• In the studio, designers collaborate on concepts for the Cross Pro RS mountain bike as well as The Audi Collection, which consists of accessories ranging from golf bags and scale models to clothing and luggage. Audi’s Design Hub

    The Wheels of Invention Turn at the Automaker’s Munich Concept Center
    Architectural Digest

Physically unimposing yet imaginatively renovated, a 1940s auto repair shop tucked away in Munich exerts an outsize influence on the direction of automotive design. Located in the hip, exclusive Schwabing neighborhood, Audi’s Concept Design Munich is a nerve center for a German brand finally able to challenge its much larger, more storied rivals, Mercedes-Benz and BMW, on home turf. Audi’s ascendance has been high on technical and design excellence but low on heritage so senior management summoned Walter Maria de’Silva, and revamped the Munich studio, to supply it.

“Mercedes-Benz began a century ago producing exclusive cars, and BMW started 60 years ago with sportive luxury; Audi only started 20 years ago in that direction, and we’ve changed completely into a premium brand to compete with them,” notes de’Silva, the Italian-born head of design for the Audi brand group (Audi, Lamborghini and SEAT, of Spain). Once a designer of some of the most sensuous Alfa Romeos for the Fiat Group, he began his reign as Audi’s design seer and supervisor in 2002.

Concept Design Munich’s task is as much about differentiation as design. Day to day, it functions like a salon where students, trend experts and artists from varying disciplines meet, albeit under very tight security, to assess the future of design. A full-scale modeling workshop allows them to touch and feel their ideas, not just view them on a screen. Here they have freedom to experiment not only with car design but with objects such as bicycles, luggage and watches. The larger objective is to determine a DNA for Audi to ensure its products remain distinct.

"It's surface plays with light and shadow," de'Silva says of the new A6, on a Munich street.

“When I arrived, Audi was at a high level of design, but it was difficult for me to understand the brand,” recalls de’Silva. “Maintaining the typical heart of Audi, the clean surface, was important to me, yet at the same time I changed everything.” The serious, rather banal Audi grille has now been enlarged and reformed, giving the cars a major presence in rearview mirrors. “The dynamic happens in movement, not when parked,” he asserts. “The life of a car is in the wind, and on the road.”

The emergence of China, and major cultural shifts in Europe (including Russia), have altered design requirements radically and given European stylists more impetus to make a statement. “Between the wars and after the Second World War, the influence of styling, especially from the United States, was to show not only the power of money but of status — and there were some super examples,” de’Silva explains. “This influence has now arrived in Europe, which had previously been about industrial design. For me, it’s absolutely positive.” De’Silva feels the best car design at present is European, and he singles out not only German brands but the French Renault, Peugeot and Citroen. He allows that Nissan and Toyota finally have enough heritage to introduce recognizable design elements.

“In all the companies the design process is very democratic: Marketing, technical and styling people are involved, and you start from a white sheet of paper. But it’s important that the design decisions not be democratic — a democratic design decision is a disaster,” de’Silva continues, suggesting that top board managers should trust the design head to make the final step. “If I don’t feel a car, I stop the model and restart. I’m human, not a robot. For me, the decision should be in a small, small group from within the designers; otherwise the risk is very, very high.

“I dislike overdesign,” he adds. “With the line of one car you can design three cars.” He feels that automotive interiors, too, need to go in a different direction, with components kept simple, minimal: “In an age when people are in crisis, we need basic things. We don’t need 200 buttons.” He advocates interiors that are far more tailored to the owner’s lifestyle and suggests it’s no longer important to maintain a strict relationship between a car’s interior and exterior design, unless designing an icon like a Ferrari or a Lamborghini.

“When I decide to buy a car, why shouldn’t I have the choice between a functional environment, a luxury one or a business one, just as I choose a hotel?” de’Silva exclaims, adding, “It’s the direction of the future, and we have to have this opportunity.” The Munich studio, no doubt, is already well under way in this exploration. But one wonders whether, at future auto shows, Audi might have to show three versions of the same concept car to get the point across.  MG

photography by Theo Westenberger