Dornbracht - Tara.

Transforming a classic

Even the car industry has discovered its classics’

potential to serve as a reservoir for new ideas

and new products. With the VW GOLF there

came in 1974 a new classless type of car, whose

successive models – always with all the latest

technical innovations – always remind us of

their predecessor’s original design. The jour-

nalist Florian Illies (born in 1971) created the

advertising slogan “Generation Golf ”, the best-

seller title and a synonym for his own age group,

which evokes hedonism and brand awareness.

Several German car manufacturers try to con-

tinue the effect of this design heritage with sub-

sequent models. Mercedes-Benz, under head of

design Bruno Saccothus, set up in the middle of

the 1980s a set of rules which strived for a

“vertical and horizontal homogeneity” for all the

ranges. A new S-Class should therefore be simi-

lar to her predecessors, and yet simultaneously

also be in harmony with the brand’s other

classes. Classic qualities originate solely from

the durability of the cars, which has additionally

been supported by an evolutionary design prin-

ciple. When Mercedes began a product offensive

in the 1990s, the design also re-orientated itself

at short notice, there was simply no more oppor-

tunitytotunethedevelopmentofallthevehicles

so narrowly to one another in the same way as

before. Besides, a relationship that was too close

to the predecessors – as people now begun to

appreciate – would have hindered the brand’s

greater strides forward in development.

A completely different design approach is found

at Asian car manufacturers, for example with the

Honda Civic, whose f irst generation originated

in 1972. In this case no subsequent model is the

same as another. Each time the buyer should be

confronted with a new, contemporary approach,

a car that resembles different car generations

does not count as worthwhile. And from Japan

comes the idea of citing historical periods with

Part III

SELF-SIMILARITY AS A CONCEPT

by Thomas Edelmann

each new vehicle design. In the 1980s Nissan

began with the “Figaro”, a model which was

made exclusively for the Japanese market and

quoted typical style elements from the 1950s.

The new VW Beetle followed in the mid 1990s

– originally produced only for the US market –

intended to be reminiscent of VW Beetle of

the 1960s, which had been extremely unconven-

tional for American proportions. In 2001 the

New Mini arrived on the market. Shortly before,

BMW had bought the Mini brand and built the

car, which had experienced only minor changes

to the construction and the design since 1959,

with a new engine and had resolved to issue

a totally new model, whose design language

would resemble that of the predecessor, but

whose proportions, equipment and details would

be adapted to increasingly demanding require-

ments. On the further development of the Mini

head designer Gert Hildebrandt says: “The

premise is: nothing too fashionable. All the

design features must give way to the car’s func-

tion. The Mini is admittedly a fashion product,

but this does not mean its design has to be short-

lived.”

Classics are always in danger therefore, when

theybegintostagnate,whentheybeginto

appear backward. When its particular presence

no longer expresses an acknowledgment, but a

detachment from reality. In this respect classics

of transformation need to be radically chal-

lenged every now and then, as designers like

Alessandro Mendini and, more recently Marten

Baas and Martino Gamper have carried out on

their own works, hacking away at them to get

to the core. Now with white and black TARA

presents the abstract colours of the 1960s, redis-

covering a new avant-garde for us and allowing

us emerge from it ourselves altered. —

Anche l’industria automobilistica ha scoperto il

potenziale dei suoi classici come serbatoio di

nuove idee e nuovi prodotti. Con la Golf VW è

nato nel 1974 un nuovo tipo, scevro da classifi-

cazioni, i cui modelli successivi – con tutte le

innovazioni tecniche – si sono sempre ispirati al

predecessore, almeno dal punto di vista formale.

Il giornalista Florian Illies (nato nel 1971) ha

fatto diventare il claim pubblicitario “genera-

zione Golf ” il titolo di un bestseller e il sinonimo

del suo gruppo di coetanei che vive all’insegna

dell’edonismo e delle griffe. Molti costruttori di

auto tedeschi tentano di far rivivere l’eredità

creativa in modelli successivi. E così, a metà

degli anni Ottanta, Mercedes-Benz ha stabilito

un regolamento, sotto la direzione del design di

Bruno Sacco, che tende “all’omogeneità vertica-

le e orizzontale” delle serie. Una nuova classe S

deve essere simile ai modelli che l’hanno prece-

duta, ma al tempo stesso armonizzare con le

altre serie del marchio. Le qualità del classico

sono nate solo dalla solidità delle auto, suppor-

tata anche da un principio di design rivoluzio-

nario. Quando negli anni Novanta la Mercedes

iniziò l’offensiva del prodotto, anche il design si

orientò sui tempi brevi, non c’erano proprio più

chanceperconciliarelosviluppoditutteleauto

una appresso all’altra, come prima. Un legame

troppo stretto con i modelli precedenti – lo si

avvertiva così – avrebbe inoltre bloccato ulteriori

balzi evolutivi del marchio.

Un approccio al design completamente diverso

lo si trova nei costruttori di auto asiatici, si pensi

alla Honda Civic, la cui prima generazione risale

al 1972. Qui nessun elemento è uguale a un

altro. Ogni volta l’acquirente deve confrontarsi

con un nuovo principio conforme ai tempi, la

somiglianza tra auto di varie generazioni non è

auspicabile.L’ideadicitareepochestoricheattra-

verso il design di un’auto nuova, arriva dal

Giappone. Negli anni Ottanta, Nissan è decollata