Earlier last week Fleetpoint covered the collaboration between Renault and Central Saint Martins, University Of The Arts London to find a future focussed design for car interiors. (see original story here) The 9 groups of MIA students had the unique opportunity to experience the exclusive Global Design Studios in France before submitting their competition entries. And we can reveal that the winning designs belong to all-female team Oura.
Tasked with the brief of creating an interior for an autonomous-focused car, the winning three-strong Oura project imagined a one-person wearable vehicle suit with a gesture-controlled, ‘head-up display’visorusing virtual reality technology and where the vehicle’s interior is almost completely stripped away and the user interacts more closely with their environment as they travel.
The team beat strong competition from eight other teams of Central Saint Martins students during an intense few months of work which then involved expert design judges whittling down 27 ideas from nine teams to three finalists and one winner, announced at the special ‘Conversations with Clerkenwell’Q&A discussion at Goldsmiths’ Centre as part of Renault’s headline sponsorship of Clerkenwell Design Week.
The two highly-commended runners-up projects were SYEO (Share Your Extra Office) whose team came up with a vehicle that could act as a mobile office with seats that inflated into different configurations (to combat high London rents) and Phantasy, a project which imagined a colourful, configurable three-wheeler party or commuter urban car inspired by product designer Verner Panton.
Anthony Lo, Vice-President, Exterior Design, Groupe Renault, said: “This has been a really fascinating competition – to see some of the brightest upcoming design talent take on the challenge of how autonomous technology might influence the world of transportation in the future. I’ve been very impressed by the Central Saint Martins students’ creativity, team work and professionalism throughout the process. The final three entries all have great merit but we were most impressed by Oura because the designers went beyond the confines of a vehicle and created the most surprising concept. We look forward to welcoming Oura’s designers– Lily, Evgeniya an Zhenyou – to the Renault Design studios in Paris for their exclusive behind-the-scenes placement very soon.”
One of the specialist judges, Gemma Briggs, a commissioning editor at The Guardian added: “It was the fresh approach of the students that most impressed me. They had no hang-ups about what autonomous vehicles could be. I feel less afraid about the future of transport now.”
Leader of the all-female winning group Oura, Lily Saporta Tagiuri, commented: “We had to spend hours drawing and discussing, but I think what really drove us all on is that we did this project for ourselves.”
Nicholas Rhodes, Programme Director, Product Ceramic & Industrial Design, Central Saint Martins, UAL said: “The design of an autonomous vehicle is a major challenge that invites many questions and identifies many problems beyond the purely pragmatic and the infrastructural. The interior design of any such vehicle requires complete rethinking and reframing which brings massive opportunities for new forms of interaction and time use in transit. To be working on such a project with Renault – a truly design-driven company –has been a great opportunity, and a wonderful experience for all of us.”
The CSM UAL competition was a highlight of Renault’s second headline sponsorship of CDW.
The winning students will visit Renault Design at the Technocentre in Paris in early July giving them an extremely rare, and hands-on, chance to see behind the scenes at how Renault designs its future models.
Runners up include:
Renault SYEO
Whenever, however, wherever
Renault SYEO delivers flexible workspace to your door whenever and wherever you need it. Its novel interior is instantly reconfigurable according to multiple workspace needs – from intimate private space, to meeting, for brainstorming, video conferencing and more.
SYEO is an autonomous vehicle that can be summoned on demand to fulfil temporary space requirements. As a driverless vehicle, SYEO gifts its passengers the valuable time spent in transit for productive use. It provides multiple furniture and seating configurations primarily facilitated by use of inflatable seating components providing great flexibility in a compact space package.
Renault Phantasy
Belinda Deschamps / Rui Sun / Mike Simonelli
Renault Phantasy takes the opportunity offered by the autonomous vehicle to redefine the car as a space in transit. If autonomous transport is the future, then cars will become something other than just a way to move efficiently from one place to another. The car’s interior can change; matching the mood of its passengers, who may be going for a night out, to work, or to play.
In a self-driving vehicle where you don’t have to control anything, you may simply want to do something else– to relax, communicate, and have space to think. In big cities, traveling can be an effort, so Phantasy is an opportunity to connect with yourself, whilst also providing a particular social space if desired. One that orients passengers into positions that invite interaction.
