Press Release
Interior Design
A Natural Environment
The interior of the Mazda Hakaze is a triumph of form, texture and functionality. Its two large, pop-up doors are keyless, one-touch and give a wide opening into one of its four bucket seats. Once inside, Hakaze’s interior gives an intense open feeling, even with the roof on. The windscreen extends to behind the front occupants, creating an enormous viewing angle. The A-pillar dives into the instrument panel just in front of the door, making this feeling even stronger.
“Nagare is visible on the interior in the main surfaces, which are a combination of gently flowing volumes with edges that slowly fade away,”says Jo Stenuit, Assistant Chief Designer who, along with Masato Ogawa, Lead Designer from Hiroshima, designed Mazda Hakaze’s interior.”Inspiration was taken from a dune landscape with the technical parts, like the steering column, being pushed into the surface like a shell that is partly covered in sand on the beach. Also the textures follow this gentle flow of form in a natural manner. All this creates a sensual feeling for the interior and makes sitting in Hakaze like sitting in a natural environment.”
The interior design, and especially the instrument panel, is asymmetrical with a strong focus on the driver. The wrap-around cockpit features a long steering unit that gives a feeling of sportiness and depth. It has orange-lit meters on each side of the steering wheel –speedometer and tachometer –and in the centre of the steering column is an LCD screen with navigation information, images from the car’s rear view and side cameras and warning indicators –all of which give an enhanced feeling of control to the driver. The centre of the steering wheel is fixed, only the rim and the lower arm can rotate.
There are also unique sliding controls to the right of the driver on the centre console, which follow the three illuminated lines in the surface. These lines have a dune wave design to make it easy for the driver to slide his finger up or down along the surface. Doing so adjusts seat positions, heating, audio and multimedia devices, with light below the surface moving up or down with the finger. The wave strip furthest from the driver has the controls for the car’s hard disc drive multimedia system and an LCD screen that electrically rises up and out of the dashboard surface on the passenger side. This screen can be turned by hand so the driver can also see it when the car is parked.
Data can be transferred to and from the car’s computer with a personal”data shell”, which is a further development of the USB stick concept used on the Mazda Sassou design car.
It is a wireless device that allows the driver to open the car simply by carrying it in his pocket, and also allows him to save his personal driving settings and data from his home computer (route, music, movies). After getting in the car, the driver pushes the switch on the side of the”data shell”causing the connector to pop out (in way similar to a key). This he sticks into a designated slot in the centre console and it automatically downloads the stored information wireless using Bluetooth® technology and provides ignition. Once in place, the”data shell”also functions as the gear shift lever for the concept’s automatic gearbox. Mazda Hakaze concept also has a wireless charging pad located in the glove box (also using Bluetooth®) to recharge the batteries of a mobile phone, PDA, camera or MP3 player. This insightful solution does away with annoying cables hanging everywhere, and keeps the device out of view and safe while it recharges automatically.
All of Mazda Hakaze’s seats are mounted on the centre tunnel and are electrically adjustable, sliding fore and aft. For more room in the boot, the rear seats slide forward with their lower cushions under the front seats, which give ample space in the hatch for all kinds of gear necessary for a day at the beach. With the windows down and the top off, there is a true roadster feel wherever you happen to be sitting in the car.
Interior Colours and Materials
“We want the interior to be a heightened touch experience full of natural-feeling surfaces. Natural in the sense that you come to the car and you have one impression. When you look a second time, you see new things happening everywhere,”says Luciana Silvares, Designer for Colour and Materials who, along with Maria Greger, designed the colours and materials for Mazda Hakaze.
The colour scheme on the inside of Mazda Hakaze was chosen to enhance the natural flow forms and to underscore the car’s kite-surfing functionality. They reflect the ocean, continuing the beach and dune theme, with the floor a dark brown, the trim, dashboard, doors and centre panel a greenish beige, the four seats in a deep blue. This is combined with unique texturing of materials meant to enhance the Nagare flow strategy with natural feeling surfaces and patterns. Many of the concept’s interior materials are grained using new Flotek® technology, which can create different textures on a single surface. Before, materials had to be embossed using the same repeating patterns. With this new graining technology, the Colour and Material’s team was able to make asymmetrical and creatively-patterned surfaces that mimic natural irregularities.
The floor, for instance, is made of soft, natural leather –great for bare feet just off the beach –embossed in a flow pattern with a patina of various textures and slight imperfections that give a natural feel compared to artificially homogeneous material like carpet. The dashboard also has a special grain over it that feels sandy in some places and has line texture in others, which enhances the flowing Nagare forms by making them not only look natural, but feel natural as well.
This touch experience also extends to the seats of Mazda Hakaze, which are made of smooth, high-tech leather with a surface coating to make them feel similar to the material used for wet suits, but with a higher quality. The driver’s seat is surrounded in a cocoon-like cockpit and continues the kite-surfer appeal with wet suit stitching and badging in orange Kanji script, while the other three seats have water droplets printed on them for a wet and wild look. The result of all these efforts is a very interactive, even sensual interior surfacing where passengers can discover new touch sensations every time they get into the car.
