BMW GINA
{{Advert|article}}
The GINA Light Visionary Model is a fabric-skinned shape-shifting sports car concept built by BMW. GINA stands for "Geometry and functions In 'N' Adaptations".[1][2][3] It was designed by a team led by BMW’s head of design, Chris Bangle, who says GINA allowed his team to "challenge existing principles and conventional processes."[1] Other designers include Anders Warming.[4]
The construction began in 2001.[5]
GINA Light Visionary Model
BMW presents GINA, a new take on car design, materials, and flexibility. The GINA replaces the traditional metal/plastic skin with a textile fabric skin that’s pulled taut around a frame of metal and carbon fiber wires. Even the shape of the car can change. Fascinating and creative design study.
The GINA philosophy offers designers as well as development and production specialists an opportunity to challenge existing principles and conventional processes. Solutions that will benefit the car of the future are examined without predefined rules and from as many perspectives as possible. This also involves questioning what is believed to be set in stone. Does a car roof really have to rest on pillars and be bordered by windows? Do all functions have to be visible at all times, even when they are not needed? How many personalization options does my car offer? Are there any possible alternatives to the rigid body shell made of steel or plastic?
Questions like these lead to groundbreaking, cross-segmental solutions - and visions of the future of individual mobility. An essential principle of the GINA philosophy is to deliberately integrate the potential of new materials and pioneering, innovative constructions into the creative design process, and the idea of challenging existing manufacturing methods and material concepts. BMW Group Design works U.S.A, a subsidiary of the BMW Group that operates globally and caters to companies across the industry, has greatly inspired the design team at BMW Group Design. The design agency's extensive experience with projects for a number of industrial partners outside of automotive engineering, predominantly in the field of material development and production.
It is in the nature of such visions that they do not necessarily claim to be suitable for series production. Rather, they are intended to steer creativity and research into new directions. This approach helps to tap into formerly inconceivable, innovative potential that reaches far beyond the appearance of future cars and takes into account not only materials and structures but also functions and manufacturing processes. The potential requirements of tomorrow's customers serve as a benchmark. In addition to aesthetics, the GINA philosophy also deals with ergonomics, the functional range and all other factors that rule customers' emotional relationship with their car.
All innovations that these cars present focus on the variable adaptation of form and function based on individual and situation-related driver requirements as well as the demands of the driving situation itself. Therefore, both the exterior and the interior are equipped with a variety of components that differ significantly from conventional solutions, not only by the way they look but also in terms of their basic properties.
For example, the GINA Light Visionary Model presents features such as a virtually seamless outer skin made of a textile fabric that stretches across a moveable substructure. Functions are only offered if and when they are actually required. The drastic re-interpretation of familiar functionality and structure means that drivers have a completely new experience when they handle their car. Reducing the car to its essentials and adapting it to the driver's requirements enhances the car's emotional impact and achieves a crucial objective of the GINA philosophy.
Working and Skin Material
A number of elements of the substructure are actually moveable and the driver can shift them by means of electro and electro-hydraulic controls resulting to a change the shape of the outer skin. For example, when the headlights are not active they are hidden under the special fabric cover. As soon as the driver turns on the lights, the contour of the front ends changes revealing the twin-headlights –just like a human being opens his eyes .Instead of the traditional steel and plastic body shell, the GINA concept uses a textile fabric starches over a wire frame. this unique idea allows the car’s skin to change shape, stretching to match the position and curve of the wire frame. this idea is demonstrated in the ‘blinking’; headlights and the flexibility of the car doors as they open. the project began by questioning the purpose of a car’s body and exploring new possibilitiesThe GINA (Geometry and Functions in 'N' Adaptations) Light Visionary concept is BMW's future-focused design study on the possibilities offered by flexible coverings. Based on a 2-seater roadster platform, GINA's revolutionary exterior has allowed its designers to do away with the traditional body panel approach, concentrating on visual and structural lines rather than full body pieces. The stretched fabric follows the outlying lines and forms visually pleasing curves between them.GINA's doors don't have any external hinges - instead, the internal subframe tilts upward and the car's 'skin' simply flexes as the door opens. Its headlights are completely covered when they're not in use, and when they're switched on, the curve of the bonnet changes to accept higher side ridges as GINA's 'eyes' open up. The rear spoiler moves beneath the skin, creating extra downforce at higher speeds while maintaining slippery aerodynamics. The indicators and tail-lights are hidden, and shine through the skin, which is permeable to light, but not transparent, and the intake grille can adjust its size if more or less air is needed.Opening the hood to work on the engine is like performing surgery - the fabric is opened down the middle of the bonnet and the sides are pulled apart to allow access. The safety aspect of the car is entirely handled by the structural frame beneath the skin. The effect from a design perspective is quite striking - and even if the GINA concept is mainly a styling exercise at the moment, it opens up some very cool possibilities down the track. Multistructural cars could be built on a platform that, at its core, simply encompasses a rolling chassis, engine and interior, as well as moving structural elements that change the shape of the car completely. If the fabric can be rolled up somehow inside the structure, there's no reason why it wouldn't be possible to design a sportscar that transforms into a hatch - or even a wagon - when extra carrying room is needed, finally allowing the sportscar to become a practical everyday vehicle as well.
In Future
Naturally, the flexible fabric would have to prove itself in terms of durability, resistance to tearing, puncture and road debris, road noise reduction and overall vehicle safety before GINA ever made it to the market, but it's fair to say this is one of the most fascinating and fundamentally revolutionary design studies the auto world has seen for some years.
Fabric body
BMW says the flexible, stretchable water resistant translucent man-made fabric skin – polyurethane-coated Spandex, is resilient and durable. It resists high or low temperatures, does not swell or shrink and the movement does not slacken or damage the fabric.[6] The body changes its shape according to exterior conditions and speeds, and it also allows the driver to change its shape at will. The fabric is stretched over a moveable frame;[1] essential shapes are formed beneath the skin by an aluminium wire structure, though at points where movement is needed (ducts, door openings, spoiler) flexible carbon struts are used.[1] The shape of the frame is controlled by many electric and hydraulic actuators, for example, the headlights are revealed when small motors pull the fabric back in an eyelid like fashion. As the fabric is translucent the taillights shine through it.
Exterior
GINA has just four panels — the bonnet, the two side panels and the boot.[1] Its skin appears seamless, but it can “grow” a higher rear spoiler for stability at high speed.[6] Its doors open in a butterfly style, and are each covered by a fabric piece reaching all the way from the nose of the car to their trailing edge which when closed leaves a perfectly smooth surface. Access to the engine can be gained through a slit that can open in the middle of the bonnet. [1]
Interior
When the car is parked, the car’s steering wheel and instruments sit in an ‘idle’ position on the centre console to allow the driver easy entry.[6] The steering wheel and instruments assume their correct positions when the driver presses the start button and the headrest rises from the seat once the driver is seated, making it easier to get in and out of the car.[1][3]
References
External links
