Lorenzo Ramaciotti visits RCA for 'Two of a Kind' project

Lorenzo Ramaciotti, Fiat-Chrysler's head of global design, has visited the Royal College of Art as part of the Fiat ‘Two of a Kind' project explaining how Italian design has become world-famous in all fields in a talk themed ‘The Roots of Italian Car Design'.

The ‘Two of a Kind' project asks four teams of four Vehicle Design students to design innovative exterior and interior proposals for how the Fiat 500 and the Panda might look in 2020, taking interactivity, digital interface, sustainability and global appeal into account.

Maserati brought along a Quattroporte, a GranTurismo Sport as well as an Alfa Giulietta Sportiva to complement his talk in the hope it would encourage students to consider what the carmaker believes are the three concepts of the legacy of Italian car design: sportiness-dynamism; elegance-balance; and character-personality.

After Ramaciotti's talk the students presented their early ideas and research to him and his fellow designers from Centro Stile in Turin, Andreas Wuppinger and Andrea Mocellin. Each team explained their approach and strategies before the designers gave them some feedback and advice they could take away for future stages.

Later this month, Maserati and Alfa Romeo's head of design Marco Tencone will present a study of the typical forms of Italian design.

The teams will present their final designs on 11 December at the last lecture, where a jury of senior Fiat designers, Fiat UK managing director Steve Zanlunghi and RCA department heads will announce the winning team.

The victorious students will take their final creation in early 2014 to Fiat's Centro Stile in Turin, Italy, to develop into a clay model, which will be unveiled at the RCA degree show in June. The students will also head to FIAT's Centro Stile for internships between July 2014 and February 2015.

By Rufus Thompson