Autostyle Design Competition 2013: The Results

The results of the tenth annual Autostyle 2013 design competition are in, with three Italian and two French design students earning this year's top plaudits.

The contest challenged students from eight schools from around the world to create a custom vehicle from a Citroën Revolte concept, Suzuki SX4, Audi Crosslane, Land Rover Defender DC100 concept or Maserati Ghibli.

The schools involved were: Creapole; Istituto Europeo di Design (IED); Institut Supérieur du Design (ISD); Istituto Superiore Scienza dell'Automobile di Modena (ISSAM); Politecnico di Milano; Royal College of Art; Strate College; and Umeå University of Design.

ISSAM's Stefano Airoldi's Suzuki SX4 was selected as ‘Best Proposal' in the Urban Cars/SUVs category, while Kévin Bouvier of Strate won the prize for ‘Best Proposal' in sports cars. 22-year-old Creapole student Jennifer Andriamamonjy won in the Wacom-sponsored Virtual Versions category.

The 'Creativity Awards', sponsored by Auto & Design magazine, were won by Mario Giuseppe Antonioli from the Politecnico di Milano with his Land Rover Defender DC100, and by the Royal College of Art's Francesco Binaggia, with his Suzuki SX4.

This year's judging panel included Ferrari's Flavio Manzoni and Alessandro Maccolini of Alfa Romeo, Peugeot-Citroën's Anna Costamagna, Claudio Missal of Ford and Volvo's Robin Page.

Over the two day event, five workshops took place, beginning with 'From Quattroporte to Ghibli' by Maserati's Giovanni Ribotta, in which he spoke about the rebirth of the latter, before head of Volvo interior Robin Page and head of Volvo exterior Jonathan Disley hosted their workshop. Entitled 'The brand new models of Volvo', the workshop explored the turning point of Scandinavian car design through the Concept Coupé.

On the second day, the sessions began with Alfredo and Maria Paola Stola of Studiotorino and Italo Moriggi of Skorpion Engineering's workshop, 'Coupétorino on Mercedes-Benz SL'. Alfa Romeo's Alessandro Maccolini was up next, hosting a workshop on the development of the 4C entitled 'One way direction'.

The last workshop was hosted by Ferrari's Flavio Manzoni, who focused on the LaFerrari supercar and its innovative details, such as the Hy-Kers hybrid system and hand-laminated carbon fiber chassis.

By Rufus Thompson