Stunning concepts for innovative cars created by some of the UK’s brightest young designers were displayed at this year’s Pilkington Vehicle Design Awards at the Royal College of Art.
The innovative designs presented by RCA students reflect the exciting ideas emerging from one of the world’s most respected vehicle design schools.
1. Javier Garcia was awarded ‘Best Design Interpretation’ for his project ‘Autonome’ – designed to facilitate private mobility in a world dominated by public transport. The project comprises a publicly-owned, autonomous ‘back wheel’, which can be connected to specifically-designed parts tailored to the individual user.
2. Tom Ellis draws on the concept of on-demand vehicle hire with the ‘60 minute car’, a sustainable vehicle stored unpacked within a vending machine. The car is assembled by a robot before being passed to the customer, and, once the hire time has elapsed, is disassembled and stored away again.
3. Patrick Carlton walked away with the ‘Best Use of Glazing’ award for his self-sustainable rural mobility project, ‘Thrive’. The vehicle is able to produce power from rain, wind and sunlight, by using piezoelectric materials composed of microscopic crystals that generate electricity when put under mechanical pressure.
4. ‘Project Reveal’ by Charles Purvis aims to investigate the notion of a shared luxury experience, exploring how generation Z could interact with a future Jaguar sports car. The concept looks at how materials can directly influence design, by focusing on how individual composites age, and beautify, with shared use.
5. ‘Separation’ is an autonomous vehicle that works in harmony with music. Designed by Minwoo Choi, the car provides ‘perfect silence’ allowing individuals to relax and escape from the stress of their everyday lives. The design features a sound-muffling exterior and a grille inspired by the walls of a recording studio.
6. Entitled ‘Mercedes-Benz Autonomous Racing’, Hosan Song’s driverless race car is powered by a jet engine and controlled by an AI system. Dubbed the ‘next silver arrow’, the design strives to inspire a new connection between man and machine, by increasing the trust users have in artificial intelligence.
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