“New concepts of the Myth” - Ferrari design exhibition comes to Germany

Those interested in design and automobiles will have the rare opportunity to have a look into the future of Ferrari from 24 May to 11 June 2006. After the vernissage on 23 May the red dot design museum in Essen will be the only institution in Germany that present 20 award-winning Ferrari design studies.

The prototypes at a scale of 1:4 are the result of a design competition held by the Italian sports car manufacturer at four leading international design universities.

The “New Concepts of the Myth” competition was organised by Ferrari together with their regular designer Pininfarina and was supported by the aluminium producer Alcoa, who supplies Ferrari. Besides constructing a model at a scale of 1:4, the conditions of participation included the task of creating a design fulfilling specific demands. The designs had to be innovative, creative and fresh on the one hand, while on the other hand taking into account aspects of practical realisation. The dimensions of the latest V8 mid engine and V12 front engine sports cars served as a basis for proportions and measurements for the students.

20 models of the numerous entries made it into the final round, in which the young designers had to explain their designs to a high-class expert jury on 18 November 2005. The jury, which was headed by Luca di Montezemolo, included Piero Ferrari, Jean Todt, Amedeo Felisa, Massimo Fumarola and the complete senior management of Pininfarina – Sergio and Andrea Pininfarina as well as Ken Okuyama. In 2004, Pininfarina had received the “design team of the year” award in the internationally renowned red dot design award in Essen.

The 20 finalists of tomorrow’s automobile designers come from 13 different countries. The four winning models are named “Millechili”, created by the design students Luis Agullo Spottorno from Spain and Felix Hiller from Germany, both are studying at the Instituto Europeo di Design in Turin; “Fiorano”, developed by Rob Battams and Tom Hardman from England and David Imai from the USA from Coventry University’s School of Art & Design; “Tre Diviso” by Daisuke Nagasato, Japan, Kim Teakyung, Korea and Hiroaki Yakubo, Japan from the Tokyo Communication Arts School and “Ascari”, also created by students of the Instituto Europeo di Design, Turin, Manuele Amprimo and Werner Gruber from Italy and Yu Jae-Cheul from Korea. Additionally the model "612Lafayette" by Shigenori Maeda (Japan) was awarded with a special prize of aluminium specialist Alcoa.

The prototypes are now going on a touring exhibition around the world. The exclusive stop in Germany will be the red dot design museum, where the models will be on show in a special exhibition from 24 May to 11 June 2006.

The red dot design museum is open from Tuesday to Thursday, 11am to 6pm and from Friday to Sunday, 11am to 8pm. Admission is 6 euros. The exhibition catalogue is available from the shop in the red dot design museum.