Anne Forschner is a 24 year-old German lady who graduated with a Transportation Design degree from the prestigious Pforzheim University Germany in July this year. The project featured in these pages was her creation in collaboration with BMW who were the sponsors.
It's a concept called the Lovos (Lifestyle of Voluntary Simplicity) and its premise is to answer the questions: how many parts are used to build the exterior of a vehicle? Or how would a car look like if it were built using just one (recurring) piece?
A few answers can be provided depending on who is asked. But for this specific project the first answer is 260. That is the number of identical, movable and exchangeable parts found on the exterior surface. Like fish scales - which answers the second question - they open up and close to act like air brakes. At the same time they are also photovoltaic, meaning they produce a voltage when exposed to light, in this case sunlight. So they would follow the sun when the car is parked. Twelve of the pieces acting like wheel covers get sucked inside and form turbine-like shapes when the vehicle moves off.
As tough (and perhaps dangerous) as the Lovos looks outside, the project team says the inside is a complete contrast made with soft and comfortable materials.
In design terms the future of the automobile is yet unknown and therefore something like the BMW Lovos could be an option either as a whole or just in part. Anything is possible after seeing the Vision EfficientDynamics concept.
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