May 2021: Graduation in 2021 came early for our students, as the deadline and process moves earlier in the year each time. To the entire word’s surprise we are in exactly the same situation as 2020, thanks to the global COVID19 pandemic continuing. Our entire graduation process has been online from the very beginning this year, which presented unique motivation and working practice problems. We are proud to see that our students have coped very well with this situation! All seminars were conducted remotely, and once again a degree show exhibition was organised mostly via Instagram but with an added innovative public display across the city of Lahti. The open air presentation materials are of course much easier to view during the continued restrictions (for example, our campus remains closed).
STANCE 21 is once again limited to this blog/instagram format. What follows is information on each vehicle design project presented in 2021. One of this years projects remains confidential- but hopefully a later edit to this blog post will reveal it! We did manage to meet up at our favourite venue, Ace Cafe. Always a pleasure to be at such a famous motoring themed place and people. Summer was delayed as usual over here, and we had a rainy evening at Ace Cafe. Restrictions meant we could only be there a couple of hours, and in small numbers, but it is great to see that the Cafe is open serving excellent food and it was nice to see some old faces. We shared the tour of the new museum on InstagramTV. The STANCE 21 Award winner was announced as Valtteri Valli, and his is the first project listed below. Congratulations to Valtteri!
Valtteri Valli
Jeep Adaptive – An urban car built for adventure
The inspiration for my graduation project came from an interest in functional design, compact vehicles and outdoor lifestyle. Through these interests, I had the idea to design a product that I saw answering a need of the future. This project is a vehicle concept with which I wanted to explore the idea of having a truly capable vehicle for both urban life and off-road adventures. I wanted to try to diminish the contrast of an off-roader and a city car by trying to combine the best of both worlds, into a true two-in-one vehicle concept. The vehicle were to be suitable for the city and answer urban life’s requirements, but have all the capability when moving off-road into challenging terrain. With this, I had set a brief for creating a compact vehicle concept for Jeep, for the year 2030. Focusing on building functional solutions and using new technologies, I planned to design a visually captivating and believable concept for both off-road and urban driving. The vehicle had to be electric and have space for maximum of 1+1 passengers. The package was to be as small as possible and possess the capability to transform from a city-going into an off-road capable vehicle.
Joona Lahtinen
ASTEREON – Character Concept for Transformers
Astereon is an original vehicle/character design project for the Transformers franchise, with a goal of creating a believable concept that is aligned with the source material and established aesthetics. This project explores storytelling with design and the landscape of Entertainment design through research, and experimentation. For Joona’s project, the main goal was to concept and design a Transformer inspired by the designs from the Transformer’s universe. 3D-models of the vehicle and robot mode were produced in the 3D-software Blender.
Veena Koskinen
leef – Interior Design concept for community car utilising photosynthesis
This graduation work considers possibilities to use photosynthesis and its end products in the interior design of a vehicle. The future of photosynthesis technology and its possibilities are explored through interviews, and from literature. The concept includes a plant wall that generates energy from the Sun using plant microbial fuel cell technology, PMFCs. The floor of the vehicle participates in the generation of energy through photosynthesis. Additionally, the interior consists of different materials the production of which used the end products of photosynthesis. The light intake of the interior has been a top priority to maximise the benefit of solar energy for the plants and organisms using photosynthesis. The shapes and colours of the interior design were strongly inspired by nature and leaves of plants.
Eeli Ravea
Tesla Model Z
The subject of this graduation project was to showcase a vision of what a high-speed electric family car could look like in 2040. Its conceptual goal was to challenge current ways of travelling long distances in an independent and CO2-free way. You may already be thinking why would we need a high-speed family car when its not legal to drive even at 90 miles per hour? That’s why the concept wasn’t only about designing a new kind of electric powered personal vehicle but a new infrastructural concept as well. It was named Tesla Highway Network. The network was designed to allow highly developed automated vehicles to travel at high speeds without human error being a safety concern. The purpose of this project was to offer an alternative for air travelling and that way reduce CO2 emissions. At the same time it aimed to make it easier and carefree to travel to meet relatives in another state for instance.
Ruusu-Maria Tuominen
Mercedes Benz Cuckoo CitySkier konsepti 2035
The subject of thesis is Michelin Challenge design competition work, which theme was ”Inspiring mobility”. The thesis dealt with the ways of moving in big cities and their problems. The work was limited to Berlin in year 2035. The topic was backgrounded by examining the most typical light vehicles and their limitations under the law of the target country. On the basis of the acquired knowledge by applying and combining already existing mode of movement graduated concept, which connects the two vehicles into one service. The result was the aim of the vehicle and the user interface, which together create an alternative mode of travel to Berlin in parallel with an emphasis on public transport timetables independent travel.
You can also rewatch the final seminar presentations of our student works, from this YouTube video recording of our Zoom seminars. The feedback from staff and examiners has been omitted – as this was private for our students to improve their work in future. We were very pleased to have help from a Finnish car design legend, who previously worked for Pininfarina, Mazda, and Tesla. It was a coincidence that one of our students presented a Tesla project!