Architect-Designed Cars: Part 2

The number of architect car enthusiasts greatly outnumbers the number of architect car designers, and vastly outnumbers the number of cars designed by practicing architects which made it into production. The latter number, unless you accept the Citroen 2CV, which was produced by a team quarterbacked by an unlicensed architect, is zero.  Still, there were some intriguing cars modified by architects, and some design proposals which never made it past the model stage. Frank Lloyd Wright modified a 1940 Lincoln Continental after his daughter rolled it, chopping the top and making it into a sort of coupe de ville (sorry, Cadillac) with odd (but oddly predictive) lunette opera windows.  Following their curve, the steel roof actually dips downward towards the two front seats, thus insuring that even with the front roof panel in place, the occupants might experience the water intrusion characteristic of Wright's Usonian homes. Even more unusual is the fact that there was no rear-facing window whatsoever.  Perhaps Wright, ever the futurist, was determined to focus only on the road ahead...

Wright did sketch out a car for use on the avenues of his 1930s Broadacre City proposal with the idea of predicting automotive forms of 1960, but none was ever built.  Too bad, as Wright's car might have challenged Fuller's Dymaxion in the category of completely unexpected handling response.  The wheels were arranged in a diamond pattern in plan, with gigantic driving wheels the size of steamboat paddle wheels flanking the passenger compartment.  The telephone dial pattern of those wheels was a few decades ahead of lower-profile units that showed up in the 1970s on Alfas and Porsches...

By the time 1960 actually rolled around, another designer had a go at the diamond plan wheel layout, and this time it was Battista Pininfarina, one of the masters of automotive form.  Here the goal was to minimize the air resistance, and PF enlisted aerodynamicist Alberto Morelli in design of the Pininfarina X.  The tail fins were intended to enhance stability, and the car had a remarkably low drag coefficient of 0.23.  Space utilization was good, and the snub nose anticipated minivans.

It is not recorded if the PF team had seen Wright's diamond plan car, but the casual way the Fiat 1100 engine has been tossed over the designer's shoulder, landing at an odd angle to the single driven rear wheel (thus saving the expense of a differential) at least suggests the presence of an architect.  Just think for a minute about the Ford V8 trapped forlornly in back of Bucky Fuller's Dymaxion, struggling to send power uphill to the front driving wheels (see "Architect-Designed Cars: Part 1 of 2").  Then again, neither of these  examples is nearly as offhand as what Ferdinand Porsche envisioned.  One day, he predicted, engines would be so efficient and compact we could throw them in the glove compartment...

Six years before the X made its debut, Italian architect Gio Ponti proposed a space-efficient car, the Diamante, based upon an Alfa Romeo 1900 sedan chassis.  Ponti reacted against the heavy, chrome-laden excess of American-influenced design by proposing an angular profile predictive of the 1970s, but with an even lower belt line and a glassier greenhouse.

Ponti's design studies progressed beyond rough sketches to a section drawing with a more relaxed windshield angle, but no cars were actually built, though Mitsubishi took the name Diamante for a 1990 sedan.

Some cross-pollination still occurred between the worlds of architecture and industrial design, however, and one of the most vivid examples during the 50s and 60s was the popularity of the tubular space frame.  When engineer Giulio Alfieri suggested the complex nest of small-diameter tubes which formed the frame of the Tipo 60 Maserati (soon to be nicknamed "Birdcage") in 1959, he was echoing a theme which was beginning to appear all over on high-profile architectural projects...

Like the Lindheimer Observatory (now sadly demolished) at Northwestern University, designed by Walter Netsch and built in 1966.  This building happened after the Birdcage Maserati, and makes one wonder what Mr Netsch had hidden away in his garage.

Since the turn of the century, production-ready cars by high-profile architects have made few appearances.  A re-imagined London bus designed by Norman Foster with collaboration of the Aston Martin people doesn't qualify as a car, but it was a pretty practical idea for a bus.  That practicality, however, made sure it pretty much resembled a bus. 

The late Zaha Hadid was apparently unconstrained by practical concerns when she dreamed up her Z Car, a proposal for a 3-wheeled hydrogen-powered two seater.  As with some of Hadid's architectural works, form dominates, to the degree that fenders, bumpers, and even windshield wipers have been excluded (or suppressed, depending upon your viewpoint).  As with Wright's Broadacre car, nobody has yet stepped forward to produce this urban space capsule.

Photo credits:

Wright Lincoln at Taliesin:  pinterest.com

Wright Broadacre car:  thenewswheel.com

Pininfarina X (all photos):  cardesignnews.com

Ponti Diamante:  archimagazine.com

Birdcage Maserati:  the author (from the Revs Institute)

Lindheimer Observatory:  lindheimer physics.arizona.edu

Zaha Hadid Z Car:  designboom.com