaborate with. We are working with a dynamic group of local creative industries in the arts, design, fashion, media who will be also be represented on-site. 



W*: Why choose this city to make your first public MINI Living statement?

OH: In Shanghai you really see urbanisation happening; there is such intense development here with rising property prices and great pressure on residents. So, it feels like the right place to discuss alternatives of how to live. This particular Jing’an district is open to new ideas. Also, interestingly China is up for experimenting and testing things out. There is a strong idea to bring back this sense of community, and our project is supported by the local government.



W*: Who do you see occupying the MINI Living spaces, starting with this Shanghai project?

OH: People who believe that if you open yourself to others and the community, you gain from it. It isn’t an age group but a mindset. And we’re aiming for a diverse community, an international community to include locals but also ex-pats. We want people coming to work in Shanghai to arrive here, see the real city as opposed to the high-rises of Pudong where they would normally land. Ultimately, we would like their mindset to shift a little. Sharing a space benefits everyone and offers the smarter way to live in cities. This is an open project and needs to stay alive.



W*: How does it fit into MINI the car company? At the moment the two sides seem to operate quite separately.

OH: The MINI Living scheme is integrated into the whole concept of the company becoming an electric lifestyle brand to include the electric car and shared car ownership schemes. But yes, absolutely we will work more closely in the future. MINI Living is opening the possibilities for what MINI can ultimately be. It is a holistic approach.

INFORMATION

mini.com

universaldesignstudio.com

a-d-o.com

In today’s age of slick, robot ridden production lines, it’s difficult to imagine a time when the motor industry was run by a few oily-fingered engineers. Creating cars in post-war Britain was very much a cottage industry, synonymous with well-known names like Cooper, Chapman and Lyons. In 1954, one Brian Lister gave his name to a company that might have been less prominent, but which had no less influence on the era's racing scene.

Fast forward 65 years and Lister is back to rude health after a couple of spells in the wilderness. Now in its third era, the Cambridge-based company is owned by the Whittaker family and specialises in producing limited edition sports cars and recreations of the iconic 1950s racer, the Lister Knobbly, so called for its bulbous wheelarches. The company is also back in the road car arena with its latest model, the 666bhp LFT-C delivering the Lister name into the modern world with force.

Based on Jaguar’s F-Type convertible, the LFT-C is a tweaked, twisted and wild twin of the British-made two-seater, boasting additional power and much more drama than the majority of its peers. Helping it reach 62mph from standing in just 3.2-seconds and a top speed of 205mph is an upgraded supercharger, intercooler, air filter and engine management system, which is attached to its gutsy, factory-fitted 5.0-litre V8 engine. The result is brutal performance and theatre, as the drop top sounds its way to 100mph in under seven seconds. The project was aptly named Thunder before it took its current arrangement of letters.

On the inside, Lister employed Scottish interior trimmers Bridge of Weir to design the LFT-C’s bespoke Nappa Leather interior, which can be ordered in no less than 36 colours, while everything from the doors to the roof lining and steering wheel are hand stitched. Excluding the custom embroidery and new leather, the LFT-C’s cabin is identical to the F-Type’s in every other aspect. Even the pouncing Jaguar logo sits proudly in the middle of the steering wheel.

With regard to Ian Callum’s original F-Type exterior design, Lister has made respectful alterations, most notably the deep, carbon-fibre front splitter, which sits speed-bump-crunchingly low at the front. More carbon is used for the bonnet vents, side-skirts and new rear diffuser, which houses the tips of the louder, bespoke exhaust system. Completing the package are a set of four 21-inch rims and adjustable suspension, which gives the LFT-C a menacing stance to match its hostile performance.

While 99 LFT coupes are planned for production, only 10 of its convertible siblings will be made, which makes the LFT-C a very rare car indeed. For that level of exclusivity, prices start at a hefty £139,000 before any optional extras, although cost is unlikely to be a concern for avid car collectors investing in Lister’s latest creation.

As a small and specialist British car maker with a strong motorsport pedigree, the LFT-C is an outlandish, rare and collectable tribute to the small group of pioneers, inventors and cottage creators who made the British car industry what it is today. With each Lister made at the company’s headquarters in Cambridge, the LFT-C is a reassuring reminder that the eccentricity behind Britain’s car industry is still alive and well.

INFORMATION

Lister LFT-C, from £139,000. lister.com

Pictured top, Pininfarina Battista (around $2m). Pitched as Italy’s ‘most powerful ever sports car’, the Battista packs 1,900hp of battery power within its sleek frame. Go easy, and you’ll get a 280-mile range. pininfarina.com. Pictured bottom, Rivian R1T Truck (available in 2020). Boasting a 400-mile range, the Rivian Truck (also joined by a new SUV) is an all-American utility vehicle hoping to bring rugged, go-anywhere chic to the EV market. rivian.com. 

As of this month, you’ll be able to put down a deposit on a brand new Volkswagen ID, a Golf-sized all-electric vehicle that comes pre-loaded with a weight of expectations. The car itself won’t be shown to the public until this September’s Frankfurt Motor Show, and this sight-unseen marketing strategy is hitherto unknown for a volume car manufacturer. Two things have changed the automotive landscape in the past decade. The first is the unpredictable combination of aspiration, ego, innovation and bottomless funds that has driven the American manufacturer Tesla to the forefront of the industry. The second is the fallout from the Volkswagen emissions scandal, a corporate cluster-bomb that had the unintended consequence of vastly accelerating change by killing off the very fuel it was trying to promote.

Electric vehicles (EVs) are now all the rage. At this year’s Geneva Motor Show, EVs were thick on the ground, from high-end sports cars to compact city runarounds, over-styled crossovers, outlandish luxury SUVs and conventional family cars. Almost overnight, the EV market has blossomed to fill every niche. For the industry, the shift to EVs is a no-brainer; brands will flourish under a system that promotes zero-emission driving. Over a century’s worth of automotive heritage will simply shift gear to accommodate a new generation of car buyers. For governments, cities and the public, the answer isn’t so clear. Tax revenues from fuel sales look set to plummet, while congestion and auto-centric urban design will persist.

Pictured top, Citroën Ami One (concept only). Citroën’s Ami One is a nod to the French firm’s innovative small city cars of the mid 20th-century. The two-seater is aimed squarely at the urban market. citroen.com. Pictured bottom, Polestar 2 (from €59,900). An all-electric fastback design, the Polestar 2 promises a new approach to car ownership, with seamless digital integration and smart minimal design. polestar.com.

For aspirant carmakers, this shift seemed an opportunity. Building an auto brand from scratch is a colossal undertaking, but EVs have lowered the barrier to entry, with shared platforms and far lower start-up costs. Where Tesla led, others followed. The clean-slate approach of new names such as Lynk & Co, Byton, Nio, Faraday Future and the revived Fisker brand, or even the secretive Dyson project, suddenly all seemed to have a place at the table. That window of opportunity may be narrowing, though.

Volkswagen has dug deep into its corporate pockets and set about reinventing itself as an electric powerhouse. By 2028, it promises 70 new electric models across its various brands; it claims it will be a CO2-neutral company by 2050. Other manufacturers are also taking stock. In 2017 Volvo was first to announce that all its new cars launched from 2019 would be hybrids (either ‘mild’ or ‘plug-in’) or entirely electric, with 50 per cent of its fleet being pure electric by 2025. Honda also recently committed to the total electrification of its European sales output by 2025. Porsche (a Volkswagen subsidiary) is making a massive push, bringing the sleek Taycan saloon to market later this year, with other EVs to follow. Other makers are adopting the strategy of electrifying small cars and keeping hybrid tech for larger vehicles.

For many car owners, the EV is still an unknown. Big name support might bring confidence, but other companies are resorting to another tactic: pure temptation. Electric vehicles represent a new design opportunity in an image-obsessed industry. BMW’s i division debuted in 2013 with two defiantly distinctive models, the i3 and the i8. Jaguar’s i-Pace is the style-obsessed manufacturer’s most glamorous and desirable car, while debut EVs from Audi, Mercedes, Mini, Hyundai and Kia all major heavily on design. Honda is bringing out a chic little city car in 2020, previewed by the delightful e Prototype, while other quirky urban electrics include Quadro’s eQooder (bolstered by a collaboration with Tod’s), Citroën’s Ami One, Seat’s Minimó and Fiat’s Concept Centoventi (a rather late entry for a company with gold-star heritage in the urban sector). Brands such as Polestar and Lynk & Co (both owned by Chinese manufacturer Geely, which also owns Volvo) combine contemporary design with new ownership models, reasoning that future drivers might not need to have 24-hour access or responsibility for their own vehicle.

Other start-ups are going further still to bring EVs into every conceivable niche. Rivian is hoping to create an ‘electric adventure vehicle’ sector. The American company’s R1S SUV and R1T pick-up truck are due on the road towards the end of next year and boast a 400-mile range (‘San Francisco to Yosemite and back’). Rivian’s vice president of vehicle design, Jeff Hammoud, describes an emphasis on design from the outset. ‘The first thing we paid attention to is the proportion,’ he says, explaining that the company’s EV platform (which it may license out) allows for a plethora of body styles and functions. Branding is also consciously different. ‘Trucks have grilles to communicate strength and power – they tend to be very big. We don’t need a grille, but we have kept everything intelligent and blunt. That identity also has to scale into the future.’

Hammoud describes Rivian’s style as a ‘Patagonia jacket, not an Armani suit’, emphasising the brand’s inherent functionalism. The rebirth of Lagonda, on the other hand, is pitched at the consumer of luxury attire. Part of Aston Martin since 1947, Lagonda resurfaces in 2021 with an SUV, previewed at Geneva by the All-Terrain Concept. Purely electric from the outset, the target is the Rolls-Royce market and the ethos is contemporary luxury, underpinned by cutting-edge craft, materials and tech. ‘We aim to reimagine luxury travel in a way that could only be done in the 21st century,’ says Gerhard Fourie, Aston Martin Lagonda’s director of marketing and brand strategy. ‘We don’t see luxury and technology at opposing sides of the spectrum; together they can create wonderful experiences.’ Luxury buyers seem keen to embrace the new. ‘We obviously get the strongest reaction from customers who are open to change,’ Fourie admits. ‘They have strong views on design and quite a healthy relationship with the technology in their lives – I’d say they are “technology enabled” rather than “technology obsessed”.’

Pictured top, Lagonda All-Terrain Concept car (available 2021). Lagonda’s All-Terrain Concept will hit the market in 2021 as the first luxury electric SUV. The British brand, revived in 2018 by Aston Martin, is majoring on design and quality. lagonda.com. Pictured bottom, Honda e Prototype (available 2019). Inspired by the original Honda Civic, this prototype previews Honda’s ultra-compact city car, a neat four-door with retro styling, a chic interior and, of course, zero emissions. honda.com

Also at the high end you have the Pininfarina Battista, an electric hypercar that’s out to steal the super-rich away from their Ferraris. ‘If we want to do justice to the brand we have to start where people perceive us,’ says Automobili Pininfarina’s CEO Michael Perschke, who describes the 89-year-old design house as the ‘Château Lafite of car design’. The Battista – named after the brand’s founder, Battista ‘Pinin’ Farina – is intended to be the ‘most powerful Italian sports car ever made’. With a motor in each wheel, the car will have a scarcely credible 1,900hp (over 25 per cent more than its conventionally powered rival, the Bugatti Chiron). ‘The design is a balance between radical technology and timeless Pininfarina design,’ says Perschke. ‘We want people to fall in love with an electric car for the first time.’

For well over a century, the motor car has been a totem of identity as much as a mode of transport, embedded for better or worse within society and culture. The success of all these cars depends on the premise that the automobile is here to stay, yet calls to curb or cut out car use are given increasingly serious consideration. Early EV adopters might have already reaped all the available rewards, sucking up the rebates, subsidies, free parking spots and absence of tolls. The other as yet unanswered question is that of charging. Although manufacturers are helping new networks seed across the road system, what’s really needed is a top-down overhaul of park and charge infrastructure, from city streets to supermarkets. That’s a whole different story. What’s certain is that for a time at least we’ll have more cars, not fewer, as EVs blur the lines between concept and reality and find new ways of seducing the drivers of the future. 

As originally featured in the June 2019 issue of Wallpaper* (W*243)

Despite being one the world’s best-loved automotive icons, the story of the original Mini is far from a fairy tale. Born in troubled times, the pocket-sized runabout was developed as a flippant response to German competition and scribbled on the back of a napkin. After overcoming early teething problems, the cheap and cheerful city car eventually sold in its millions and surviving examples are still cherished and coveted the world over. Now celebrating 60 years since its inception, the Silverstone-based specialist coachbuilder David Brown Automotive has painstakingly remastered the original to create a resto-mod tribute fit for the modern-day motorist.

The story of the Mini starts back in the mid-1950s as warning lights lit up across Britain's burgeoning car industry. The 1956 Suez Canal crisis had hampered the country's supply of oil, ushering in fuel rationing while sabotaging the sales of manufacturing giants such as Ford and Vauxhall. In response, smaller-engined German bubble cars started to arrive in the UK, which appealed to cost-conscious British car buyers. But Leonard Lord – the man at the top of the British Motor Corporation (BMC) – was less convinced. Strong-minded and tempestuous, the British car boss declared at the time; ‘God damn these bloody awful bubble cars. We must drive them off the streets.’ And with that, he commissioned English-Greek designer Alec Issigonis, the creator of the popular Morris Minor, to come up with a solution – ‘a proper small car,’ in Lord’s words.

Issigonis got to work and designed a car that was capable of carrying four adults and their luggage in a handsome package that measured just 10 feet bumper to bumper. ‘Wizardry on wheels!’ fast became the strapline blazoned on every advert for the revolutionary new car. Priced between £497 for the base and £537 for the De Luxe model, BMC sold just shy of 200,000 in the first year. Everyone from factory workers to city slickers, Steve McQueen, Twiggy and even Enzo Ferrari owned a Mini. The cute compact had taken the world by storm.

Six decades later and the classic Mini dream still lives on, albeit in a slightly more gentrified form. Keeping things alive and well is down to affable automotive coachbuilding start-up David Brown Automotive. Springing onto the scene in 2013 with its flagship Speedback GT, the company’s first foray with the Mini came four years later, when it launched the Mini Remastered at the London Motor Show in 2017. On first impressions, DBA’s remastered classic is hard to differentiate from the 1960s model and so it should be – each is based on an original donor car ensuring it's still eligible for classic status. Yet despite its subtley altered appearance, over 14,000 hours goes into the conversion, with only the doors, engine and gearbox carried over from the donor car and even those are overhauled and rebuilt.

With a new, stiffer and refined bodyshell, the remastered Mini still sports its original 1,275cc powerplant, which rattles away reassuringly above the footwell. With 75hp, the resto-mod Mini pulls away sharply with a booming exhaust (non-standard, naturally) that crackles and pops when working through the gears. It’s an enhanced but magical Mini motoring experience offering all the fun driving dynamics of the original but with fewer flaws.

On the inside, the revamped interior is a far cry from Issigonis’ sparse, utilitarian cabin. Hand trimmed in sumptuous leather, the Remastered sports all-new seats and redesigned doors cards, which incorporate speakers linked to the seven-inch touchscreen infotainment system. Despite these contemporary touches, the driving position remains unchanged from the original, which makes for a novel driving experience when sitting behind the wooden Mota-Lita steering wheel.

While a dose of nostalgia is very welcome in today’s often drab car market, the trimmed and tweaked Mini comes at a sizeable price. With the original weighing in at under £600 in 1959, the retro David Brown Automotive Mini commands a staggering £75,000 asking price, which can rise above £100,000 depending on the buyer’s appetite for customisation. But this novel revamp is not aimed at the casual car collector. While its fine details go some way to justifying the financials, the Mini Remastered is far more than a costly customised classic – it’s a niche but magnificent tribute to an automotive icon that inspired a generation. Although attempts have been made to recreate, revitalise and even reinvent the original compact car over the years, the Mini Remastered is the best effort yet.

INFORMATION

davidbrownautomotive.com

Mini’s take on electric vehicles is appropriately simple, lightweight, relatively affordable and compact. Its first production EV – available to order now with first deliveries in March 2020 – is recognisably adapted from a regular Mini Cooper S three-door. However, it swaps the latter’s petrol engine for a 184hp electric motor powered by a 32.6 kWh battery that's good for 124 miles.

That might not seem far compared to some other new EVs’ greater mileage possibilities, but this on-brand ‘small-is-good’ approach to battery size doesn’t compromise the existing amount of cabin space or luggage area. It also shows that the Mini Electric – like the imminent Honda e – is targeting urban-based customers or suburban second-car users where a shorter range is entirely in line with their actual everyday requirements. Charging via a socket located beneath the regular fuel filler cap takes 35 minutes to 80 per cent from a 50kW fast DC charger, but due to the smaller 32.6 kWh battery and range, 0-100 per cent can still be achieved with a more typical 11kW charger in a decent 3.5 hours. This is practical.

To differentiate the Mini Electric sufficiently in design terms, the car gets a closed-off front grille, slightly more aero wheels, contrast-coloured wing mirrors, subtle EV plug logo badging, and on the inside, a new slimmer 5.5” digital driver display, replacing the regular Mini’s somewhat bulky analogue one. In keeping with Mini values, the car should be great fun to drive, promising 0-62mph in 7.3 seconds – just like the petrol Cooper S – and might even handle better, due to its new powertrain’s positioning (a full test drive will come later).

Either way, the initial specification sounds promising, with the electric motor housed upfront to power the front wheels and the T-shaped battery pack positioned low-down and with the T’s crossbar below the rear seats. The lower weight of the small battery versus a bigger range version – at 1365kg the Electric is only 145kg more than a petrol Cooper S automatic – is also a handling asset and its low placement results in a centre of gravity at least 30 millimetres lower than in the Mini Cooper S too.

Crucially and unusually for an EV from any brand, Mini’s smaller battery makes the car cheaper to produce and has been part of the reason the brand has decided to match the price of equivalent performance combustion-engined versions. UK prices start from £24,400 and rise to £30,400 (including Government grant). This should see a real breakthrough in sales as ‘going green’ in this case doesn’t come with an initial price penalty (and will make the already-established lower EV running costs all the more enjoyable).

The brand is hoping to sell about 4,000 units a year in the UK alone, which is more than the current Convertible and close to the Clubman’s circa 5,000 units. And as the model will be made on the same manufacturing line as its combustion-engined counterparts, there is flexibility to increase production too. Long and short – this product is not intended to be a high-priced, small-run, tokenistic environmental move. Plaudits for that.

INFORMATION

Mini Electric, from £24,300. mini.co.uk

With a reputation for creating ethereal and sensorial work, Studio Swine’s new undertakings are highly anticipated to say the least. The British duo – made up of Alexander Groves and Azusa Murakami – has most recently enjoyed a six-month stint as New Yorkers, having been invited by Mini’s design incubation space in Brooklyn, A/D/O to be designers in residence.

On 17 January, the fruits of that experience are being unveiled in the form of a solo exhibition at A/D/O. Studio Swine debuts two new bodies of work that fuse technology with design, while capturing an essence of the city.

‘New York has such an iconic urban skyline, with its big industrial buildings and bridges, but you’ve also got this incredible river flowing through,’ says Groves. ‘It’s a very dynamic atmosphere, literally with its coastal weather and changing light on the river all the time, which in contrast to the urban environment is quite exciting. Similarly, the work that we’ve created is a real convergence of technology and nature.’

‘It’s quite different from our past work,’ Murakami adds, ‘In the past we would go to a city and draw inspiration from the city and we would translate that very literally into our work, but this time, it’s more about creating a feeling or an atmosphere. It’s more instinctive rather than narrative-based.’

Natural elements have always played heavily in Studio Swine’s creations, and these new works are no different. The exhibition opens with ‘Dawn Particles’, an electrifying series of hand-blown glass vessels that are filled with the chemical Krypton, in its plasma form, which have been installed in an all-red room.

‘Plasma is a form of matter, and it’s the most abundant in our known universe,’ Groves explains. ‘Dark matter is the unaccountable mass of universe, but when we look up into the night sky, that’s all plasma.’

As a charged gas, plasma is responsive to magnetism – a characteristic Studio Swine has honed in on by passing fluctuating voltages through the gas to change its behaviour in the work. From lightning-like crackles to a high frequency ringing sound that emanates from the glass vibrating, the pieces dynamically acknowledge the presence of larger energy and material forces around us.

From this level of intensity, visitors venture into a more serene second room, where ‘Fog Paintings’ is situated. Expanding on previous efforts of working with fog, this piece is comprised of two vitrines that are gradually filled with fog that is then interjected with shards of light. Intended to evoke the feeling of light passing through the atmosphere, the vitrines’ turbulent, ephemeral contents create a shifting sense of volume and colour to distort one’s sense of weight and time. Inspired by the transcendentalist landscape paintings of Turner and Thomas Cole, both works celebrate the awe of energy and the significance of the invisible world around us.

‘We’re really interested in materials and the tangible materiality of things,’ Groves summarises. ‘We like using technology but we’re not interested in the standard interface that it has. We’ve always been drawn to materials through our practice. Our take on technology still has a very tangible element. Because [the ephemeral] is transient and fleeting, it can make a more powerful memory and experience because the moment disappears. You’ll never see that particular vision again.’

INFORMATION

‘Wave. Particle. Duplex.’ is on view 17 January-10 February. For more information, visit the Studio Swine website and the A/D/O website

ADDRESS

29 Norman Avenue Greenpoint Brooklyn NY 11222

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

Mini Living’s new Beijing housing concept is the latest step in its very real-world plan to launch compact and flexible urban spaces to rent from mid-2019. The brand once only known for small-and-smart cars, announced the creation of a distinct housing division back in 2015 and its latest Beijing concept is its fourth, after others unveiled in London, New York and Los Angeles.

Each one aims to showcase ideas specific to their city’s context through collaboration with local architects – in Beijing’s case Dayong Sun – who took inspiration from the traditional hutongs he knew from his childhood, where shared courtyards provided communal space to hang out among otherwise densely-packed housing.

Accordingly, the Beijing concept house is just 15 sq m in size but features a semi-circular living room area with a ceiling-mounted swing where neighbours could interact, or equally when privacy was sought, be curtained off. Above this central space are a series of gold-coloured mirrored chimney-like vents which act as telescopes to the sky and which, due to their configuration, create kaleidoscopic reflections of the immediate neighbourhood – in this temporary case, including Herzog & de Meuron’s ‘Bird’s Nest’ National Stadium built for the 2008 Chinese Olympics.

Oke Hauser, Corinna Natter & Dayong Sun, in front of the Mini Living concept, Beijing

Aside from being a fascinating way of bringing colour and light into an otherwise fairly muted-palette interior, these ‘light chimneys’ also play a symbolic role, as Mini designer Corinna Natter puts it, ‘to bring the outside inside’. This seems to be an important aspect for the whole Mini Living project which, while far from intending to be a solution for the lowest earners in the world’s biggest cities, does nonetheless intend to make better use of urban spaces and provide good value accommodation for young professionals or global urban travellers alike. As Mini’s project lead Oke Hauser told Wallpaper*: ‘We want to connect people to live better in cities. It’s important to us to promote an ‘open-door’ policy, not to generate a gated-community feeling.’

Even the more traditionally private areas of the Beijing concept reflect this ethos. Examples include a double bed which can slide through a flap in the wall to become an outside daybed and conversely an exterior-mounted wall ladder for roof access which can rotate inwards to become an interior towel rail for the bathroom. Elsewhere this outside/inside blurring is more subtly suggested by small but regularly spaced holes in the plywood interior cladding which let light through from the opaque polycarbonate exterior surface.

As such, the Beijing house only evolves and develops themes from the previous three Mini Living concepts. The proof of these concepts’ collective ideas will come next May when the first rentable Mini Living apartments are due to launch in a refurbished old paint factory in the Jing’An district of Shanghai.

Studio, mezzanine studio and multi-bedroom apartments will be available to rent from circa €1200 per month (versus a market rate of €2000-€3000 for similar-size flats elsewhere in the city says Hauser) with free shared spaces for interaction and further rooms – including a large dining room for special occasions or an office for meetings – hired out as and when required via an app.

Hauser says the building itself will be ‘quietly branded’ Mini Living and will also offer a car park with shareable Mini cars inside no doubt. The venture is a very radical departure for a car brand, but by the looks of things one with serious business intent.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Mini Living website

Mini’s inherent paradox is that although it is more than willing to push its brand into new sectors, the company is also more tightly bound to its origin story than many rivals. Yet big change is coming. As of next year, Mini will start selling an all-electric car, the Mini E. Taking stylistic cues from the Mini Electric Concept shown last year, the Mini E should tick all the boxes demanded by millennial motorists, providing it matches its conventional sibling in terms of handling, ride and character.

We sampled the latest version of the company’s best-known model, the Cooper S, to gauge exactly what those qualities are. If anything, Mini is undergoing a new phase of maturity, eschewing the rather cartoonish ‘go-kart’ qualities that it used from the outset of the reborn brand. Today’s Cooper S still has the zest, but with less of the cultural baggage that cluttered up the rebirth of the brand. There’s still an overreliance on bold, retro-esque forms, but the gulf between the 1959 original and the modern BMW-built Mini has never been bigger.

By means of illustration, the company recently launched a retro-fitted electric-powered Classic Mini, a one-off that demonstrated the innate rightness of removing the engine altogether. Today’s Cooper S might be petrol powered, but it’s also a genuinely fun car that exudes a class-less simplicity. Admittedly, certain design touches are better suited to LA or Beijing – the Union Jack patterned brake lights, for a start. It’s still the best iteration of all modern Minis and makes a convincing city car, with zesty handling and acceleration.

Oliver Heilmer, Mini’s head of design, has been in the job for exactly a year, although he’s been at BMW since July 2000. Following stints at DesignWorks in California, he returned to Munich to helm the next generations of Mini. But not only that. The BMW-subsidiary is on a design-led journey to shift itself from mildly cartoonish retro design into a real player in future mobility. The Mini E is a first step. As Heilmer notes, ‘electrification is standard already. Then we’ll have autonomous driving. BMW’s autonomous focus is with Rolls-Royce, but Mini will also do it in a different way.’

The scope of Mini’s offering is changing. The company has branched out into several Mini Living installations, in London, New York, LA and Milan, each of which has explored different ways of using urban space for a new generation of city dwellers. Up until now, these have been purely conceptual, but there are rumblings of a functioning pilot project in the months to come. Most importantly of all, Mini Living would appear to have little or nothing to do with contemporary automotive design. ‘Right now we have a car as a product, but we’re also talking about services,’ Heilmer enthuses, ‘in a couple of years we might be talking about a mindset, a culture, a community.’

Heilmer suggests that Mini is perfectly placed to embrace big changes in personal mobility. ‘One of the mindsets of Mini is to embrace different things,’ he says, adding that the company’s goal is to invest its products with some kind of emotional hook, going on to describe Mini E as an ‘authentic product that’s an enrichment to someone’s life.’ ‘Typical Mini is doing something no-one expected. We have a family, not just a single product.’ Today’s Cooper S is part of a continuum that stretches back to the engineering wizardry of the original 1959 car, all the way to the far future thinking of the Mini Vision Next 100 concept shown in 2016. Heilmer explains the difference between the BMW Group’s use of ‘Concepts’ and ‘Visions’ – the latter being far-sighted pieces of futurology, while Concepts effectively preview what will be in the market in 12-18 months. ‘You have to be careful with pre-communication, especially if it is too different from what you actually present.’

The Mini E will smooth the lines and blur the edges of the current design language, taking advantage of the electric car’s absence of vents and ducts. It points to a cleaner, simpler approach, both in terms of design but also how cars are used. While no-one can accurately predict even the immediate future, Mini would like us to imagine the day when their cars become a desirable, shared resource that are an extension of your living space, seamlessly integrating into your urban existence. That said, a car company still has to sell cars in some form. ‘From an emotional and heritage point of view, customers will still want to own one,’ Heilmer says, ‘it’s about keeping the character of Mini how it is.’ The aesthetics of desire still matter.

INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Mini website

For New York Design Week, Mini’s innovative creative space A/D/O are hosting an architectural installation by London-based United Visual Artists. Spirit of the City taps into the way we interact with urban environments, allowing a humbling reflective moment during the bustle of design week.

‘Our goal was to create a simple, yet transformative experience that metaphorically and physically reflects the surroundings of A/D/O and New York City at large,’ explains Matt Clark, founder of UVA. Mirroring, quite literally, the changing nature of metropolitan locations, the 9ft high modular columns loom large while revolving for an enveloping experience. These rotations were not chosen random, the movement patterns are based on research from human activity in the city to create a 24-hour algorithm that alters from tranquil to urgent.

While wandering around the colossal totems, visitors can notice this kinetic energy reflected onto the ground in subtle shadows that produce a poetic web of lines. On the surface of the columns too, perspectives vary from calm sky blues to the raw industrial surrounds of the creative cove.

Founded in 2003, art practice UVA explore technology in their pieces that often transcend physical existence. Previous works have been hosted across the globe at institutions including the Victoria and Albert Museum and YCAM, Japan. ‘Ultimately, Spirit of the City intends to pose the question, do our activities define our urban landscapes or do our urban landscapes define us?’ Clark muses.

When A/D/O first opened last year inside a converted warehouse in Brooklyn, the space spanned design-led retail to bars and restaurants exemplifying Mini’s ongoing design agenda. ‘At Mini we believe that design can tip the scales towards a more humane world,’ explains Esther Bahne, Mini’s head of brand strategy and business innovation. A/D/O inaugurated with Design Academy, a three-day festival for professional designers to explore cultural topics, and a year on, Spirit of the City marks it’s first significant showcase for NYCxDesign, and it will remain risen until 2 September.

See more from New York Design Week here

INFORMATION
Spirit of the City is on view until 2 September at A/D/O. For more information, visit the website

ADDRESS

A/D/O
29 Norman Ave
Brooklyn
NY 11222

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

London architect Studiomama has taken on the Mini Living challenge by empowering occupants to become designers. ‘Built by All’ proposes a creative process for encouraging an open dialogue between architect and resident so that the building can best respond to the needs of its occupants. Exhibited in Milan for Salone del Mobile, ‘Built by All’ marks the fifth chapter in the ideas project initiated by the car marque, and it is possibly the most rational proposal so far.



Mini Living investigates how a new approach to design can improve city living and, in the process, examine how Mini can evolve from being simply a car brand. The idea is to collaborate with various architects – different voices for different projects – and proposals that respond to regional needs. There have been five so far, three in Milan and two in London with an on-going research project based in Brooklyn. The final chapter is a fully-functioning dynamic live/work/play space that will open this time next year in Shanghai.

Studiomama’s project in Milan represents the people occupying the buildings. The inhabitants, their individual needs and ideas now play a central role in a series of suggestive modular spaces. There are four prototype living spaces here placed alongside public zones to include a communal kitchen and an outdoor gym – all painted in mellow pastoral shades that feel playful, welcoming and engaging.



Studiomama founder Nina Tolstrup admits she is purposely challenging conventional design processes, the usual hierarchies of architect and client, to illustrate new ways of conceiving homes for young people flocking to cities, as well as for retired urbanites in need of a more communal life. She says these modular spaces are an expression of their owners and residents. They are about freeing up the private and public space and exploring different configurations. It is also about colour – how it can express and change your mood. This is a utopia for the modern day – a contained micro-neighbourhood of sorts.



‘Today’s standardised housing market is limited in its ability to meet the requirements of the individual,’ offers Oke Hauser, Mini Living’s creative lead, who worked closely with Studiomama in conceiving ‘Built by All’. ‘This installation turns people into active creators and puts them back at the heart of the design process. The quality of a living space is determined by how well the residents identify with their home.’

The Mini Living proposals have been an intriguing mix – an exploration of shared living spaces in urban areas, micro-city retreats with communal access, a building that physically connects its inhabitants to their natural surroundings, and a mix of private and shared experiences told through the story of books and food. Shanghai will be the first to take the concept to reality.



Hauser, himself an architect, is visibly excited about this project, which will mark the start of similar schemes appearing in cities around the world making use of empty and unused spaces. He notes that the Chinese city is an ideal location for this first test-bed as it is so open to change and is questioning how the ancient, modern and future can co-exist with one another. Working in partnership with Chinese project developer Nova Property Investment, the converted abandoned paint factory in the Jing’An district of Shanghai will be converted into a series of micro apartments, a mix of residential dwellings for young urbanites but also for the elderly who may wish to live among others. There are co-working spaces and communal zones, a rooftop farm, car-sharing facilities, a park and a cultural centre to interact with the outside world and give something back to the city.



With the next life of the motor car fast approaching – the clean, autonomous, shared vehicle intimately linked with its environment – Mini is conscious of its strengths when it comes to city life. The original 1959 Alec Issigonis car also addressed urban living; it too was aimed at the young for a vehicle that was affordable, small and the perfect city run-around. Mini Living could potentially achieve something similar.

INFORMATION

‘Built by All’ by Studiomama for Mini Living ran from 17 - 22 April 2018 in Milan. For more information, visit the Mini Living website

What is the future of city living? MINI LIVING is about extending the expertise of MINI design into the urban realm to create initiatives that explore new ways of living, working and interacting with the modern city environment. For this year’s London Design Festival, MINI LIVING has created URBAN CABIN, an ultra-compact installation that demonstrates the power of multifunctional design when space is at a premium. A collaboration between MINI and architect Sam Jacob Studio, the cabin is installed in the OXO Tower Wharf Courtyard. Jacob was a co-founder of the now-defunct FAT Architects and shares MINI’s philosophy of playful efficiency. As an acclaimed designer, educator and polemicist, his projects, such as a hairdressing salon with integral art gallery, demonstrate a fascination with mixed-up typologies as well as a belief in using design to create both meaning and place.

URBAN CABIN is a creative new take on communal space, combining both work and pleasure functions. Shaped in the MINI LIVING studio, this compact, 15 sq m modular space comprises of two mirrored and copper mesh structures. Intended to evoke London’s fluid, frantic but always essential relationship with culture and creativity, each URBAN CABIN is divided into a shared kitchen and an experience room. In London, Jacob’s experience room is a micro-library, a space that highlights how many precious city resources, such as the traditional library, are now under threat.

Jacob describes the space as ‘emulating London's stacked skyline’, both in terms of form and content. MINI LIVING’s creative lead, Oke Hauser, hopes the library will kindle debates and connections. The reading list – including a Wallpaper* sanctioned set of titles – contains books old and new that have been chosen to evoke the spirit of London life through the centuries. The book swap is a literal application of the sharing economy, a catalyst for positive change that helps to connect, inspire and engage through shared stories and histories.

URBAN CABIN’s micro-house scale also addresses that other great capital absence, space. URBAN CABIN’s shared kitchen is a social hub, reflecting the fact that making and sharing food continues to be an integral element of London life. An expanding table and louvered walls allow the space to grow outwards or contract inwards depending on demand.

MINI’s spiritual origins are in the creation of the world’s original compact city car. MINI LIVING takes that heritage to another level, exploring the social, architectural and cultural role of the spaces inside and outside our cars, and how design can improve these for the better. By combining the company’s design skills with collaborators from every creative field, MINI LIVING explores new ways to work, live, and play in the city. Cities are about connections, and URBAN CABIN infuses the marque’s spirit of fun, adventure and innovation into a place for coming together; a space in which to eat, socialise, learn and share our experiences.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the MINI LIVING

Most big corporations have a department dedicated to crystal ball gazing, but only the auto industry translates that fevered speculation into physical form in the shape of concept cars. To celebrate its centenary, the BMW Group has created a triumvirate of concepts, starting in March with the BMW Vision Next 100 and continuing this month with two new concepts from each of its sister brands, MINI and Rolls-Royce. All three are on display in London's Roundhouse before heading off on a 'centenary world tour,' travelling from London to Beijing and Los Angeles.

So how does a car company that thrives on qualities like driving dynamism and brand desirability head into the post-car era? BMW's answer is to take control of the conversation and reframe it so that it controls the narrative: 'the best way to predict the future is to shape it,' a gravelly voice intones over a glossy introductory film.

The Vision series is blue-sky thinking filtered through three very particular brand lenses. BMW as a whole is making high profile but relatively small inroads into things like car sharing and energy services, but as the company sells a record 2.2 million vehicles worldwide across its brands it's hardly looking to disrupt the auto industry any time soon.

Even so, the Vision series is about repositioning BMW as an 'individual mobility company,' albeit one that is still manifested in physical product that can be desired and bought. Along the way, the company expects that technologies like artificial intelligence and autonomous driving will slip into everyday use without compromising the driver involvement that defines the 'ultimate driving machine.'

In amongst the blizzard of buzz phrases (‘mobility is becoming tailor made,' 'connectivity is becoming second nature,' 'mobility is becoming versatile,’ 'technology is becoming human') we are shown two rather extraordinary cars. First up is the MINI, a four-square, smooth-sided city car that reduces the classic brand signatures to simple geometric elements – the twin round lights, for example – and instead focuses on connectivity and emotional engagement. Anders Warming, head of MINI design, explains that although this is a car that’s still fun to drive, it’s also about maximising interior space and social engagement.

MINI’s vision is pitched at those whose lives have been shaped by a lifetime on social media. Essentially, the car changes its configuration according to the character of the user, with profiles that live in the cloud and can be swapped into car shares or hires around the world. 'The car becomes a vehicle for inspiration,' says Warming, adding that the car is seen as 'an architectural space that you can use to go from A to B – can a car still be fun if you're still stuck in traffic?'

The glass front end and central ‘Cooperiser’ illustrate how much the brand likes to lean on its heritage, with patination-friendly materials like brass used to give the car a sense of value over time, while screens embedded on the doors and a front-mounted projector turn the car into a mobile emoji creator. 'MINI is a friend already,' Warming says, explaining that emerging generations will be less hung up on owning physical things if they can still access their services, friends and information and be welcomed by a car that knows just what it likes.

Rolls-Royce has taken this idea far, far upmarket. The '103EX' is the first-ever speculative concept car from Rolls-Royce and embodies three key themes: 'grand sanctuary,' 'effortless journey,' and 'grand arrival.' Whereas the MINI looked just a few generations ahead, there’ll need to be bold technological leaps before Rolls-Royce’s fully autonomous plutocratic people carrier becomes reality.

For now, the key takeaways are the proportions. The mammoth 2m bonnet is a clear reference to the company’s grandest cars of the 30s, while the sheathed wheels and teardrop-shaped passenger compartment has the kind of retro-futurist allure that emerged at the start of the space age. At nearly 6m long it’s a surprise to find this car caters for only two, with a sumptuous silk sofa and a 'grand arrival' sequence that opens up the passenger compartment and rolls out a virtual red carpet, allowing for a graceful step down into the flashbulbs (and no opportunity for vulgar paparazzi snaps).

Perhaps most importantly of all, Rolls-Royce has retired the traditional chauffeur altogether, speculating that artificial intelligence and autonomous driving will do a far better job. This car is a 'she', a super informed Siri-esque companion that is driver, concierge, search engine, sommelier, personal shopper, butler, maid and stockbroker rolled into one vast mechanised whole.

'It's unapologetically big,' admits Rolls-Royce’s design director, Giles Taylor, 'although we're moving away from the monolithic approach.' These forms might not telegraph the imminent next generation of Rolls-Royces, but Taylor is still gleeful at the freedom of the brief. 'It’s automotive haute couture,' he enthuses, 'I was keen to make a strong style statement – it's where we'll be going in the future, a celebration of style and presence and the people who own them.'

No doubt certain customers will demand the company deliver this exact car tomorrow, regardless of whether or not it actually worked. It makes perfect sense for BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce to fly the flag for their respective brand values and shape a future narrative that plays to their respective strengths. But for once these conceptual visions are exactly that – informed speculation about a world that’s still a few decades away. At least, that’s what BMW hopes.

INFORMATION

To find out more about The Next 100 Years, visit BMW’s website

This year's Salone del Mobile saw a bevy of car brands catch the design bug. Here's our edit of the best.



Setsuna by Toyota: This wooden roadster concept explores the value of a car beyond mere driving. The functioning roadster is conceptualised to explore our relationship with our vehicles, our memories, history and the physical ageing process.



The Setsuna is constructed using 86 handmade wooden panels chosen according to weight, durability and stiffness, and assembled using the traditional Japanese wood joinery method of okuri ari

Car companies are increasingly finding their way to Milan in a bid to absorb the creative spirit of Salone del Mobile; it makes sense to be involved in the wider design world given the car’s ongoing evolution from a vehicle for transport to a multi-functioning product and advanced tech gadget.



This year, Toyota presented an unusual study car as part of Fuorisalone, away from the main trade show in the vibrant Tortona design district. The Setsuna is made of wood, and at first glance it could easily be mistaken for a toy car. Yet this is a fully functioning roadster replete with an engine conceptualised to explore our relationship with our cars, our memories, history and the physical ageing process.



Meanwhile, sister company Lexus took over a former metal factory to exhibit 'Anticipation' with Formafantasma. Here the Italian design studio based its study on the Lexus LF-FC, first seen at last year’s Tokyo Motor Show, to create a curious trio of installations that explore the fusion of machine, craft and tradition in the context of this hydrogen powered fuel-cell car.



The Japanese marque also exhibited its Lexus Design Awards, an ambitious annual project to support emerging international talent. Among the 12 finalists chosen from over a thousand entries were some interesting and unusual propositions. They included packaging material made from seaweed, an instinctive children’s toy set, modular clothing and a clock that visualises the present by marking the passing of time.



Also in Tortona, 'Mini Living' explored urban life, with some simple yet intriguing ideas on affordable compact housing for a utopian future. The concept saw four 30 sq m apartments share a residential building to form a micro-neighbourhood where basic assets are shared through a clever wall mechanism of rotating shelves that are pushed out into a communal space.



Elsewhere, 'Cactus Chair' by Italian designer Mario Bellini utilises Airbump, the intelligent protective side shield mounted on the Citroën C4 Cactus, for a lightweight and comfortable seating product.



Land Rover and industrial designer Odo Fioravanti created an installation featuring a surfboard, snowboard and longboard to celebrate the freedom of movement offered by the latest Evoque Convertible SUV, whilst Aston Martin joined forces with Quintessence Yachts to celebrate the imminent launch of its first luxury powerboat, the AM37.



See above for our pick of the most inspiring car-related products in Milan above...

Japanese cedar makes up the exterior, chosen for the refinement of its wood grain and its flexibility; the chassis is made of birch; strong Japanese zelkova constitutes the floor; and the seats are made of smooth Castor-aralia.



The idea is that the material will change colour and texture with time, showing the evolution of the vehicle and thus adding emotional value to the car. The Setsuna has ecological benefits too, since the modular panels can be exchanged when needed, rather than having to replace the whole body.



Meaning ‘moment’ in Japanese, the Setsuna is a romantic study of the car as a living, breathing object that matures, not just visually but spiritually absorbing the aspirations, memories and emotions of its various owners

Lexus x Formafantasma's 'Anticipation': Lexus took over a former metal factory to exhibit a trio of installations by the Italian design duo Formafantasma. Working to the overall theme of ‘anticipation’, the Amsterdam-based studio explores the fusion of machine, craft and tradition. The Lexus LF-FC fuel cell vehicle is the muse here, investigating the possibilities of the lightweight material and sustainable hydrogen energy outside the context of motoring.



For the overall structure, Formafantasma has installed translucent partitions inspired by Japanese shoji – the paper walls and doors are fixed over a lattice frame of wood to allow light to pass through and reveal shadows and shapes in a theatrical way

Visitors enter through a ‘garden’ of multiple wooden gates revealing a series of exhibition areas. The first features a set of metal stools painted, like the LF-FC, using traditional Japanese lacquering techniques that involve layering colours by hand and machine.



In the second room a large metal frame holds 7,200 delicate flowing transparent threads; an homage to early Japanese mechanised textile making, Formafantasma explains. Here a loom-like machine pulls and releases the threads that, once stretched, subtly reveal the three-dimensional outline of the LF-FC vehicle.



In the third and largest space Formafantasma celebrates the advanced hydrogen fuel cell technology in the LF-FC, used here to power a kinetic light installation. The four semi-circular stainless steel sculptures, mounted on a reflective pink platform that hides the power source, move to a choreographed slow dance.



To complete the sense of anticipation, Formafantasma worked closely with Michelin-starred chef Yoji Tokuyoshi, of Milan's Ristorante Tokuyoshi, for a range of surprising tasting experiences (pictured) centred on clear water emitted by the LF-FC hydrogen fuel cell technology as an expression of its sustainable qualities

DADA by Myungsik Jan, for Lexus Design Awards: DADA is inspired by the Korean ceremony doljabi, when on a first birthday a range of objects are placed in front of the child. What they choose is said to reveal their career. This modern rendition uses a range of natural blocks, cylinders and fabrics to pique the child’s curiosity and predict their future path

AM37 by Aston Martin and Quintessence Yachts: The AM37 is a joint project between Aston Martin and Quintessence Yachts, and the car marque’s first venture into nautical design. The name suggests its size; this 37-foot water vessel utilises carbon-fibre in its construction with a clever vacuum infusion technology to build a scalpel-sharp hull that is at the centre of its design.



The marque is promising further advances, such as interactive voice control and activation, a fully HD-integrated touch screen with navigation and multimedia system and remote control functions. The boat is expected to launch later this year

'FreeRide' by Odo Fioravanti, for Land Rover: Industrial designer Odo Fioravanti has worked with Land Rover to create 'FreeRide', an installation featuring a surfboard, snowboard and longboard to celebrate the freedom of movement offered by the latest Evoque Convertible SUV

'Cactus Chair' by Mario Bellini, for Citroën: The 'Cactus Chair' by Italian designer Mario Bellini utilises Airbump, the intelligent protective side shield mounted on the Citroën C4 Cactus, for a lightweight and comfortable seating product.



The supple TPU (thermo-plastic urethane) skin on the Airbump, with its multitude of air capsules, requires no particular maintenance and is designed to protect the car’s bodywork against knocks and scratches. Bellini’s design utilises similar technology to create a lightweight construction that offers the same levels of comfort as a traditional chair

'Shape Shifters' by Angelëne, for Lexus Design Awards: This is a new form of textile cutting for adaptable clothing to promote personalisation and reduce consumption and waste. With an MA in material futures from Central Saint Martins, studio founder Angelene Laura Fenuta looks at how modular principles can help create dynamic garments with embedded silhouette versatility

'Plants-Skin' by Hiroto Yoshizoe, for Lexus Design Awards: This intelligent, moderately permeable flowerpot is made from coloured mortar coated with hydro-chromic ink. When the surface absorbs water the white ink becomes transparent and colour appears, the gradation revealing the level of moisture, so as to indicate when the plant requires feeding

'Mini Living' by Mini, ON and Arup: 'Mini Living' explores new models for urban existence in the form of a modern shared-living concept. This inspired idea sees four 30 sq m apartments on a single floor of a residential building form a micro-neighbourhood with basic assets – kitchen, laundry, utilities – shared through a simple wall concept of folding and rotating shelves that are pushed out into communal spaces.



Here, Mini worked with Yokohama architects ON Design for their expertise in micro-housing and collaborative living, whilst the Berlin office of engineering consultant Arup provided technical support.



'Mini Living' visualises likeminded people residing almost communally without sacrificing privacy in an affordable and rather attractive housing project

'Trace' by Studio Ayaskan, for Lexus Design Awards: The clock visualises the present by marking the passing of time through a liquid that changes colour under ultra-violet rays. Conceptualised by the London-based, Turkish studio Ayaskan, a UV light beam rotates around the face of the clock to mark every second, minute and hour, leaving a trace of colour as time sweeps by, then fading back to transparency

'Agar Plasticity' by AMAM, for Lexus Design Awards: Winner of the Lexus Design Awards, the Japanese studio AMAM worked with Max Lamb as a mentor, to explore sustainable packaging using a gelatinous material made from red marine algae. The flexibility of the material means that it can be used for both cushioning and packaging; it can be ecologically disposed of and won’t harm marine line if it should drift into the sea

INFORMATION

For more information, see our Salone del Mobile live report

A couple on a scooter peer into our car as we wait by the traffic lights. They compliment the bright blue Mini Convertible as the girl jovially asks if she can finish our ice cream. It is a strange request, granted.



Yet cruising the expansive ocean road on the outskirts of Lisbon, roof lowered soaking up the Portuguese winter sun, the spirited Torre de Belém and Atlantic in full view, it feels almost natural to hand over a half-eaten gelato. This is what cars like the Mini do. Their unashamed retro-ness prompts a sense of nostalgia – perhaps in this case for more innocent times when ice cream sharing was de rigueur.



This is Mini’s third-generation Convertible since the marque’s rebirth under the BMW Group. Like the latest version of the hatch, which was launched last year, the fabric-roofed sibling is a consciously more adult car. For a start, it forgoes some of the more playful interior elements – the bubbly door knobs, oversized dials and so on – for more sober features.



In truth, it was time for the Mini to grow up. The retro cuteness felt a little self-conscious – forced, you could say – and was in danger of becoming an empty pastiche of the original Issigonis car. The Mini had become a victim of its own global success – and perhaps the Munich management felt too comfortable to make too many fundamental changes.



The slightly conservative approach works. The Mini is a more expensive car than those that share its size, and for this alone it must offer a more exclusive package. So everything we see, feel and smell are noticeably more premium; a bigger package of kit is now offered as standard, and there is a much bigger emphasis on personalisation too.



Measurements have increased all-round compared to the previous model – it's now 98mm longer, 44mm wider and 1mm higher. A 28mm longer wheelbase offers noticeable extra legroom for all passengers, and there is 36mm more legroom in the back, even if the second row remains a mighty tight fit. Then again, the Mini Convertible isn’t setting itself out as a practical family car – it is a car for two, with perhaps a small child, and with enough room to offer a lift to a friend.



Like the previous model, the boot-lid is hinged at the bottom for a split-tailgate and an opening top deck for easy access – the former looks great and is also practical, supporting up to 80kg. The cargo area now offers some 25 per cent more space at 215-litres, reduced to 160-litres with the roof lowered.



The dash remains distinctively Mini but is more refined, with a 6.5-inch display infotainment display screen offered as standard with Bluetooth and Mini Connected services, parking sensors and a reversing camera.



The main design advancement is with the fabric roof construction; one of the outgoing model’s shortcomings was the lack of visibility with the roof lowered as the bulky fabric sat a little clumsily above the rear seats.



This is no longer the case. The fully electric folding roof goes up and down in a reasonable 18 seconds and at speeds of up to 18mph, and there is the handy sliding sunroof option that can be activated at any speed. With new roof acoustic insulation it is also noticeably quieter inside the cabin with the roof up – as we got to experience on the second day, the sun sliding behind clouds for a furious Atlantic rainstorm.



The handling is noticeably smoother and faster especially, in the Cooper S we drove; the engineers have optimised the stiffness so it has grip and go, retaining the go-kart feeling that is so integral to Mini's identity.



An entry-level Mini One variant is expected to launch later in the year, as is a range-topping sporty John Cooper Works. For now though, the marque is offering the Convertible range in three options – the turbo petrol Cooper, turbo diesel Cooper D and the Cooper S with 189bhp from a 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine.



Customisation options now include two new exterior colours – a Melting Silver and the bright Caribbean Aqua that we drove, and the Union Jack pattern can be delicately woven into the back of the headrests, if this is what the customer so wishes.



A special Open 150 Edition – of which 150 models will be available – is also available to order this month. It features a special leather upholstery and paint combination, exclusive dash plaque, Chili Pack and Media Pack, including LED headlights and satellite navigation.



Mini had started to seem constrained by its own creation; the compelling storyboard sketched for the marque in 2000 was beginning to restrict the design process, allowing for only minor evolutions. The new Mini Convertible may have taken a more traditional narrative route, yet it still manages to instill subtle humour, witty aesthetics, that element of surprise. Gone are the redundant metaphors though (perhaps bar the Union Jack); instead, we are offered a more considered car and a more intelligent machine that is still hugely fun to drive.



A sobered up Mini is a nod to maturing motoring habits – yet still young enough to invite ice cream sharing with strangers on a Portuguese street.

INFORMATION

Mini Convertible, priced from £18,475, available this month. For more information, visit Mini’s website

Photography courtesy Mini Cooper

What do you do once you’ve re-built a brand from the bare bones of fond childhood memories and carefully re-interpreted design features, only to discover that the resulting creation has outgrown the cultural status of the original?

Perhaps this is a nice problem to have, for it’s certainly the situation BMW finds itself in with its 15-year stewardship of the Mini marque, during which time the German giant has flirted with national identity, reinvented guerrilla marketing for the digital era and in the process utterly re-shaped the way upmarket small cars are sold.

In summary; the base model is bulked out with a catalogue’s worth of optional extras, allowing buyers to create a car that supposedly represents their ultimate desires. These options range from bodywork stickers through to a hefty array of interior options, from leather trim packs to additional driving modes and even a head-up display. It keeps the car profitable, distinctive and fresh – helpful when you’re riffing on a design originally sketched out in 1959.

The new Mini has always been a delight to drive, but BMW has had to diversify to maintain growth. The original car, as launched in 2001, was a carefully composed 150% photocopy of the original Alec Issigonis design. Over the years, and over three separate generations, the Mini range has grown to encompass a convertible, a small estate, an SUV, a sports coupe and roadster and five-door estate. Mechanical parity with equivalent BMW models is kept low-key and unobtrusive, and the parent company has been careful to keep production focused on the UK at its plant in Oxford (the Union Jack is a popular Mini motif).

This new Cooper S Clubman is the second iteration of the biggest conventional Mini model, away from the hefty Countryman SUV. The extended length is far better suited to the elongated frontal treatment of the third generation car – the legacy of extending the original geometry of the flat-faced 1950s-designed Mini into an aerodynamic, crash-worthy shape demanded by modern regulations. The Clubman might be large and handsome, but the chunky interior styling shrinks the perception of space (a glass roof thankfully keeps it from becoming too claustrophobic). Another legacy form – the round dial at the heart of the dashboard – is now home to a well thought-out infotainment system, although the graphics verge on the immature and the Wurlitzer-inspired lighting scheme pushes the ‘playful’ vibe to its limits.

In many respects the Mini is the quintessential automobile for the Millennial generation, representing an appealing bundle of nostalgia, superficial individualism, a much-vaunted design-centric approach and a carefully cultivated ‘cheeky’ image (although after a decade and a half the latter might be wearing slightly thin). More so than any other car, you have to be committed to the Mini character, one of the most self-conscious brands of recent times. There are many upsides, not least the way it drives. In Cooper S trim, the Clubman handles with Mini-like aplomb, one value that has been applied consistently since day one, although the eco-modes will sternly shut down the fun for the sake of lowering emissions. In many respects, the Clubman is the ‘grown up’ Mini for a maturing buyer, gravitating towards functionality but not yet willing to put away childish things. One only has to look at the Mini’s myriad imitators to see that these cars still get it right for so many people.

of recent times

INFORMATION

Mini Cooper S Clubman, from £22,755 (as tested £32,990). For more information, visit Mini’s website

There was a time when carmakers came to Milan to observe. A handful of the more advanced designers would visit Salone del Mobile to be inspired by the wider creative community. This, however, is beginning to change, with an increasing number of car manufacturers partaking in the last few years - with mixed results.

Milan acts as a fantastic branding exercise, which is naturally part of the pull. Yet there are certain silent codes when participating here. The Salone is not, for instance, a platform for unveiling a new car and showcasing products and furniture based on the contour of the latest concept perhaps lacks imagination.

Take a tour of all the auto brands' projects at Salone

Surely with the concentration of creative minds gathered here for the week, Milan should be the ideal platform for discussions on contemporary subjects - namely mobility. These are urgent matters that can benefit greatly by involving original minds from outside the insular auto world.

This year BMW, Mini, Lexus, Mazda, Ford and Hyundai participated in Milan, and what they showed with their choice of collaborations provides an insightful window into their philosophy.

The BMW Group took on the theme of future mobility by engaging non-automotive designers in the dialogue. Spanish artist and designer Jaime Hayon embellished Mini's latest Citysurfer with bold colours and textures displaying the foldable scooter concept in a fictional city of marble roads and oversized road lamps.

Zurich-based designer Alfredo Häberli worked closely with the team at BMW to unravel a range of scenarios that address driving in the future. It was an inspiring study of how we could move from place to place - of our relationship with driving once the car becomes an autonomous object. The display here addresses mobility in a much wider context, taking on the vessel, road structures, architecture and city planning.

Others took on a more linear approach. Ford, for example, exhibited a range of objects inspired by its latest GT concept including a boat, chair, chaise lounge and guitar. Elsewhere, Mazda took on a similar scheme with a different objective allowing the non-car products to interpret the marque's Kodo design philosophy in novel ways. Hyundai, on the other hand, looked at how the finance and art world could connect.

Finally, Lexus offered a highly conceptual installation. This was a journey through the 'cycle of life', via designer Philippe Nigro's latticework cocoons and enhanced by unusual tasters created masterfully by chef Hajime Yoneda. The idea was to excite us, to awaken our senses in order to explore the possibilities of design, making the act of driving a more sensory experience.

It's time for a new Mini, the third iteration of the reborn classic that goes from strength to strength as it fragments into myriad models and variants. The new car is set to be unveiled concurrently at the Tokyo and Los Angeles motor shows in November, so for now we have to settle on a virtual preview of its upcoming concept car, the Mini Vision.  



It is hard to make a definitive judgment based on its digital format, but on first glimpse the new car appears more compact, a little more chiselled and certainly less heavy than the outgoing model. Sharper, more defined exterior lines help shed visual weight so the car feels less cutesy. 'We are introducing a sharper sculptural language,' confirms head of design Anders Warming. 'It represents our next era of form language,' he told Wallpaper* during the event held at Mini's design studio in Munich.



Most striking is the new double grille design. Warming notes that it 'reverts back to where we came from', and it's certainly closer to the original 1960s Sir Alec Issigonis car in how the top grille integrates with the bumper and fog lights. The curvature on the bonnet is also a direct reference to the former, where a sharp raised line intersected the bonnet.



Warming and his team have had the most fun with the interior. In typical Mini fashion, there's self-conscious quirkiness in the shape of Union Jack cup holders and disco lights, but overall the cabin is less cluttered. The familiar oversized circular central display unit remains the dominant feature, but it's now fully digital and housing all the connectivity aspects. Meanwhile, all that relates to physical driving appears on the steering column, and the floating centre console houses the mechanical dials for a 'good balance between mechanical and digital,' says Warming.



A new feature is the stretch fabric element in the doors - here criss-crossed as the Union Jack - that can be modified to act as cup holder, storage unit and so on. It replaces the usual plastic elements, is light and therefore a good way of shedding weight. The cloth concept is intriguing and it would be interesting to see if the team will push this forward for development.



A switch allows you to change the lighting, colours and atmosphere inside the car. Hit the sport button, for instance, and the whole space lights up in red - the display switches change too to signify that the steering, throttle and exhaust are now in their sportiest settings. This will also change the display unit to a classic, analogue-style view or 3D look. Finally, the footwell can be activated for a series of 'Mini disco' patterns.



According to BMW Group design director Adrian Van Hooydonk, the differentiation in the Mini line caters for increasingly different drivers. 'This wouldn't mean the Countryman for instance becomes sober, but there would be a different feel especially with interior colour and trim treatment,' he told us.



BMW is also making sure that tech sharing lowers costs. 'Now that we share the new front-wheel drive platform with BMW there is no longer the pressure to expand,' Van Hooydonk says. 'That gives Mini more time and space to consider its next step.'



Mini Vision isn't quite back to basics, but it bodes well for a more harmonious, honed and attractive basis for Mini to weave its magic in the years to come.