Alistair McHardy was one of several students to choose an urban microcar for his project. His concept was for a 2+1 seater city car with a tougher, more masculine, styling than current French microcars, including Smart.

Photo Gallery 43 photos

The car is 1800mm wide to give more road presence and to provide space for a temporary third seat, between and slightly aft of the front seats.

Other projects included:
- A new single-seater 'ZZ-X Santa Cruz' stunt vehicle which mimics the sensation of BMX bikes and skateboards by Belgian student Lander Salaberria
- A microcar for 16-19 year old youths using the Salomon sports brand by Mark Fairley
- A Ducati-branded GT by Jonathan Morss
- An Adidas-inspired SUV by Paul Bloxham

The Coventry masters programme, now in its eleventh year, offers its students two routes to graduation. The MA Automotive Design focuses chiefly on practical 2D and 3D skills for employment as a studio designer whereas the MA Automotive Design Research path sets more of a ‘Research Exploration’ task leading to careers in design strategy, product planning or brand management.

Both routes in the 50 week, 3 semester, course are designed to appeal to former BA Design graduates who would like to spend a further year honing their skills or acquiring new ones, especially in the use of Alias software and clay modelling skills. The first semester focuses on visual language and sketch skills, followed by a second semester project with a sponsoring manufacturer, setting a specific brief and acting as ‘client’ for the students. More freedom, however, is allowed the students’ final project, which lasts 20 weeks. Definitive guidelines are set and a research report has to be submitted, explaining the detailed rationale behind the concept.

Corus Automotive is a major European producer of steel and aluminium for the motor industry and has acted as Degree Show host for the past seven years.

The new Bugatti Building was officially opened on December 1st by Alan Johnson, Minister for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education. The building houses a full-size, drive-in 3-D digitising and CNC milling bay together with computer-aided styling studios and a virtual presentation theatre. A private sponsor associated with the Bugatti Trust has assisted with the completion of Coventry University’s new design laboratory – hence the name Bugatti Building.

A fine example of a Type 35 Bugatti was on display, together with the first full-size vehicle model to be created within the lab – a lightweight, hydrogen fuel cell powered city taxi. The Microcab 4, as it is known, is a development of an earlier 3-wheeled project which was developed by Coventry University lecturer, John Jostins and his company, Microcab Industries Limited.

The new building not only supports research with both multinational and local companies but will also be used to strengthen the automotive design courses at the University. The Associate Dean of Art and Design at Coventry University, Professor Clive Richards said: “Coventry is the first University in Europe to offer a full-size automotive modelling capability and provides both undergraduate and postgraduate students with a leading edge experience for their individual and collaborative projects”.


Coventry University School of Art and Design website: www.coventry.ac.uk/csad

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