Scuola Polytecnica di Design Milan announces new Masters in Transportation Design

Jul 30, 2004 – Milan's Scuola Politecnica di Design has announced the new edition of the Masters course in Transportation Design, which will be held in partnership with Lamborghini. The Masters Course, starting in October 2004, will be coordinated by Marco Bonetto with the support of Walter De’ Silva, Design Director Audi-Seat-Lamborghini and Luc Donckerwolke, Chief Designer Lamborghini.

As part of the 2004-2005 edition of the Masters course, students from all over the world will take part in the development of a new concept car for the prestigious Italian car maker, which is now part of the Audi Volkswagen Group.

The admission process has started, and students who wish to enrol in the Masters course are requested to send a detailed curriculum and portfolio of works. For further infomation and admission request: info@scuoladesign.com

Established in Italy in 1954, the Scuola Politecnica di Design (SPD) was the first Italian School of Design. It was founded by Nino Di Salvatore, an artist belonging to the Movimento Arte Concreta. SPD trained thousands of designers from more than 40 different countries. For 50 years SPD has been designed around the human being: its aim is not simply to promote good design, but to focus on human centered design, neurophysiological and ergonomic factors - the relations between objects and spaces.

The 2003-2004 Masters in Transportation Design marked a new step in the association between the school and the Alfa Romeo Style Centre. The project that was presented in June 2004 involved students from France, Italy, Spain, Serbia, India, Mexico and South America, from Brazil to Venezuela.

The brief took as its starting point a reflection by Mario Favilla (from the Alfa Style Centre) on the 147, which is currently the only vehicle represented by the Milan-based brand in the crowded C sector. With the arrival of the new SUV, the Kamal, what future can be imagined for the 147? The road identified by Marco Bonetto, head of the Masters course, and the SPD students outlined a new car model more compact than the previous model and able to give an original interpretation of Alfa Romeo's characteristics and personality.

The students individually designed both exteriors and interiors, starting with an analysis of Alfa Romeo's history and moving on to the first sketches, modelling in Alias, and then the construction of physical models at 1:5 or 1:10 scale. The outcome of this work identified very different evolutions for the 147, from developing its sportiness by adopting models that are a take on racing cars with a central motor, to more city-based solutions.

Wladimir Lasbugues (France) took up the theme of the 2+2 seat coupé. His suggestion fits ideally into the roadster market by expressing sporting values alongside traditional ones. The car's lines are fluid, designed according to a dynamic line that runs all along the sides. The extended front is tapered towards the Alfa badge, the historic emblem of its past. The rear is cut like the prow of a boat. It is an aggressiveness that is underlined by the rear window, which is wedged like an eyebrow.

The Superleggera by Bruno Prata (France) goes in search of new style solutions. The general volume of the car doesn't vary - the rear cantilever is reduced by only 40mm. The main effort has been centred on finding continuity of line with a resulting fluidity in order to create harmony between the different parts of the car. This is because the car is an object in movement, all of whose sides we see in the space of a few seconds: the aggressive front that characterizes Alfa Romeo; the hollowed sides that make it sporty, and the rear outlined by the bumper that follows round the side towards the door.

As well as keeping the Alfa family feeling, the work of Carles Cortadas Guasch (Spain) perhaps represents the greatest evolution from the initial brief. His suggestion grafts a central motorization with rear-wheel drive onto the 147 chassis: this is a solution that AlfaRomeo has only rarely adopted, an exception made for some prototypes and racing cars. In particular, the predecessor he has chosen as a benchmark is the 33 road model created by AlfaRomeo in 1967. The interiors though are a take on the GTV package, the brand's most sporty vehicle, to underline again the search for delight and gracefulness in driving.

The work of Thereza Christina de Altersberger (Brazil) and Pierre Emmanuel Som (France) has also concentrated particularly on the interiors: the former by creating a new solution for the LED display for the air-conditioning system; the latter with a very refined suggestion in the design, colours and materials that can match up to the youthful, sporty tastes of the person who drives a 147 in the city and in their free time.

Harmony, sportiness and aggressiveness are the words that overall characterize all sixteen suggestions that were presented to Mario Favilla and Fabrizio Giugiaro on the last day of the Masters in June. It was the conclusion of a long task that made clear how the study to achieve form isn't only inspiration but, above all, construction of a method.


Scuola Polytecnica website: www.scuoladesign.com