Taking a walk at design exhibitions is always something that i like to do, to relax, to find new inspiration, new colours new surface treatments.

During the latest Salone Satellite (http://www.cosmit.it/) located in the Milan farigrounds  i’ve come across something quite unique that has brought my mind to the great Luigi Colani designs: the forniture designed by Ifeanyi Oganwu for the London based Expand Design studio (http://www.expand-design.com).

The surface they develop are alwys smooth and liquid, the most impressive piace shown was certainly the Double Agent Desk.

Here are some pics

It has taken much longer than usual but eventually Pininfarina has found the top designer that will fill the hole left by Lowie Veermesch, when he resigned in the second half of last year.

The famous Italian design & engineering house has signed Renault’s vice president in charge of Interior Design, Fabio Filippini who is joining the company in Cambiano, Italy, on April 1^st.

This is the first “outsider” who is appointed to lead the famous team of car and product designers at Pininfarina. The appointment marks the return of an Italian designer to the role after Ken Okuyama and Lowie Veermesch.

However, although he was born and educated in Italy, Mr. Filippini, 47, is rather a citizen of the world of car design and despite his last title he has also been working on exterior design and indeed he is credited of the current Renault Megane range design.

He has some 20 years of experience gained around the world and he is married to a Japanese, Mrs. Kayoko.

Before joining Renault in1993 Mr. Filippini had been a young design star at the Japanese DCI (Design Centre International) consultancy in Tokyo. That was his first full time job after graduating in Architecture at the famous Polytechnic University in Milan, between 1989 and 1993.

As a student he worked for Aldo Sessano at his Open Design in Turin and worked on a number of projects for Mitsubishi.

One of his most remarkable projects was the interior design of the stunning 1995 “Renault Initiale” trend setting, top class, limousine.

Mr. Filippini’s work at Pininfarina will be the first in Italy after his graduation. From Tokyo he moved to Renault in Paris and than to Sitges, Spain, where he worked at the VW Group Design Centre between 1997 and the year 2000, when he returned to Renault.

In recent years he has also been in charge of Renault’s Latin America Design centre in Brazil.

Gert Volker Hildebrand hands over the running of the MINI Design team to Anders Warming at the end of the year.

After 10 successful years at MINI Design, Gert Volker Hildebrand is handing over the running of the MINI Design studio to Anders Warming at the end of 2010. Gert Hildebrand will be leaving the company on 31.12.2010.

Gert Volker Hildebrand (57) has been responsible for the complete design development of the MINI brand since January 2001 and, with his design team, has shaped the development of the MINI brand portfolio. Over the last 10 years, the head of the MINI Design studio has provided the impetus for countless MINI vehicle concepts and for the entire design development. Alongside the further development of the third generation of the classic MINI, the MINI Cabrio and MINI Clubman were also created under his leadership. This year, Gert Hildebrand and his team added a real 4-door version to the MINI brand: the MINI Countryman, launched in September.

The MINI Coupé and MINI Roadster concepts presented in 2009, which will be appearing on the market in 2011 and 2012, were also created in the MINI Design studio under his guidance. Apart from designing cars, Gert Volker Hildebrand has also devoted himself to encouraging young designers and to talking about design in institutions and to the public.

Anders Warming, head of Exterior Design, BMW Automobiles, started working for DesignworksUSA in California in 1997. Following this, the 38-year-old Dane was employed in various positions as an automobile designer before coming to Munich in 2005 as Team Leader, Advanced Design, BMW Group. In 2007, he took over as head of Exterior Design, BMW Automobiles. Under his leadership, the BMW Z4, BMW 5 Series and the BMW Concept 6 Series Coupé, presented at the Paris Auto Show, were created.

“I would like to wish Gert Hildebrand all the best for the future and thank him for working with us so well and so successfully”, says Adrian van Hooydonk, head of BMW Group Design. “Anders Warming has the expertise, the necessary experience and the intuition to take the MINI brand, with the support of the entire MINI Design team, into an ever more successful future.”

At first, the news that Volkswagen has bought a 90.1% controlling stake into the famous Italdesign-Giugiaro, surprised – and even shocked – the entire car industry world-wide.

However, a few days later, there was large consensus that the move was a very smart one, benefitting both companies and shareholders, as well as the Turin, Italian, car design community.

On one side Volkswagen has enriched its powerful organisation with a jewel company. An organisation that is unique and paradigmatic in body design and engineering.

Clearly, VW is going to benefit of a design and engineering potential that will enrich and accelerate its product and production expansion in the years to come. A contribution expected to help VW achieve the 10 million units per year by 2018 goal that the German giant has set for itself.

On the other side Giorgetto Giugiaro and his son and partner Fabrizio Giugiaro have signed a long term insurance on the future of their company, that will be granted prosperity by a group of 13 different cars and trucks brands, and few more clients among VW’s associates, such as the Chinese FAW, which has already told Giugiaro (and VW) that they will continue to do business with Italdesign. No doubt, their bank accounts are going to be inflated by the payment for their company.  Details about the selling price are kept very confidential but rumours suggest this was very good indeed. Quite rightly, considering that even through the past difficult years for the industry in Europe and the U.S.A., the company has continued to be successful and flourishing, with top customers and large contracts in its portfolio, such as the one with the BMW Group for the engineering of the new Mini Coupé and Cabrio and the Chino-American Hybrid Kinetics Motors coming to life in Alabama.

In addition, Giugiaro & Son will maintain a fair 9.9% share of Italdesign and their whole stake of Italdesign Architettura, a unit that has always been kept separate from the Italdesign-Group and is not part of the transaction.

On another front, the Italian design community is also going to benefit by the acquisition. Italdesign-Giugiaro will no longer be serving most of the other carmakers around the world and it is likely that most of them will check with major and minor design consultancies in Italy, such as Pininfarina, Bertone, Bee-Studio, Fioravanti, Form Design of Paolo Martin, IDEA Institute, StudioTorino, Torino Design, Trilix,  SZ Design (Zagato), and other ones.

Some Chinese carmakers will probably accelerate their plans to establish their own design centres in Torino or expand the ones they have already there.

The deal was mildly criticized by few voices which said “Italy is loosing another of its jewel to a foreigner” but indeed they had no point and no audience. The Italian car industry (that is the Fiat Group Automobiles) has repeatedly demonstrated to be unable to appreciate the talent, quality and capability of Italdesign-Giugiaro. Despite the evidence that its most successful products in the past decades have indeed been designed by Giugiaro (let’s just mention here the Lancia Delta, the Fiat Panda, Uno, Punto and Grande Punto, as well as the latest Alfa Romeo Brea) the Italian carmaker has consistently snobbed the acclaimed “Designer of the Century” and recently was among the few major carmakers not to have any major project under development at the Italdesign-Giugiaro think-tank.

Indeed, the relation between VW and Italdesign was established long before Fiat noticed the presence of Italdesign in the Turinese design community, next to its gates. The VW and Italdesign working relation dates back to 1969 and has rarely been interrupted. Recently, in 2008, the two companies signed a comprehensive “framework agreement” to co-operate on a wide range of projects, including engineering development of the all-new Volkswagen Up! model family.

Speaking at the Press Conference in Torino, Prof. Dr. Martin Winterkorn, Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft, stressed that “with this shareholding in Italdesign, we are participating in one of the most renowned design and development companies with one of the richest traditions in the automobile industry. Italdesign is the flagship for creative Italian automobile design and has been instrumental in shaping the face of the automobile industry worldwide. As the creator of the Golf I, Giorgetto Giugiaro laid a new foundation for Volkswagen design in the 1970s,”

He also said “Giugiaro made a name for himself not only with the Golf I, but also with concepts for important models such as the first Volkswagen Passat, Scirocco or the Audi 80.”

Closing his remarks Prof. Winterkorn stressed that “A new era in the strategic partnership between our companies begins today. Italdesign becomes a permanent member of the global Volkswagen family. The Volkswagen Group will be continuing its model initiative over the coming years and will benefit from the capacity and competence of Italdesign. The company will therefore be making an important contribution to our 2018 global growth strategy.”

In addition to the all-new Alfa Romeo Giulietta, designed in house, there were three more Alfa Romeo dream-cars to look and scrutinize at the Geneva Motor Show opening early this March.

The two-seater roadster 2uettottanta by Pininfarina; the dramatic high performance V8, 2+2, Bertone Pandion and the luxury Alfa Romeo Sofia, four-door saloon by I.DE.A. Institute.

The trio of Alfa Romeo dream-cars has been proposed by the Italian coachbuilders as their own contribution to the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Alfa Romeo and to enhance the role of the Italian coachbuilders, and designers, in creating the Alfa Romeo myth, as well as to visualize what the future might bring to the brand.

The design-study that won general acclaim and was considered “star of the show” was the Pininfarina roadster, a cute and elegant sport car which very modern and trend setting style succeeded in linking the image of the light and nimble Alfa Romeo of the future with the memories of a the great life-style of the Dolce Vita of Federico Fellini and Marcello Mastroianni.

It cannot be by chance that all three coachbuilders have come up with proposal of cars designed to go back to front-engine-rear-drive. Indeed Pininfarina’s 2uettottana goes even further with its design that enhances the long engine hood, which suggests a superlative in-board layout for a compact, yet powerful, four cylinder turbocharged engine that could easily deliver anything between 200 and 250 HP.

Pininfarina’s director of design Lowie Vermeersch says that the self-assigned briefing was to offer their “vision of the Alfa Romeo Spider of the future. A design looking forward but with links to the mythical icons of the past.” The dimensions and architecture of the 2uettottanta are consequent with the goal of a pure sports car, with real wheel drive, superlative performance and great dynamics. Hence, its fast proportions and the surface treatment inspired to air flowing over the skin.

Although the modelling of the surface is very subtle and sophisticated, the visual impact is impressive for the essential simplicity. There is a clear feeling of lightness and dynamism at the design suggests this car “move in the air in total harmony”.

It is not by chance that the latest dream-car by Pininfarina is a very realistic design rather than a show-car too far into the future or into the unlikely.

In all respect the 2uettoottanta, which design has originated from the work of Donato Pacella and Nazareno Epifani, with contribution from Eero Kankainnen, restates what a real Alfa Romeo must be: compact, nimble, simple and light. Almost a piece of race-engineering for the enthusiast driver. Rather than just another “premium car”. This is well communicated by the interior design too.

In contrast with too many “over loaded” examples from too many motor-shows, in the 2uettottanta is minimalist, essential and yet very attractive.

At the show, and after that, everyone says Alfa Romeo has got to build again car like the Pininfarina 2uettotta, and I an only join the crowd.

At this time, there are no plans, of any sort, to take it to production stage. It will all depend on what Sergio Marchionne decides to do. Will he convince his shareholders to invest serious money in the revitalization of Alfa Romeo? Alternatively, will Fiat sell Alfa Romeo to the VW Group, as repeatedly reported?

The love-hate relation between Fiat and the Italian coachbuilders has rarely been even.

The giant Fiat has always plaid the role of the big fish who lives on the small fishes and indeed the recent troubles met by Bertone and Pininfarina would have not be as big if only Fiat had done his part with the due fairness.

The notion that Alfa Romeo could live a brilliant and better new life under the ownership of a group like is wide-spread and shared by many insiders in Italy and there are strong indications that the final decision is only waiting for the last details, and the right time, to be made and announced.

Pininfarina 2010 AR 2ueottottanta Photo Gallery

Indeed, if you have not been reading from me in recent months, this is not by chance but for a few good reasons.

In the early days of this year, all of a sudden, I found myself into a dark tunnel and needed to found a way out of it. That was when I was told I had a small cancer in my throath.

A cancer in its “phase 2” that – thanks God – could be treated, with good chances of success.

It could be treated with surgery, or, alternatively, with a combination of Radiotherapy and Chemo Therapy, which in this case is rather taxing on everything related to mouth, nutrition, talk etc.

In addition Chemio Theraphy is heavy on the body and drastically reduces resistance to virus and more. I had been warned: it would not be a walk along the beach but a mountain marathon with narrow shoes or no shoes at all.

After two months of investigations and consultancy, in March, my wife and I decided for the “Therapies” to which this sort of cancer responds quite well.

I have been treated in Torino (where we have moved for some 4 months) starting at mid-march and was completed around mid-may, not without a few extra and side effects and problems, now being take care of.

We will have to have until the end of July to evaluate the success of the Therapies and another month to check if the cancer has been completed defeated.

In the meantime I am working on recovering energies and by the end of September I should be back to full normality.

In the meantime my Back Up Hard Disk (1 terabite) with my photo archive has collapsed and I am told there are few chances to recover the data, despite the related cost. It is just another challenge to overcome in the next months.

At this point let me close on a very positive note. The year so far had been quite hard but soon the sun will shine again: my wife and I are full of joy and expectations, since our daughter Elena is well ahead into her motherhood and soon we will become the grandparents of a new baby. The new arrival is estimated to be on August 7^th (plus or minus 7 days, says the doctor).

Elena and we all have been wishing this baby for many years and this pieces of great news, which came a few weeks before “the tunnel”, has kept up smiling all through this time.

We will celebrate with a party in Sardinia in September.

Another positive side of this experience has been to see how many good friends we have and to which extent they have wanted, and actually, done, to help us in any way.

I am sure you would have been among them if the physical distance separating us would not spread over continents. Thank you, all.

Soon, I shall be returning to this blog more frequently and will try to recover some of the past stories we should have not missed, perhaps with short stories (not as exhaustive as they deserve) but at least with some good pictures.