The results of the project developed by IED students have now been published

February 2009, at IED Turin the second semester is under way. The second years students of the three year course in Transportation Design – car design are facing a major challenge, a practical exercise that has an anticipatory flavour to it. 37 students have been asked to design a vehicle capable of combining to the best advantage the technical know-how, the platforms and the values of the FIAT and Chrysler brands. On the one hand, the style, the economic accessibility and the low environmental impact of FIAT vehicles and on the other the new platforms and the major industrial and production capacity of Chrysler. Different values the sharing of which may generate interesting and competitive new products both for the European and the American market. A brief was presented that required the students to confront their own visions of the future and how the real relations between the two brands might develop. Two brands which, during the course of the project, actually reached a final and historical agreement.

“Which and what will the vehicles of tomorrow be like? The union of the FIAT and Chrysler brands brings with it the potential to find an adequate answer to this questions” claims César Mendoza, Director of IED Turin “To get students to work on such an up-to-date issue, even before the official announcement of the agreement, has proven to be a real challenge for our College. During the course of the exercise, which began in February of 2009 and ended in July, the meeting with the FIAT style centre turned out to be fundamental to give the project the necessary substance”

The workshop was coordinated by a team of teachers who were able to help the students work on both the interiors and the exteriors, as well as overseeing the development using Alias. The students worked individually and, among the proposals presented, the team that oversaw the project selected 13. Among these were the projects by Vasily Kurkov and Roberto Testolin that were then chosen to be produced as 1:4 scale models.

Biov, the proposal made by Roberto Testolin, aims at reducing the production costs of an ecological vehicle positioned in the A segment, aimed at a youthful target yet aware of environmental issues. The vehicle has very few surfaces in plastic materials that are easy to produce and very light. These parts, assembled by means of a system of layering, reduce the vehicle’s production complexity and engineering costs.
The PYGMY Jeep by Vasiliy Kurkov was instead based on the platform of the Fiat Panda Cross 4x4 and is a vehicle with a European character that is profoundly contaminated by the Jeep spirit of American Culture. It is a two seater that offers a variety of stylistic options, a universal vehicle which, depending on the client’s needs, the manufacturer can transform into a shopping car or a sports jeep close to the world of rally’s. The interiors bring together certain fashion and retro features with other high-tech details, transmitting a sense of luxury and quality.

The project was a particularly motivating workshop for the students of the second year of the three year transportation Design car design course held by IED Turin and they are now preparing to enter their third and final year together with the serious and demanding challenge of their course end thesis. A new adventure once again based on a real commission and focused on the future development of the car sector.