Zaha Car 2005

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Architect Zaha Hadid may not be the first name to cross your mind when you think “concept car.” But after creating a plant for BMW in Leipzig, Germany, and a car park in Strasbourg, France, Hadid needed to design an actual car to complete her automotive set. Or so thought car collector and art dealer Kenny Schachter, who had exhibited work from her studio at his London gallery. Craving a way to combine design with his love of cars, he commissioned Hadid last fall to create an original concept car. The resulting Z.Car project, which will premiere at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, might be viewed as the first car designed for the new century. Hadid’s very unlikelihood made her ideal for the job.

“Her buildings are elegant vessels that cut through space,” says Schachter. “The choice was simple and obvious, but the best things usually are. Good design blurs distinctions about genre, and all her works have movement built into them. The design for a car is an obvious conclusion to the work that preceded it.”

Of that work, the first automotive project from Zaha Hadid Studio was the parking structure for an outlying Strasbourg tram station, which opened in 2001. Hadid’s concept was to create a constantly shifting whole by integrating the fields and lines of the building, the paths of the cars and the movements of the users. The parking grid was treated as a “landscape,” with visual features that guide users both within the parking area and between it and the tram station.

Lines of light not only on the ceiling but also along the floor reinforce the travel lanes. On the concrete, white lines that guide the cars into their spaces start out parallel at the entrance, then curve gently with the boundaries of the site. Each parking space is marked by a vertical light post; their upper ends maintain a constant datum height even as the floor slab under them tilts. An area of darker concrete cuts at an angle through the flowing lines like a shadow to link the tram station with the car park.

To progress from a parking structure to car manufacturing plant is a big step, perhaps, but it is also a step back in the chronology of the car: It must be built before it can be parked.

The Leipzig plant was created in 2002. From the outset, Hadid’s goal was to reflect BMW’s brand values of uniqueness and outstanding performance. Like all her works, its architectural language rejects repetitive and preconceived forms that lack imagination or relation to the site, even if they are the simplest to build. Computer-aided product-design software permits the studio to generate plans for organic, curvilinear structures that can be easily and affordably manufactured. What better client than an automaker whose products rely on the advanced designs created by engineers who use similar software?

The central building is the confluence point for the flow of cars, people and goods through the plant. The studio calls it a “compression chamber” among the three main segments of auto production: body-in-white (the raw shell of the car), paint shop and assembly. Its top floor projects over the drop-off point at the main entrance, with views through the lobby deep into the building itself. Radically unlike the rectilinear boxes of most car plants, Hadid’s structure has courtyards inserted deep into its heart, bringing daylight and visibility where traditionally none was provided.

Organized as a pair of cascaded plates, like staircases, that overlap in the middle, the building’s form overlooks a central focus: the quality-control area. Partly assembled BMWs move overhead from station to station on tracks, clearly showing the sequential steps of vehicle assembly.

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The plant’s openness contributes to the collegial design process for the products built inside it. This transparency—a crucial aspect of Hadid’s work—is both physical and organizational. Work areas for white- and blue-collar employees are mingled, as are lunch areas, locker rooms and other facilities. Production workers pass through engineering and administrative areas on their way to and from their lunch breaks.

Even the car park, so often merely acres of blacktop, becomes artwork. Mapped across a field in swooping trajectories, its sections are punctuated by beds of water reeds, poplar trees and other vegetation that create a garden for parking—usually the most regimented of functions. The landmark that identifies the BMW plant to drivers passing on the highway is an artificial mountain with a walkway offering panoramic views.

Plaudits for the BMW plant underscored the striking nature of the achievement: That BMW, albeit a design-driven firm, should make the effort to create a unique facility for all its workers—not just for the few top designers in nice offices—only serves to shame other manufacturers.

Now Hadid has taken a further step back in the chronology of the car: from the manufacturing plant to the actual design of the car itself.

The brief for what became the Z.Car was to create a vehicle that reflected the studio’s design aesthetic. Schachter also felt it had to be environmentally advanced, a criterion which also chimed in with Hadid’s quest for intelligent design. When the brief landed, the studio’s creatives were excited by the challenge.

“In this office, we do architecture, but we see it as design work,” says Jens Borstelmann, one member of the project team. “Those fields are very close; they both relate to the people that use them. We do products, chandeliers, interiors—everything that has to do with people. It’s interesting for us. A building might be 500 meters long, whereas the Z.Car is only 4 meters long. So it’s at a completely different scale, but still it has the ergonomics, and it needs to fit human needs.”

Such a simple brief kept the scope virtually unlimited, and the team could work without compromise. “Although, of course, the car has to work, there’s no such thing as a good design that doesn’t function,” points out Borstelmann. The biggest challenge, he says, was working within all the functional constraints required of an automobile while creating a design that distinguished itself from other cars.

Hadid’s team set down some basic criteria of its own. They specified a practical city vehicle: easy to park and environmentally friendly. They chose a fuel cell with electric drive to power it. Says Borstelmann, “We wanted it to be very quiet and not create a lot of noise pollution, and to use renewable energies that limit environmental damage.”

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Hadid’s office was interested in exploring how a car could affect its driver’s behavior in the city. “We thought that driving around in a car like this might make you see your environment in a different way,” suggests Borstelmann. Conceived to be built from carbon-fiber composite, using “drive-by-wire” technology, the car is lightweight as well as small. “Perhaps it would make you more conscious, more aware. You are enclosed in a passenger pod; it’s very different from a regular car.”

The streamlined design of the Z.Car, with storage up front and the engine at the rear, reflects Hadid’s organic language. “It’s shaped like a water drop; as we intend it to use hydrogen, we wanted that as a reference,” says Borstelmann. The styling was designed to generate a fluid shape, with minimum wind friction. He’s proudest of its high degree of asymmetry—crucial to Hadid’s design language—and creating a distinctive design that incorporates the very developed technologies of an automobile.

The studio decided it made sense to give the car just three wheels, which kept with the zeitgeist, since manufacturers, including Volkswagen and Peugeot, are experimenting with three-wheeled concepts. “In this office, we always like to challenge things that are already there, so we decided to go not for four wheels. If you look at energy efficiency and wind friction, for example, the ideal shape is to have a car body that is wider in the front and shorter at the back. Four-wheel cars usually generate a lot of friction, especially at the back, so we chose to eliminate this by not having a fourth wheel at all,” says Borstelmann.

The studio was aware of previous three-wheelers, but not all of them shared the Z.Car’s configuration: two wheels in front, with passengers side by side. “To increase the communication between driver and co-driver, it makes more sense to put them next to each other,” he says. “And it makes the car more stable, because you’ve got the two wheels in front.”

Hadid insisted that the car be practical for use in the city, that it adapt to the driver’s differing needs. For a start, the overall height of the car is variable: The arm that carries the rear wheel is mounted on a hinge that connects it to the passenger pod. The passenger pod raises and lowers according to the car’s speed: At low speeds, it stays in the higher position, giving the driver a better view ahead and making the car easier to park. At higher speeds, the pod is automatically lowered 10 degrees, placing the center of gravity closer to the road and making the car more stable.

Thus the Z.Car neatly bridges two distinct flavors of chassis design: One is the upright urban car, with small size and good forward visibility; the other is the performance-focused sports car, with its low center of gravity. Changing the angle of the passenger compartment allows the Z.Car to handle quite differently depending on the needs of its environment. That said, Borstelmann notes that the hinge is the design element that would need the most refinement if the car were to be engineered for production.

The team members were inspired by their experiences of navigating the city they work in and, no doubt, by the Smart ForTwo urban car that Hadid uses. “Driving is difficult in London and other European cities, so a Smart is ideal,” he says. “This car is bigger than a Smart, but it’s smaller than a VW Golf, for example. And with a short wheelbase, it’s more compact.” And Borstelmann, a motorcyclist, knows firsthand the importance of a high seating position in city traffic.

Other practical Z.Car features envisaged by the studio include the large, asymmetric front-door hatch that gives the drivers panoramic forward vision. Cameras replace the rear window, displaying the view out back on a video screen located inside, where a traditional rearview mirror would be. Occupants can adjust the tint of the windows, whose translucence can vary by adjusting the current that powers thin LED film on the surface.

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Inside, the two occupants sit side by side, entering when the passenger pod is lowered. The passenger seat slides back to allow the driver—climbing in from the left—easier access to the right-hand seat. The seats and even the steering wheel are flowing forms, each a single shape designed to be as clean as possible. The team liked “the idea of having a single element from which you can control everything, without spoiling the whole interior,” says Borstelmann. With drive-by-wire technology, turning the wheel sends signals to control modules that actually vary the angle of the wheels via electric motors or hydraulic systems.

The team also played with another feature: a baggage pod that could be inserted between the passenger compartment and the rear suspension to expand the car’s capacity. “If you’re driving around the city, just going to meet friends, you need a shorter car. But if you want to go on holiday, or you travel, you can’t put all your luggage in the car. If you can expand it, if you have an extra module in your garage that you plug in, you can use that to increase your space.”

From initial designs on a digital drawing board, the Z.Car concept has now moved to the next phase: a 1:1 scale model. Creation of a full-scale shape followed extensive research by Hadid’s studio and also by Schachter, who asked kit-car manufacturer GTM to do a feasibility study of the Z.Car’s practicality. Based in Coventry in Britain’s Midlands, GTM produces a range of sports car models in small numbers. The company is ideally suited to this unique and experimental project.

The scale model will be displayed at shows and exhibitions, including the Guggenheim retrospective of Hadid’s work, giving it exposure that should attract financing. This will allow other parties to get involved, in particular transport-design students.

The ultimate plan is to turn the Z.Car into a road-registered vehicle. Because it would be produced only in limited numbers—and hence would be subject to fewer regulations in the UK—the car could feasibly be on the road years ahead of a high-volume equivalent. Will it actually be powered by a hydrogen fuel cell? If so, it would join only a few thousand running fuel-cell cars on the planet.

Zaha Hadid Studio and GTM use the same 3D design software, so their collaboration will be digital as well as personal. Maintaining the Z.Car’s design language while incorporating necessary features may require intense back-and-forth between designers and engineers; Borstelmann says the process is not easy but sees it as a huge opportunity for both parties.

An architect without formal training in automotive design who actually creates a car isn’t as unusual as it may seem. As design disciplines cross over, architects and car designers have put already their stamp on yachts. But while some non-automotive designers tinker with trim or embellish interior features, only an elite handful have produced entire concept cars.

That group includes the Paris-based Courrèges fashion house. Its functioning Bulle and EXE prototypes, built in 2002 and 2004, were shown at Michelin’s Bibendum Challenge for environmentally friendly cars. Product designer Marc Newson created the toylike 021C concept car in 1999 for Ford; electronics entrepreneur Clive Sinclair sold the 15-mph C5 electric car in 1985; and architect Renzo Piano built the VSS concept car for Fiat in 1978 using plastic panels on a steel space frame. In this light, the Z.Car is a logical extension of Hadid’s multiple design interests.

Schachter, the Z.Car’s patron, isn’t stopping there. He recently received planning permission to erect a mixed-use building created by Hadid on one side of London’s Hoxton Square. It features a ground-floor gallery, with apartments and a few offices above; its design, as always, references motion. With its heaved roof, “it looks like it can take off at any moment,” he says. He then adds a few choice words about the local council’s refusal to allow parking within the project—or even parking permits for tenants. “It’s these sorts of overlapping spheres that get me interested,” concludes Schachter, who cheerfully confesses to a weakness for unorthodox projects. He is enormously pleased with the results of the Z.Car venture. “It’s unique, and forward-thinking. I think it’s exceptional.”

NOTE: The members of the Z.Car design team were Zaha Hadid, Patrik Schumacher and Jens Borstelmann.

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Because It would have been a shame to have missed it.

Your welcome.

[Suka]

I just noticed this thread. Its a bit old now i know but i noticed it mentioned GTM cars in post 4, paragraph 3.
Anyone know whats happening with this thing now? I assume when they mention GTM they were talking about its then parent company RDM.