Chris Bangle interview - The big idea

[kay Профил]

Chris Bangle, designer of the BMW 7-Series, 6-Series, 5-Series, Z4, X3 and forthcoming 1-Series, is used to taking flak. When he first got his mitts on the BMW drawing board, people weren't expecting anything so radical as the fusion of slashes, folds, curves and creases that have defined the look of the modern Beemer. Press and public alike recoiled.

No amount of explanation can make people like these designs; if time doesn't do it, nothing will. But what's been missing from a lot of the criticism has been an explanation. Those who reacted against Bangle's designs didn't understand: why has BMW done this?

When I caught up with Chris Bangle at the Geneva motor show, he was glad to set things straight. His designs have principles. Bangle's idea is that car styling essentially divides into three historical eras: pre-1920s, 1920s to about 1970, and from 1970 onwards.

People are growing weary of the post-1970 style, and car designers are searching for the way forward. In a nutshell, where most manufacturers have gone retro, BMW has instead gone Bangle.

Here's the mental picture Bangle drew me. Picture a BMW 3-Series head on. If the car's flanks were to continue upwards instead of ending at the roof, they would eventually meet, and you would be looking at a 'tube'.

Car styling is a question of how much bodywork surfaces deviate from the whole of the tube - think of the tube as a lump of rock which can then be chiselled by a sculptor. Since 1970, car styling has deviated relatively little from this tube; bodywork surfaces have been simple.

Bangle gesticulates; in the hey-day of the previous design era, the 1950s, styling took free reign to deviate as much from the tube as possible, with fins, bumpers and glass areas sprouting all over the place. This is the excitement other manufacturers are attempting to re-capture with retro design, but this is not the path BMW wants to follow.

BMW wants to have something to develop in the future, whereas all retro designs have already been developed once, which is how they arrived at the present day.

Where retro styling leaves you nowhere to go next, Bangle's designs can evolve. Bangle's mission has been to develop a style that plays with the tube formula.

"Look at the 6-Series", he suggests. "Until the waistline the car fits into one tube, then above it a new tube forms - hence the separate bootlid". On the 5-Series three different tubes were used to form the style.

Even if this doesn't sound like cobblers to you, Bangle's experimentation may seem a bit random. Again though, the future has been planned from the start; these are not frivolous designs that can be discarded if people don't like them.

"You have to look twenty years ahead at the engineering, and make sure you can evolve the styling to use the same tooling. The styling is dictated by changes to the engineering. To re-tool with every re-style would be simply too expensive".

So a big change had to come at some point - as Bangle acknowledges, you can only take an icon so far before it becomes impossible to keep it modern-looking. The dramatic BMW designs of the early 2000s are intended to give the company a fresh platform for design.

If Bangle's recent promotion is anything to go by, the Munich top brass clearly think he's done just that. Bangle is now director of BMW Group design, overseeing BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce and co-ordinating their strategies.

He's certainly got the self-belief to carry it off. I put it to Chris that most people don't like the way his cars look. "No, most people do", he grinned. "They just won't admit it".

Toby Richards-Carpenter

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Ще ме прощавате че не съм го превел, но имам адски много работа. Някой ако му се занимава, моля

[NeoPrint]

Доста самонадеян бил госин Бънгал,дано е прав,за доброто на БМВ Аз ще си карам "акули"/добре че са здрави/ до като мога...

[DA WOLF Профил ICQ]

No amount of explanation can make people like these designs; if time doesn't do it, nothing will.

[ivo Профил]

...

Винаги съм твърдял, че новите БМВ-та за дизайннати с невероятно много идея и мисъл! Най-великото до днес за мен беше Z4, но да ви кажа днес като видях новата шестица на улицата ме грабна напълно на момента. Буквално ЗАСЛЕПЯВАШЕ останалите обикновени автомобили, направо ЖАЛКИ изглеждаха в сравнение с нея... Трябва наистина да се види в движение, за да се разбере колко е могъща тази кола всъщност Който казва, че не я харесва според мен просто трябва да лъже... или да няма въображение!

[moto Профил]

ямам какво да добавя приятели.
ЕХ как си мечтая и аз да стана дизайнер в такаа фирма като БМВ.........