German Car Zone

Visit this year's Aircraft Interiors show in Hamburg to get a unique glimpse into the zeitgeist of Russian-style blini bling with the latest 787 VIP cabin concept from BMW Group DesignworksUSA.
Boeing Business Jets approached DesignworksUSA and challenged the firm to create a conceptual 787 aircraft interior for a fictitious, affluent, Russian client in his mid-thirties ...



More: Pictures: BMW presents Bond-style 787 cabin concept for Russian tycoon-17/04/2007-Flightglobal.com

BMW presents Bond-style 787 cabin concept for Russian tycoon

Boeing Business Jets approached DesignworksUSA and challenged the firm to create a conceptual 787 aircraft interior for a fictitious, affluent, Russian client in his mid-thirties.

DesignworksUSA says it sat down with a blank sheet of paper and endeavoured to describe a day in the life of the owner, to examine the needs of a client that spends a significant amount of time travelling across the globe and needs an aircraft that can function as a second, luxurious home.

The design team came up with an interior with semi-translucent walls, residential-style furniture that lets space "visually continue around it and vistas that let the eye travel beyond the immediate environment”.

DesignworksUSA also incorporated a "vertical architectural experience" by taking advantage of the 787's generous cargo space to create space for a car to "offer a seamless air-to-ground experience".

Click Here for PICTURES

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I have to say, with my interest in aviation I've seen a handful of private jet interiors, and BMW's efforts here is absolutely stunning!

What's even more interesting is the fact that Airbus has actually commissioned BMW to design the interior of their A350XWB aircraft. This interior will be a standard passenger configuration interior, so it certainly won't be anything like what they've created for Boeing here.

Looks like BMW's distinctive design talents could well extend beyond the automotive industry.

Indeed. By acquiring DesignWorksUSA in the early 90s BMW became one of the leaders in industrial design.

BMW DesignWorksUSA have many interesting clients (beside BMW Group): Nokia, Motorola, Siemens (trains), Scott USA (bikes), DB (trains), Procter & Gamble, Adidas / Head, Intel. Boeing, Airbus, Pilatus,Piper (all aircrafts), HP / Compaq, John Deere (tractors!), ...

More here: Designworksusa.com

Indeed what you are looking at here is inspiration. By creating and experimenting in Industrial design and everyday products you are effectively seeing the groundwork being laid for the next generation of BMW automobiles from interiors ,controls and exterior design .

BMW Designs Another Aircraft Interior

BMW’s Los Angeles based “DESIGNWORKSUSA” studio released pictures of the Brazilian made, Embraermedium-range jet aircraft, the interior of which, it has designed. This isn’t the first time that DESIGNWORKSUSA has been involved in aircraft projects, as the studio was responsible for the cabin design of Embraer’s Phenom 100 and 300 business jets while back in April, BMW’s styling studio also presented a concept cabin design for the Boeing 787 (click here). And to answer any smartass questions, BMW did not add an aircraft version of the iDrive in the cockpit. They aren’t that stupid…








BMW GROUP DESIGNWORKSUSA POSITIONS ITSELF AS A TRENDSETTER IN AIRCRAFT DESIGN

BMW Group DesignworksUSA positions itself as a trendsetter in aircraft design.

Having created two award-winning design solutions for business jets, the global design consultancy now convinces with a further trendsetting design for Embraer. The Brazilian manufacturer is one of the world's largest aircraft companies.

Munich. At this year's international aircraft show held in Atlanta by the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) from September 25th - 27th, BMW Group DesignworksUSA caused quite a stir with their groundbreaking design of a medium-range aircraft built by the Brazilian company Embraer. The innovative styling is the follow-up to the consultancy's two outstanding and successful design solutions created for the business jets Phenom 100 and 300 produced by Embraer. The awards given for these designs included the renowned iF Product Design Award 2007. Embraer is one of the world's largest aircraft builders.
"It was our desire to create the same trendsetting and sophisticated design as for the Phenom 100 and 300 aircraft," explained Verena Kloos, President of BMW Group DesignworksUSA. In addition to outstanding aesthetics, the concept was to provide a degree of comfort unparalleled in this segment and to exceed the expectations of the client and the end-consumer alike. "Our team carried out an in-depth investigation into modern living interiors and exclusive hospitality concepts in order to establish a genuinely new standard for the medium-range aircraft segment."

Innovative design concept: "Intelligent Luxury".
"Intelligent Luxury" is the name of the concept the team at BMW Group DesignworksUSA implemented for Phenom business jets. With this new design the consultancy went a step further and upgraded the standard for a medium-range aircraft built to carry passengers in comfort from the West Coast to the East Coast of North America. When developing this innovative styling, the designers stringently questioned the traditional conception of luxury. The consultancy realized that parameters associated with it in the past, such as opulence, hierarchy and symbolism, were no longer significant in a world that has become very complex. The holistic design strategy regards the interior of an aircraft as a space in which to relax and spend personal time freely. Therefore, new values such as connectivity, integrity and authenticity are conveyed.

Following the "Intelligent Luxury" strategy, various teams at BMW Group DesignworksUSA have created a lounge-like atmosphere for the interior of the medium-range aircraft, where generously sized windows convey a feeling of open space inside the cabin, in which passengers can move around in comfort standing upright. Moreover, completely newly designed seats provide an air of lightness and sensuality, rising above conventional lounge seats by featuring an elegant and comfortable body-contour design. Further innovations are the flexible, swing-out tables and the attractive entertainment area with a three-seat divan.

Storage spaces are discreetly concealed behind high-quality panels; these accentuating the distinctive, both stylishly puristic and becalming character of the overall design. Cabin and cockpit have been designed to form one single unit. The cockpit is equipped with aesthetic and concise state-of-the-art aviation technology. Large-size displays featuring advanced graphics are located in the center.

"The final design immediately conveys a feeling of unparalleled comfort and convinces through simplicity and sensual elegance," says Gerhard Steinle, Director of Transportation Design at BMW Group DesignworksUSA. "It surprises with intelligent design solutions and impresses with a discerning eye for detail."
The range of colours and materials, which can indeed be associated with premium cars of the BMW Group, offers the client a varied choice of options. Here we also find innovative solutions that render the production process more efficient - a further positive asset.

BMW Group DesignworksUSA: Uncompromisingly sophisticated design.
Based in Los Angeles with studios in Munich and Singapore, BMW Group DesignworksUSA operates as a subsidiary of the BMW Group with more than 35 years of cross industry expertise in design strategy, design research, brand communication, colors, materials, and finish, product development, 3D modelling and engineering. In addition to the BMW Group in the automotive field, the consultancy's clients include a number of leading companies in the sectors transportation, consumer electronics, IT, medical as well as the consumer products and lifestyle industry.

Haha, no I Drive???

How Can this be possible ? I thought the munich and new singapourian studios were independant from designworks since they designed exclusively cars ?

No.

DWUSA has 3 studios: Newbury Park (CA, USA), Munich (GER) & Singapore.

But the Munich studio is different from the one of BMW AG which is a part of R&D department located in FIZ, where cars & bikes are designed, and where eg. van Hooydonk & Bangle are based. DWUSA Munich studio is located on Nymphenburgerstrasse, while BMW central studio is located in FIZ, on Knorrstrasse.

According to my info BMW also has design offices (not studios!!!) in UK & Italy.


PS: None of DWUSA studios design exclusively cars. Where have you heard that?

Yes when working on top secret projects we use our clandestine design offices. They are not properly identified by BMW because they like to keep some creativity further away from the eye of the media.
The RFK PAS was one of these worked on in a off-the-map site.

I thought there was only one Studio in Munich, the historical design studio of BMW, i thought they incorporated it in the DW Network after they bought Designworks, but now you have told me there are The FIZ studio AND the Nymphenburgerstrasse Studio, everything is much clearer. BTW when the DWUSA was created ?