Lapo Elkann, Michele De Lucchi and Adrian van Hooydonk at the Memphis Design Group event for Milan Design Week 2017. Photo by Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images for Memphis
As one of the world’s most renowned design fairs featuring the industry’s top designers and architects, Milan Design Week proves that the Italian city’s infamous sense of style reaches far beyond the realms of fashion. Just in time for this year’s edition of the fair, BMW launches a very special tribute to the rich history of design and architecture. Together with Garage Italia Customs, a manufacturer well known for making the craziest car visions come to life, the two entities have created a stylish set of automobiles inspired by the Memphis Group.
Throughout the ’80s, the Italian group divided critics with their bold, colourful and asymmetrical pieces of furniture and architecture. Their impact still lives on, inspiring fashion collections such as Dior’s AW11 presentation. For this project, BMW has taken the rare materials, bold graphic design and popping colours of the movement as a starting point to create two unique cars, a BMW i3 and a BMW i8. Questioning typical car design language, the vehicles feature geometrical shapes adapted to the lines of the cars as well as colourful and true-to-style interiors.
The cars were designed under the guidance of Michele de Lucchi, who was one of the Memphis Group’s founding members. For him, the project served as an opportunity to reminisce on the collective’s work, and to rediscover its cultural significance for today: “we (…) had the desire to stop the logic of rampant consumerism, and we wanted to go deeper. Not with negativity, but with optimism; celebrating decoration, and with a colourful sense of real involvement. In this way, the core of Memphis, of what we did and what we desired, is timeless.”
BMW i3 interior
BMW i3
BMW i8
More information on BMW is available at bmw.com