RCA students redesign the Fiat 500 and Panda for 2020

Royal College of Art students have redesigned the Fiat 500 and the Panda for 2020 in its 'Two of a Kind' contest.

The project challenged Royal College of Art students to design the Panda or 500 of 2020 in teams consisting of Masters students from the vehicle design program and other courses.

After 14 presentations, two proposals were chosen each for the Fiat Panda and Fiat 500 by an expert panel that included Ramaciotti, Fiat chief exterior designer Andreas Wuppinger, senior designers and RCA teachers and staff.

The winning Fiat 500 projects were the 500 ‘Spresso' and 500 ‘Cheerfully Irresponsible', while the winning Panda projects were the Panda ‘Hug' and Panda ‘Roomy'.

Alexander Ibbett (Exterior Design) and Liza Ricciardi (Materials) impressed the judges with their coffee-inspired exterior for the Fiat 500 'Spresso'. Featuring a ‘coffee drip' motif, its clean design and innovative use of silicone-based materials in shapes, colors and patterns earned them an award each.

The 500 ‘Cheerfully Irresponsible' compact three-seater has no doors and a floating open roof frame. Pierre Andlauer's futuristic interior treatment, which gained him one of the awards, features hard-wearing cabin materials and exterior graphics that appear only when the vehicle is dirty.

Francesco Binaggia's Panda ‘Hug' proposal impressed the judges with his modular vehicle interior. He replaced the conventional rear bench with an electronically adjustable memory foam cocoon that can be transformed along with the front three seats. Inspired by the feelings behind hugs, the cabin is inviting and features soft shapes, warm colors, an intuitive interface and clever design touches such as the pop-out steering wheel and cabin ventilation system. He received his award for his work on the interior.

Ji Won Yun's Panda 'Roomy' exterior proposal secured him a seat on the flight to Turin, having been designed to represent an extension of the user's living space. The design is inspired by architecture, and in particular the impact of a welcoming threshold. The Roomy's gullwing door can act as a porch-like shelter, while its glasshouse's transparency can be controlled using electronically controlled window tinting.

In terms of Vehicle Interaction, Adam Peacock's 500 ‘Experience' and Xinglin Sun's Panda ‘Vivo' were both selected as winners. Peacock's design aims to recreate the original 500's simple interior by integrating functions into the user's smart device, meaning the dashboard can adjust settings when communicating with the device.

Xinglin proposed multiple touchscreen control panels that operate functions with simple, intuitive gestures. It uses a color-coded prioritization to help simplify the process. Social connectivity plays a big part, with specially designed apps capable of arranging vehicle sharing.

Gemma Waggett picked up an award for her innovative use of materials for the Panda ‘Flex'. Waggett used a combination of bold colors and patterns with advanced, durable and highly flexible materials – some vehicle sections stretch for extra luggage space – to underline the project's adaptability.

Amy Lee won her award for her vision of the ‘Anima' Panda's service design. This proposal runs on renewable energy, using bacterial energy to power some exterior and interior lights with remote app-based updates on the level of solar and microbial regeneration taking place as well as the charge status of the two onboard, removable lithium batteries.

A special award was presented to Hoe Young Hwang in recognition of his work on the '500+' proposal, which showed evidence of his understanding of how vehicle ownership can evolve in the future as well as a clay model of his ‘Super Normale' exterior design concept.

Students were supported throughout the project by six lectures from some of Fiat's top designers, including head of design (Europe, Middle East and Asia regions) Roberto Giolito and head of global design Lorenzo Ramaciotti. At the end of each lecture the teams presented and received feedback on their designs.

The 10 winners will travel to Fiat's Turin-based Centro Stile to see their designs transformed into clay models, and will also return to undertake paid internships from mid-2014 to February 2015.

By Rufus Thompson