Published: December 6, 2019, 6:00 AM
Updated: December 11, 2019, 2:29 AM
Cybertruck muse?
Tesla’s Cybertuck design has been touted by many as unprecedented but this ‘shoe architect’s’ art car project from 2015 is uncannily predictive of Elon Musk’s latest and most bizarre creation.
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Lo Res Car
Called the Lo Res Car, it was designed by Netherlands-born L.A. ‘shoe architect’ Rem D Koolhaas, of the designer footwear firm United Nude, which he founded. It is currently part of an exhibit called ‘Disruptors’ at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.
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Countach origins
The Lo Res Car was created using a process developed for designing shoes. It began with a 3-D scan of a Lamborghini Countach model, the image of which was manually manipulated to sequentially dial down the resolution until most of its defining curves disappeared, as illustrated by this sequence of models in the exhibit.
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Interim Sculpture
Each step in United Nude’s Lo Res design process reduced the number of points describing the overall shape, simultaneously enlarging and reducing the number of polygons defining the surfaces. This full-size sculpture, also part of the exhibit, was based on one of the interim stages of the process.
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Fully functional
The form that was left at the end of the process was translated into the Low Res Car, which is not just a sculpture but a functional automobile with a fully-electric drivetrain.
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Final iteration
Its shape is defined by an angular steel frame fitted with smoked polycarbonate bodywork. Lacking traditional doors, it requires occupants to lift the bodywork from the front to access a cockpit with tandem seating.
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Alternate approach
The Disruptors exhibit also features other minimalist vehicles created from a different perspective by Michigan-based industrial designer Joey Ruiter, best known for his American furniture designs. His approach to automobile design is as unique as that of Koolhaas, but completely different.
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Reboot Buggy
Ruiter’s Reboot Buggy explores a scenario in which a vehicle’s most basic purpose defines its design. Defined as much by what it is not as what it is, it is said to offer a desirable level of driver comfort while conquering whatever terrain it encounters, without being burdened by the theoretical demands of technology.
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Timeless design
Ruiter’s method of creating a desired aesthetic is to first deconstruct, then reconceptualize a timeless design. The resulting design is said to disassociate the Reboot Buggy from the historical development of any single technology or point in time.
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Consumer Car
The Consumer Car’s radically minimalist form represents Ruiter's comprehensive rethinking of the economy car’s relationship to the fundamentals of the automobile. It is rightly said to negate most of the conventional thinking behind automotive design.
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Moto Undone
Not just cars were the subject of Ruiter’s attention. Moto Undone is an exploration of how a motorcycle might have looked if it had not been the subject of a gradual evolution that invited bold decoration and exposed its mechanical components.
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Snoped v2
Even the snowmobile got Ruiter’s attention, resulting in this “blunt and brutal,” single-track snow-bike intended to stand in stark contrast with the environment it inhabits. In doing so, it is said to blur the line between battling nature and adapting to it.
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The future?
May we be forgiven for hoping that Elon Musk doesn’t get his next inspiration from Ruiter’s creations?
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