Italdesign Giugiaro transforms 'Golf Vision 2020' winning design into hard model

Italdesign Giugiaro transformed an Istituto d'Arte Applicata e Design (IAAD) student's thesis project into a 1:4 scale model after it was chosen by Giorgetto Giugiaro as the best Masters project in the ‘Golf Vision 2020' challenge.

The challenge, launched in collaboration with the carozzeria and Volkswagen, asked students to design the Volkswagen Golf of 2020. The best designs from the Bachelors and Masters courses were picked at the end of the year by renowned designer and school sponsor, Giorgetto Giugiaro.

Alberto Caruso, a graduate of the Transportation Design Masters course, was chosen as the winner for his interpretation, completed with two classmates, Nicasio Priolo and Giuseppe Sacca.

He said, "Seeing my project realized in a very fine milled model by the Italdesign team was very exciting, because I could touch with my hands my ideas about the Golf's spirit transformed into a futuristic and dynamic volume."

With a carbon fiber reinforced plastic body, Caruso's design features scissor doors and uses a levitation turbine that makes the car float just above the ground, giving passengers a smoother ride. Its lower body panels absorbs the energy from the highway, while its interior is sculptural and yet minimalist.

With the recent release of the Golf 7, the project was more difficult than originally thought, Caruso admits, considering the gradual, rational evolution of the Golf's design. Creating a Golf with a revolutionary design was going to be difficult, but fascinating.

Caruso explains, "I don't know why but my mind brought me to realize a unique volume without wheels and with a 'fast' element on the side. I knew that 'a Golf is a Golf because of its wheels' but that element on the side gave me the ability to achieve a synthesis of the car, like a capture view of a fast car in motion."

By Rufus Thompson