When art meets tomorrow’s mobility

The Milano Design Week is currently attracting design fans from all over the world to the north of Italy: Milan is transformed every year in April to the meeting point of the creative scene, where not only new trends from the areas of interior and decoration are brought closer to the specialist audience. Companies of all kinds present their design developments or back artists in the right light.

For days there is a lot of hustle and bustle in the alleys of the city, in the city center and also in Tortona-Solari, the design and art district in the southwest of the city. Around the Via Tortona you will not only find the Museum Mudec, where a photo exhibition on the subject of beauty and a street art show can currently be seen, but also showrooms of all kinds in which the design scene has found a temporary home.

View into the future

Lexus, the automobile manufacturer from Japan, also selected Via Tortona to bring visitors closer to the company’s DNA. However, if you, only a stone’s throw from the exhibition areas of Saint Laurent, Samsung and other big names, expect models such as the Crossover UX or the SUV NX: Lexus brings visions and design concepts to life, so take a look into the future.

The Japanese automobile manufacturer has been present in Milan since 2005 and has always been trying to predict what the driver expects the driver, similar to a look at the crystal ball. Well, 20 years later, people are more than ever at the center of the design ideas of the Japanese, as well as Koichi Suga, General Manager of the Lexus Design Division. « These days in which the technology and, above all, artificial intelligence develop rapidly, people are afraid of what the future brings. » Although man uses these technologies, he struggles, says Koichi Suga. And therefore it is essential to introduce him to the technology.

Visitors can experience a concept vehicle on the exhibition area during the Milan design week: the LF-ZC. This seems less playful, almost less futuristic than other future visions that not only presented other manufacturers, but also Lexus in the past. Koichi Suga must also confirm that with a laugh. « The concept vehicle should have a close connection to the later product. » Therefore, you stay close to the later model, but still try to remain groundbreaking. In the case of the displayed product version: a car that looks sporty, angular and yet not too aggressive.

The Lexus LF-ZC should be representative of a new product (or even a new project group), which should perforate the market in 2026 and to support the project to be able to act as a purely electrical automobile brand in Europe by 2030. The design principle of the car, which was presented for the first time two years ago and was constantly being developed, is called « Provocative Simplicity ». Translated this means: a simple design language in connection with dynamics and performance.

Functionality and security are in the focus of Suga’s design approach, which started in 1988 at Toyota and switched to the in -house Lexus brand in 2010. And with it also man: This is also expressed by the further developed innovative cockpit system called Black Butterfly, which Lexus puts at the center of his presentation in Milan and also picks up artistically, among other things in the form of an interactive installation, a gigantic black butterfly from around 35 kilometers of bamboo fibers.

The installation called « A-UN » reflects the concept of the software defined Vehicles (SDV), which does not leave the driver outside, but actively integrates. Implementable art means that a sensor measures the heart rate of a person who approaches the screen and converts them into pictures, as will also do the Black butterfly display in the future. « The possibilities in the future will be infinite when people and software become one, understand and grow together, » one hopes at least at Lexus.

Infinite digital worlds

For Suga, the Black butterfly concept is exemplary for the future of the Maschine-Mensch relationship: Even if everyone speaks of digitization, a vehicle always remains analogous in a way. And here the steering wheel, in which the display moves into the field of vision of the driver, creates a direct connection, which is also supposed to ensure additional security, a topic that Suga sees in its career as one of the most important.

Lexus also focuses on human-technology synergies in the additional « Discover Together » exhibition. Three design teams were allowed to interpret the cockpit interface in its way and generally continue the possibilities that technology opens up to humans in their concepts.

In the coming year, Lexus promises, the design award that has been forgotten is forgotten. Under the motto « Experience Amazing » he will focus on new possibilities in the digital world. A topic that the Japanese automobile manufacturer has already enriched with some interesting ideas and concepts with his artistic appearance in Milan.