Volvo Design Collection

Experience in Motion

Rapid technological developments are not only radically changing cars but also our experience of driving them. At the request of Volvo Cars Nederland, we took a look into the future. We investigated the implications and explored the possibilities offered by forthcoming developments – for cars and for our perception of them. Their trilogy Experience in Motion is an invitation to enter into a broad and open debate on the future of our sacred cow.

Outward-Looking

The mode of transport that radically changed the world is on the threshold of an unprecedented transformation. Will the world change again too, and if so, how? In ‘Outward Looking’, attention shifts from the vehicle to the environment and our perception of it. Travelling time becomes time for looking around.

photo: Lisa Klappe

The car as architecture
The car has become an object that suggests architecture. Because its skin is made of one-way-mirror material, the vehicle no longer claims attention for itself, but reflects the outside world. The spacious interior provides an unobstructed view in all directions and from all positions. The world has changed too: noise barriers and motorway lighting have become superfluous and have disappeared. Everything in the design encourages maximum perception of all this.

Viewing experiences
Three products stimulate and enrich the viewing experience en route. The binoculars sharpen your view and move the horizon; the picnic blanket is useful in the countryside and special places. A mirrored storage box (in two versions) re-establishes the time-honoured pastime of beachcombing. A light inside it lets you see the objects that have been collected.

The Fun of Driving

How will the driving experience and perception change if technology increasingly takes over from us? How different will driving be in the future and how will we take pleasure from it? These questions are at the heart of ‘The Fun of Driving’. Travelling time becomes fun time.

foto: Lisa Klappe

Eyes fixed on the road
The driver of the concept car sits under a streamlined hood that determines the line of sight. The car can be actively and vigorously steered using the joystick; the technology will intervene as soon as safety is under threat.

In the two-seater, the driver and passenger are in close contact. The outside of the car is covered in leather, while the interior is felt: materials that make reference to fashion and emphasize the role of the car as a second skin.

Extension of identity
The car is an extension of our identity. Van Eijk & Van der Lubbe took this given as a starting point for three designs – a bag made of leather, eight scarfs and a 3D-printed medallion that replaces the traditional car key – that you can take everywhere, indicating you’re a member of the club of proud, self-assertive car owners.

Contact

How do we perceive driving a car and travelling time when there is no need for a driver? Which opportunities does travelling in the vehicle of the future offer? ‘Contact’ examines a car journey as an opportunity for getting to know your fellow travellers and enriching your contact with them. Travelling time becomes quality time.

foto: Lisa Klappe

Social interaction
The inside of the concept car is completely stripped of technical applications, creating scope for social interaction. Travellers sit on Scandinavian pine and focus their attention on each other.

Volvo’s past and present are given expression in the car’s black upholstery: soft and pedestrian-friendly, consistent with the brand’s proverbial safety record. The outer layer reveals its Swedish context: it tells the Volvo story in silver thread.

Stimulating and facilitating
Two product designs stimulate and facilitate encounters during the car journey. The cast-iron pan enables a meal to be made in the car, while coverless notepads lie open, ready for notes on the talks to be taken or information to be exchanged. To complement all this, a fabric collection was developed in a jacquard weave in which the patterns that cover the outside of the concept car recur.

Client: Volvo © 2014-2015 | Project number: 14.006-VOL | More: Volvo Design Collection