Marie Claire Australia — June 2017

F

or many years, exquisite

car design was owned by

the Italians: the smooth,

sensuous lines of their

fast and furious sports cars set the

European standard. More recently, the

German designers, with their luxurious

cabins and clean and clinical styles

of brands like Mercedes and BMW

have dominated executive car parks.

Now when it comes to the look

of cars there is an unmistakable new

influence, with the global design

gaze shifting towards the East. The

result? A rejection of the traditional

sharp lines and boxy shapes in favour

of more smooth-flowing, sculpted

and contoured body surfaces. These

new lines use shadow and light to give

the impression that the car is moving

• even when it’s stationary.
  This shift has been driven by Ikuo
  Maeda, the legendary global design
  chief of Japanese manufacturer Mazda,
  who has spent much of his working life
  cultivating the brand’s overarching
  design philosophy – known as Kodo:
  Soul of Motion – that now flows across
  their entire model range.
  At its heart, the ethos is about
  breathing life and energy into a car,
  a philosophy that Maeda says is woven
  into his country’s identity and culture.

“In Japan, we feel that

craftspeople inject life into what

they make, so objects that receive

the love and caring attention of these

craftspeople have a vital force; a soul,”

he explains. “Kodo design is about

creating cars that embody that

dynamic beauty of life.

“When you cook Japanese food,

the way you cook dashi [a Japanese

cooking stock] will have a significant

influence on how the food tastes.

Making the perfect dashi is a good

analogy for what we’re doing to

create the ultimate form of beauty.’’

And the design world is starting

to take notice, with Mazda projects

racking up plenty of accolades for their

new look – including winning Most

Beautiful Concept Car for the Mazda

RX-Vision (top) at last year’s illustrious

Festival Automobile International.

DESIGN

SHAPE

SHIFTING

Kodo design

extends beyond the

automobile; Maeda’s

team collaborated

with Shiseido to create

SOUL of MOTION

perfume, packaged in

a bottle inspired by

Mazda’s aesthetic.

A distinct Zen influence is making waves in car architecture

Top: the

RX-Vision.

Above: the

Mazda Shinari

concept car

launched in

2010 and was

the first vehicle

to embody the

Kodo design

philosophy.

The interior of

the RX-Vision

retains a classic

sports car feel.

196 marieclaire.com.au

THE COMPLETE PACKAGEPHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF MAZDA. TEXT BY ST

EPHEN C

ORBY

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