MINI's Vision Urbanaut vehicle shifts between three interior layouts using a digital "token"

British car brand MINI has unveiled its Vision Urbanaut concept vehicle, which adapts its interior space via a disc-shaped device that turns the dashboard into a daybed and the windscreen into a balcony.

The fully electric Vision Urbanaut concept has an expansive interior with moveable elements that help create three different configurations or "moments". MINI has labelled these Chill, Wanderlust and Vibe.

These three designs, which offer both a more conventional car format fit for driving and a living-room-like space, are supported by the vehicle's autonomous capabilities.

The car's interior can be changed using the MINI Token

At the centre of the vehicle is a table with three indents on its surface. Users can switch between the three preconfigured interior layouts by placing a disc-shaped device, called the MINI Token, into one of these openings.

Above the table, a circular screen displays driver information and can also be bent downwards to act as a light.

The Vision Urbanaut has three preconfigured layouts: Chill, Wanderlust and Vibe

Travellers enter the 4.46 metre-long vehicle through a large sliding door positioned on the side of the car – the only door on the whole vehicle.

The two front seats are designed to rotate, while the bench-like two-seater at the rear can be folded outwards to face a different direction.

The dashboard can be lowered to create a "daybed" area

When the car isn't being driven, the dashboard can be lowered to create a daybed area behind the two front seats. The windscreen can also be opened upwards to create what MINI describes as a "street balcony".

A textile-covered archway at the back of the vehicle called the Loop extends over the seat bench to create a "cosy corner".

These features enable the car to switch between a conventional format for driving and a more homely space that MINI says is "more of a living room than a vehicle".

A textile-covered archway called Loop at the back of the vehicle projects different images

The Chill configuration sees the rear seat bench folded down to offer an expansive sofa-like area, while LEDs embedded in the Loop archway above light up to reveal a leafy pattern designed to emulate a forest canopy.

The circular screen above the central table folds down to become a lamp, getting rid of any digital displays or obvious car-like visual elements.

The windscreen lifts up to create a balcony-like opening

The Vibe design aims to offer a more interactive environment. The windscreen can be opened up to "blur the boundaries between the outside and inside", while the central, circular screen becomes a media control centre.

In this design the Loop surface projects images of graphic equalisers that move in time with the music. These visuals are also shown on the car's exterior on the front, rear and wheels, creating a club-like atmosphere.

The seats can face forward for manual driving

Alternatively, the Wanderlust option is designed for when the Vision Urbanaut is in motion, either manually or autonomously.

When this "moment" is activated, the central screen displays visuals informed by 1950s and 60s tourism posters, as well as an animation of the route ahead or other travel information, like nearby attractions or estimated arrival time.

Meanwhile, in driverless mode, the Loop mimics the car movement by displaying a simulated blur of passing scenery.

Travellers can switch to manual driving mode by tapping on the MINI logo on the dashboard, which brings out the steering wheel and pedals.

The MINI Token can also be programmed to offer customised interior arrangements set by the user, including fragrance, lighting and music.

The Vision Urbanaut concept features a metallic green body

The car's exterior body, which resembles the shape of a small camper van, features a seamless design in a metallic green hue with turquoise-coloured wheels and gradient windows.

Instead of containing a combustion engine, which isn't required with an electric powertrain, the vehicle's grille acts as an intelligence panel for automation, letting other cars and pedestrians know when the car is in self-driving mode.

Other transport concepts designed to look like lounge interiors include the Hanare retro-styled car by Japanese auto brand Suzuki, which it describes as an "autonomous mobile room."

The 19_19 concept by Citroën is also referred to as a "living room on wheels". The car, which is both fully electric and driverless, was informed by aviation design.

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Opel launches Mokka-e electric car to "change the perception of the brand"

Dezeen promotion: German carmaker Opel has unveiled Mokka-e, which is the first in a new generation of electric cars that aims to redefine the brand by drawing from the bold, sporty designs of its past.

Mokka-e is a fully electric car, which Opel says demonstrates its new design philosophy. It is the first car to feature a redesigned front fascia called Opel Vizor and a fully-digital cockpit called Opel Pure Panel.

"The new Mokka is a head turner and will change the perception of our brand," said Opel CEO Michael Lohscheller. "With the Mokka, we are reinventing Opel and introducing our design of the next decade"

The Mokka-e is the first of a new generation of electric cars by Opel

The car was designed to showcase a new design language that will be rolled out across future Opel cars and innovations.

"It shows everything the brand stands for today and in the future: the Mokka is fun, efficient and innovative in all respects," said Lohscheller.

"In addition, it perfectly embodies the Opel brand values – exciting, approachable, German – in the most progressive way."

Opel intends for the Mokka-e car to "change the perception" of the brand

The Mokka-e is a compact, five-passenger car, which has been designed to demonstrate Opel's commitment to electric cars as part of a strategic move towards the more sustainable vehicles.

By early 2021, the brand, which is based in Rüsselsheim, Germany, will offer a total of eight electrified vehicles aimed at different customer markets.

Opel intends to electrify its entire portfolio of cars by 2024

"It is the first Opel that is electric right from its market start; a real proof that Opel goes electric," said Lohscheller.

"We will electrify our entire product portfolio by 2024."

Concept drawing showing the Opel Vizor featured on the new Mokka-e

The Mokka-e is the first model to feature the Opel Vizor and the Opel Pure Panel, which will be included on all of the brand's models throughout the 2020s.

"The Opel Vizor and Pure Panel embody the concept of Bold and Pure, which describes the approach to the car design and is inspired by the principles of visual organization and digital detox," said Opel's design vice president Mark Adams.

The Opel Vizor featured on the Mokka-e takes design cues from the classic 1970 Opel Manta

"Both are inspired by iconic Opel models, such as the 1970 Opel Manta, which stood out of the crowd by offering sporty coupé lines to a wide audience," Adams continued.

"Moreover, the new Opel Vizor is also the entry ticket into the world of electric and autonomous driving and makes all Opel models future-ready by cleanly integrating headlights, sensors and cameras required by modern vehicles, proudly centred around the silver Opel Blitz (Flash) logo."

The Mokka-e is available with a bright green finish

The two-toned car has a rounded roof and curved body that measures 4.15 metres. It is available with a black roof and engine bonnet, while the four doors, front bumper and rear are painted in contrasting colours such as bright green.

Inside, the vehicle has been "digitally detoxed" by removing all extraneous elements and information. 

The Mokka-e is fully electric

The new Opel Pure Panel is a double screen that extends from the driver's side to the central console. The digital display uses a simplified design with minimal buttons and menu options.

Only essential information such as speed, GPS mapping and miles left on the battery charge are shown across the screen, which is tilted towards the driver.

It features a next-generation fully-digital cockpit called Opel Pure Panel

The electric motor in the vehicle offers drivers 100 kilowatts (136 horsepowers) and 260 Newton metres of torque, or turning power. Drivers can select one of three modes to drive the car in – Normal, Eco and Sport – depending on acceleration and balance preferences.

The 100 kilowatt DC battery charges the car up to 80 per cent in just 30 minutes with either single-phase or three-phase power circuits. On a full charge, the Mokka-e can travel up to 322 kilometres.

Other technological features of the Mokka-e include the Advanced Cruise Control system, which automatically adjusts the car's speed to match that of the vehicle ahead of it, Active Lane Positioning to keep the car in the centre of the lane, and glare-free IntelliLux LED lights built for all driving conditions.

The car also has a parking assistant, a 180-degree rear backup camera, automatic braking and a mat for passengers to wirelessly charge mobile devices.

Opel has also equipped it with OpelConnect, a service that reports traffic conditions and will automatically call emergency responders if airbags deploy.

In addition to the electric car, Opel is manufacturing the vehicle with efficient diesel and petrol engines. Mokka can be ordered online since 20 September 2020 and will be available for purchase at dealerships in early 2021.

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ROOM+ Design & Build replaces walls of house in Ho Chi Minh City with glass bricks

Vietnam architecture studio ROOM+ Design & Build has carried out a dramatic renovation of a small house and shop in Ho Chi Minh City by replacing its walls with glass bricks.

Named Glass Brick Micro House, the small home in Vietnam has been shortlisted for residential rebirth project of the year at Dezeen Awards 2020.

ROOM+ Design & Build made the house's walls from glass bricks

ROOM+ Design & Build renovated the small property that occupies an 18-square-metre plot on a side street in Ho Chi Minh City, to create a shop with a two-storey home above.

To enliven the house and bring light into the small structure, the architecture studio removed the walls on its two street-facing facades and replaced them with glass bricks.

The house is on a side street in Ho Chi Minh City

"The old house was partly damaged, abandoned and very dark inside," explained ROOM+ Design & Build founder Vinh Phuc Ta.

"The design brief asked for an affordable and artistic renovation to accommodate the owners' small leather shop and living space with two bedrooms," he continued.

"The core design concept of the project is using glass-block, a unique and uncommon material, to replace the old brick facades in combination with space-saving and flexible interior space."

A shop is on the ground floor

According to the studio, the translucent glass bricks allow light into the property while giving the inhabitants privacy.

"The translucent glass-block facades with glass windows on the north-east and south-east engage natural light and ventilation without losing the privacy, and also make the building blend with the surroundings during the day,"

"At night, when lights on, the house becomes a magically sparkling lantern in the middle of the neighbourhood."

The room is also the home's kitchen and living space

The building's ground floor contains a small leather goods shop that will double up as the home's living space.

It contains glass shelving and white cupboards for the storage and display of leather products as well as a table and chairs. A small kitchen and a toilet are hidden behind opaque glass sliding doors under the stairs.

The first floor contains a bedroom and shower room

The staircase, which is behind another opaque sliding door, leads up to the first-floor space that contains a bedroom and a toilet and shower room.

Above this, the second floor also contains the master bedroom, which is wrapped with a balcony, and a small bathroom and glass-block shower room

The master bedroom has a balcony

"Besides, the smart and flexible floor plans have greatly enhanced the well-being of the owners' living space in such a tiny house," said the architect.

"The combination of contemporary and traditional materials in a minimalist approach makes one's spatial experience seem both freshly new and closely familiar at the same time."

At night the building can be illuminated like a lantern

Glass Brick Micro House is shortlisted for Dezeen Awards alongside projects including a house in Sydney with an aquaponics system containing edible fish and a home in a former community oven in Portugal.

Photography is by ROOM+ Design & Build / SM Studio.

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Project credits:

Design: ROOM+ Design & Build
Construction: ROOM+ Design & Build
Lead architect: Vinh Phuc Ta
Design team: Hieu Hien Trinh, Kim Quy Nguyen

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AI-generated brutalist buildings feature in hypnotic Moullinex music videos

Lisbon DJ Moullinex has shared an exclusive short music video showing an endlessly changing landscape of brutalist buildings drawn up by a generative design algorithm with Dezeen.

Moullinex, whose real name is Luís Clara Gomes, created two videos that use artificial intelligence (AI) to imagine a series of brutalist buildings.

The first video, which the artist shared on his Facebook page, is based on 200 photographs of modernist, concrete buildings including Le Corbusier's High Court in Chandigarh, the São Paulo Museum of Art by Lina Bo Bardi and Ole Scheeren's The Interlace.

These images acted as the dataset, which was used to train a generative network via the machine learning tool StyleGAN2, to create a string of entirely non-existent buildings with similar characteristics.

The first video was trained using 200 images of modernist concrete architecture

"It's akin to showing thousands of pictures of a cat to a child and then asking them to draw a brand new cat based on what they now know are cat-like characteristics," Gomes told Dezeen.

"The more cats you see, the more realistic cats you can imagine," he continued. "A particularity of these networks is that you can 'walk' the latent space between two images. So the results are often striking, as the transitions are organic and seamless."

This allows the buildings to morph fluidly into one another, as they flit across the screen to an electronic beat that Gomes scored especially for the short clip.

The second video, called Brutal Nature, has been shared exclusively with Dezeen and is based on images of brutalist buildings that integrate plant life into their architecture.

The Brutal Nature video is underscored by a remix of Moullinex's song Ven

"The structure and materials of these buildings are exposed. They represent an emotionless, naked truth," said Gomes.

"Anything remotely emotional you juxtapose with them becomes much more emotional, such is the contrast. I love how the starkness of the concrete is offset against the organic, vibrant shapes of plants.

"I also find parallels with brutalism in my music, as I tend to gravitate towards the contrast of bare, electronic soundscapes with emotional elements such as vocals and other organic instruments."

Underscoring the video is a remix of Moullinex's single Ven, which is set to be released later this week.

At this stage, both videos are prototypes, allowing Gomes to assess the feasibility of having an entire, full-length music video be generated by AI.

"It's the intersection of technology and emotion I am truly interested in," he said.

"Electronic soundscapes are artificial by nature but we can humanise them by using them within the framework of a language we speak, such as music. Same for visual data, where these tools can be charged with the emotional meaning we want, by curating the input data and control parameters."

Last month, Google affiliate Sidewalk Labs released a software, which uses machine learning to draw up millions of possible configurations for urban developments in a matter of minutes.

Similarly, Wallgren Arkitekter and BOX Bygg, as well as US researcher Joel Simon, have independently developed parametric tools that optimise floor plans based on the particular spatial constraints of a given site.

In response, designer Sebastian Errazuriz has argued that 90 per cent of architects will lose their jobs to artificial intelligence because "it's almost impossible for you to compete".

But Gomes maintains that, when working with machine learning, the role of the creator simply changes rather than becoming completely obsolete.

"As an artist, you become more of a curator of source materials and concepts and the technology is the 'oven' where the piece is cooked," he said.

"The oven is an apt metaphor as these experiments require a huge computational time and results are often unexpected. You can control the clay and the temperature but then you have to wait to see the results. There's beauty in patiently waiting."

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Dezeen commissions artist Kelly Anna to design artwork for Paddington Square

Dezeen and developer Sellar have teamed up to commission illustrator Kelly Anna to create an artwork to wrap around the site of Paddington Square, an upcoming development in London designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop.

The development is centred on a crystalline building that will house 14 floors of light-filled workspaces with views across London.

The building, which will stand next to a new public piazza, will have four floors of fashion shops along with bars and restaurants at its base above a new entrance to Paddington Underground station.

Paddington Square is an upcoming development in London designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop

Paddington Square will be topped by west London's highest rooftop restaurants. The development is due to be completed in spring 2022.

Kelly Anna explained how her artwork responds to the character of the development in an exclusive video interview filmed by Dezeen for Sellar, the developer managing Paddington Square.

Paddington Square is due to be completed in spring 2022

The piece was commissioned by Dezeen and Sellar, which was also behind London Bridge's Renzo Piano-designed skyscraper The Shard, on behalf of owner Great Western Developments.

The artwork is entitled Nurture Nature and features the artist's signature athletic figures passing through a colourful landscape of plants and arched portals.

The artwork is installed in repeating tiles on hoarding that surrounds the building site. A figure from the piece has also been blown up to rise 14 metres above the site, installed on an outside wall of the development's multi-storey marketing suite.

Dezeen and developer Sellar commissioned artist Kelly Anna to design an artwork for Paddington Square

"I was briefed to create an artwork to communicate the idea of Paddington being this gateway into London," says Kelly Anna in the exclusive video interview, which was filmed at her studio in Hackney.

According to the illustrator, the artwork is intended to express the welcoming spirit of Paddington, a key hub for visitors arriving in London from elsewhere in the UK as well as abroad via Heathrow Airport.

Kelly Anna depicted the characters in the piece carrying fruits from around the world as they pass through the arched portals, reflecting the international nature of Paddington Square.

"Paddington is a massive transport hub, and you've got people coming from all over the world," explained the artist.

"I wanted to create something really bright, bold and colourful, to express the idea that people are coming together again and meeting."

Kelly Anna's piece is on display on the hoarding that surrounds Paddington Square

The piece draws inspiration from Renzo Piano Building Workshop's design for Paddington Square, touching on the aesthetics of the structure as well as the principles of sustainability and wellbeing at its core.

"Paddington Square was designed in this really geometrical style with a focus on sustainability," said the artist. "I really wanted to incorporate that in my design, mixing nature and architectural buildings."

The artwork also incorporates foliage and waterways in reference to the abundance of parks and canals that surround the site.

Kelly Anna says the artwork is intended to express the welcoming spirit of Paddington

Kelly Anna sees the commission as a beacon of positivity and colour in the city, and a creative use of building site hoardings.

"What I really loved about this project is the idea that we using this hoarding as a space for art," she said.

"It just automatically brightens up the city," she continued. "For me, that's the most important thing, that people feel inspired."

Kelly Anna's design features athletic figures passing through a colourful landscape of plants and arched portals

James Sellar, CEO of Sellar, commended the artwork for capturing the spirit of the development.

"Art and design are firmly embedded in the DNA of Paddington Square, so we're thrilled to unveil Kelly Anna's panoramic artwork, as the first public-facing commission," he said.

"Kelly Anna's energetic and innovative piece perfectly distils the spirit of Paddington Square, a catalyst for pioneering ideas and opportunities."

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