FRANKFRUIT, Germany -- Luxury German carmaker BMW, which turns 100 years next year, is one of the few automakers in the world that has kept its design traditions for so long. BMW cars still share their longtime design features like the double kidney grille up front. The carmaker introduced the typical grille shape in the 1930s.

But the Munich-based automaker has also made a lot of changes and innovations in vehicle design along with continued advancements of car engineering and customer needs, while keeping its traditions.

“The BMW design has sought (the harmony of) elegance and dynamism and my task is to continue this tradition into the future,’’ Adrian van Hooydonk, BMW’s head of design, said in a recent interview with The Korea Herald.

He has overseen the design work not only of BMW but also of Mini and Rolls-Royce since 2009.

Processes for creating new car design

Under this direction in design, the senior vice president of BMW Group Design adopted “modern luxury’’ as the main design theme for his latest project -- the all-new 7 Series. BMW officially unveiled the six generation of its long-waited and most luxurious sedan at the Frankfurt auto show, which kicked off on Sept. 15.

“The 7 Series is top-of-the-line among our products, the most luxurious product that we have made. BMW is also known for modern (auto) technology. So modern luxury is the combination of luxurious things we know and high-tech elements of the car. Also, it is about well-being inside the car,’’ he said, adding that his design team had to work hard to make the new 7 Series sedan express all these things together.

He continued to introduce the research and design processes taken to create the company’s high-tech driving machine with a sleek look.

“Five years ago, the company started the research process for design of the car under the project name of ‘seven, seven, seven.’ The design group created a team composed of around 10 people and sent them to seven different countries and regions for seven weeks with a mission to experience and look for modern luxury (elements) outside of the car,’’ the Dutch-born designer said.

They experienced modern luxury at hotels, restaurants, and shops and they talked to potential customers, dealers and so on. Then, they came back to Munich and made a presentation on all of things they found. It became a briefing for the design team.

“(Following the research), we started the design phrase, which is a design competition. We asked a large section of our design team to create sketches based on these inputs. And we picked the most promising one from those sketches. We built the models and selected the strongest one among the models,’’ he said.

It took one and a half years for the company to finish the research and design processes. 


Taking pride in caring details

“I love it when design and function merge into one with development such as ‘visual’ aerodynamics,’’ the car design veteran said. A prime example is the active kidney grille that the new BMW 7 Series adopted for the first time. The grille actively opens and closes based on the level of cooling required.

“It might be a small thing, but we were very serious to improve efficiency of the car, reducing fuel composition and we also wanted to make something iconic like grille in the car,’’ he said.

On the interior, he liked the offer of ambient lights in the cabin for comforts. The 7 Series sedan also offers the “Welcome Light Carpet,’’ as a part of the ambient light equipment, which illuminates the area in front of the car doors when entering and exiting.

“With the lights, we can show the fact that we go into details for the customers’ well-being,’’ he said.


Design for future cars

Besides the luxury sedan, the successor of Chris Bangle has also spearheaded in designing future cars like electric cars and driverless vehicles.

Most of all, he is proud of pioneering the design identity of electric and hybrid cars through BMW “I’’ cars, the company’s new subbrand for future cars. The company debuted all-electric BMW i3 for city commuters in 2013 and BMW i8 plug-in hybrid sports car for long-distance mobility in 2014.

“Most of all, BMW i8 is one of my favorites among BMW’s cars in history. We developed the futuristic concept car and actually built it in reality (a few years later),’’ he said.

With i-series, we wanted to present the future of mobility. These cars are different from traditional cars in that they are lighter and cleaner. We wanted to show the authentic design that explains what these new cars can do,’’ he said.

BMW cars under the badge of ‘’I’’ have a somewhat different and progressive look by using different materials and colors, compared with traditional BMW cars, but they also retain the brand identity by using BMW’s typical grille shape and seeking harmony of elegance and dynamism in design.

Entering the era of conversion of technologies, he stressed the importance of understanding auto technologies to become a good designer.

“For BMW, it is important to have an understanding of technology. Designers work closely with engineers to make things happen. From the beginning, we tried to understand what is different. The better you understand (technology) you can do better (in making the car different),’’ he said.

“I am optimistic about the future (of design). There are lots of cars in BMW history that I like so much... BMW always does good design and has expressed elegance and dynamism in cars. We will continue to do that in the future.’’

By Seo Jee-yeon, Korea Herald correspondent



(jyseo@heraldcorp.com)