Wulin Gaowa on GM’s new Chinese Advanced Design Studio

Following on from our story in September about Wulin Gaowa's appointment to GM Design as Director of its China Advanced Design, the company has released more details about the new studio and an interview with the designer. The company's "future hub for automotive design in Asia" will move into its new home in July 2012. The studio will be located at GM's GMIO and GM China Headquarters in Shanghai.

College Exhibition: RCA/VW - Day and Night

Vehicle Design students at the Royal College of Art in London, UK, started work on a project sponsored by Volkswagen in October last year. Asked to research and visualize future market sectors and the needs, aspirations and desires of potential users; VW's brief to the students was to create a vehicle which had an innovative, integrated interior to reflect the research the students conducted, in a space that had equal value both in the daytime and at night. The brief also called for new space concepts for the person/machine interface through new functions and new packaging of components.

Driven: Mazda RX-8

The two most obvious elements of its unusual make-up are its rotary engine and rear-hinged rear doors with integral B-pillars. What became clear during our week with the RX-8 was how these two aspects of its design form the basis of many other unique qualities... Sports coupe and GT coupe The rotary engine of the RX-8 has a very distinct power delivery that is a defining part of the car's character, but it is also a very small lump of metal compared to a similarly powerful conventional reciprocating piston engine, enabling more of the car's overall length to be devoted to cabin space.