Contemporary Car Design Idioms: shifting the paradigm from literal to phenomenal transparency George D.Liamadis, Assistant Professor School of Visual and Applied Arts, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki [email protected] Abstract In the post 9-11 period of social insecurity and terror that followed since, transparency hardly became the mainstream paradigm in car design. Iconic cars like the Renault Avantime, which epitomized the essence of openness, ended up as symbols of a future that never came. Instead of leading the way to a bright, ethereal future, they were rather used to signify the dangers of a threatening world in dystopian Sci-Fi films such as “The Children of Men” by Alfonso Cuaron. As lightness and movement -inherent qualities of the very essence of the car- could not be revealed through openness anymore, alternative ways to express these qualities had to be invented. Literal transparency was soon substituted by phenomenal transparency through design languages and idioms such as the bone lines, flame surfacing and the recent layered look. Βone Lines, defined as hard, positive only, linear 'peaks' in a car's bodyside, prominent enough to imply an outer skin stretched over something more structural, have been used heavily in automotive design. The bone line idiom is an effective metaphor for transparency, as it is no less than an expression of the content, flexible enough to follow –and equally reflect - the architectural qualities that lie beneath. Traces of phenomenal transparency can also be detected in a new emerging trend evolving in auto design lately: the layered look. According to this trend, car design moves beyond the long mighty paradigm of sleek monobodies to a sliced-and-angled appearance, where the car body seems to be made of parts layered atop a primary, inner structure. Layered cars appear to be assemblies of pieces flying in formation (Patton, 2014). The car dematerializes as it slides through the scenery; its layered form in mid- exploded view is made out of metal and air. Transparency is not an inherent quality of substance anymore; it is rather an inherent quality of organization. And this accurately brings us to Rowe’s distinguish between literal and phenomenal transparency. Both the bone lines and the layer surfacing as the contemporary car design idioms, define phenomenal transparency as conceived and indefinite, in contrast to literal transparency, which is perceived and definite (Rowe, Slutzky, 1968). The chief difference lies in how the viewer interacts with the design. The new paradigm in automotive design creates a condition of transparency that can only be fully explored and deciphered with the active involvement of the user. Introduction | transparency in car design Transparency exists in the very essence of the car, a sculptural object running through the landscape. Every fraction of a second the car optically covers a part of the landscape to reveal it back to our eyes in the very next fraction. The landscape remains perfectly visible through the silhouette of the automobile as this slides through the scenery constantly changing place (image 1). Quite interestingly, the faster a car moves the more transparent it becomes, and vice versa: the more transparent a car is, the faster it looks. Image 1: car dissolving into the scenery / landscape dissolving from inside the car Car design has always been exploring design idioms to make cars look lighter, whether literal, such as the use of glass, or phenomenal, such as the side character lines being there not only for structural reasons but also to break down the mass of the car in order to provide optical lightness. Even the distribution of masses and the careful placement of cutlines and shutlines have been used to the same direction. During the 1st Conference on “Transparency in Architecture, Fills and Voids” in the paper titled “Transparency in the Determination of Automotive Typologies and Forms” we examined the role of literal transparency in automotive design as expressed by the glazing to paneling ratio. A ratio, which plays a key role in the synthesis of automotive forms, determining the relation between full and empty space, or the contrast of light and dark areas (image 2). The size of the so-called DLO (DayLight Opening) indicates the typology and character of the vehicle in terms of styling, but also determines driver and passenger’s perception of internal space, speed and safety. Small glass surfaces create close, protective interiors and robust exteriors to make cars look and feel safer, while larger glass surfaces enhance visibility, increase the perception of speed and therefore make drivers more responsible in terms of their own risks and socially aware regarding the consequences of their actions. Image 2: glass to paneling ratio in different car typologies We also examined car interior is a neither exclusively private nor a public space, with different degrees of privatization achieved according to the type of glass used. At the turn of the millennium, as glass started to perform many more functions and could be moulded in increasingly complex forms, it was expected to allow designers a far greater freedom, thus enforcing its role in car design and styling. However, as we concluded back then, whether this freedom would generate over- or under-dimensioning of glass surfaces in future vehicles, was a matter conditioned by complex socio-cultural phenomena, rather than by the emerging technology itself (Liamadis, 2001). And this has been the case. At the turn of the century, two contrasting if not opposed trends regarding transparency were emerging in automotive design. Due to the ever-increasing concerns in passive safety, many cars adopted robust looks, with thick roof pillars, higher beltlines and narrow side windows, partly compensated for the loss of incoming day light by the large glass roofs. At the same time, certain typologies of cars such as the popular MPVs incorporated higher DLO profiles making full use of the glass technology advancements to boost the travel experience. And no other car epitomizes the essense of openness better than the Renault Avantime. Renault Avantime | a future that never came Having escaped from the highly imaginative world of the design studios, this ultra-modern, futuristic “coupe-space” was a bold crossover typology at the edge of coupe and monospace (or MPV otherwise). Never before a passenger of a sporty vehicle had this feeling of travelling aboard a spacious sailboat rather than a car (image 3). Image 3: Renault Avantime epitomized the essence of openness… The pillarless doors and the lack of central B-pillar gave the car a large uninterrupted glass area on each side, which led to a large open area when the windows were opened. This, along with the huge glass roof and light-colored interior scheme gave the inside of the car a very open, airy and spacious feeling. The windows and panoramic sunroof could open automatically at a single push of the ‘GrantAir’ button to reveal a cabin that became one with the passing landscape. A bright future was about to begin… That is, if history had no other, darker, plans. During the morning of September 11th 2001, in a fraction of seconds, transparency together with a bunch of other ideals passed its whole spectrum of meaning to the negative side. Indeed, in the post 9-11 period of social insecurity and terror that followed since, transparency hardly became the mainstream paradigm in car design. Iconic cars like the Renault Avantime, which epitomized the essence of openness, ended up as symbols of a future that never came. Instead of leading the way to a bright, ethereal future, they were rather used to signify the dangers of a threatening world in dystopian Sci-Fi films such as “The Children of Men” by Alfonso Cuaron (image 4). Image 4: ...but ended up signifying the dangers of a threatening world in the dystopian Sci-Fi film “The Children of Men” Shifting the paradigm | from literal to phenomenal transparency After the passive safety craze of the nineties, it was now time for a new concept to express the ideals of protection. Ford SYNus, although just a show car itself, led the way to close, overprotecting car forms often resembling armored CIT vehicles. If lightness and movement could not be revealed through openness anymore, alternative ways to express these qualities had to be invented. Literal transparency was soon substituted by phenomenal transparency through design languages and idioms such as the bone lines, flame surfacing and the recent layered look. Bone lines A bone line is a hard, positive only, linear 'peak' in a car's bodyside, prominent enough to imply an outer skin stretched over something more structural (CDN, 2007) (image 5). Bone Lines have been used heavily in automotive design to bring tension and structure to a car’s sheet metal skin. Ideally, these subtle fading ridges that flow along a surface are actually caused by an underlying frame, the way our cheekbones or collarbones impact the overlaying skin (AWOL trends, 2012). This is the case of BMW’s Gina concept car, which uses an elastic fabric skin stretched over a movable metal frame that allows the driver to change its shape at will. The seamless fabric over the complex structural framework implies a kind of emerging simplexity (image 6). Surfacing, instead of being sculptured as such, derives from the material itself which, stretched over a few hard points “does the talking in between”. According to Chris Bangle, ex-Chief of Design for BMW Group: “…the design team worked with sketches from the designer that said more or less has this kind of a feeling, more or less this kind of emotion, but then by that point they began to move rods and wires and pieces of plastic tubing underneath a stretching skin until they got a shape they like.