We at STANCE h
ave had a very eventful term this autumn, and we have a few interesting projects, topics, and events to report. The first we want to talk about is a unique and outstanding opportunity we had this year to employ the services of Italian designer Mr Boris Fabris. In addition to being an extremely nice man, Boris Fabris is a very experienced car
designer- with many production projects to his name. Born in 1972, in Rome Italy, Boris has been working in Turin for nearly 20years and most of those years he has worked at the legendary design studio of Leonardo Fioravanti. One of Bori’s most prominent vehicle designs, was the very first Special Projects Ferrari- the SP1. This unique Ferrari was created
in 2008 for a wealthy Japanese collector.
As you can imagine, the chance to have a Ferrari designer visit us, with deep industry experience to pass onto our students- was a chance we did not want to miss. Mr Fabris offered to hold a one week design workshop, to impart as much of his knowledge and guidance as he could in a visit that proved to be too short (because we enjoyed his company so much). So in September, the Automotive Design Workshop was launched, and students from across our year groups were invited to take part. In total 22 students (the maximum capacity!) were enrolled, and the intense course began on 5th of September with Boris introducing himself to all of our students. After some fascinating insight into the design process, and also some glimpses of his own work, students were all excited and enthused to begin. Boris gave students 2 different design projects within one week. The work was intense and satisfying, with results being demanded so quickly. Boris expertly guided the students to produce ideas and think through the design problems of creating a vehicle as quickly as possible. Enthusiasm
was high, and Boris had even carried his own personal car design library with him (some very heavy books to bring from Turin to Finland!). The history of Italian car design, and also the specific experience of bringing a design from sketch to being stamped out in a factory was something we hoped Boris would bring to us, and he delivered these things superbly. 
Students worked through one brief- for a contemporary luxury coupe- then later in the week Boris used his expertise to place the students into groups
that we knew would simulate a typical design team experience. Those groups set to
work designing a future mega-city urban vehicle design. Group work (once it got underway with the second design brief) was strongly emphasised by Boris, as was team leadership, decision making under pressure and many other real-world, real pressure automotive design industry practises. Our students felt that they gained huge experience in just a matter of days.
The group projects were presented at the end of the week, at the Oy Oy art gallery in Lahti, where we decided to show all of the project work along with other vehicle design artworks by our students (see separate blog post). The two events fitted together nicely, and Boris was happy to publicly show some of his own skills by sketching at the gallery! The intensity of the course and the hard work encouraged by Boris, was only possible thanks to his friendly and warm personality. We will always be grateful to him for visiting, and we would also like to thank the City Council of Lahti for funding of his visit (thanks to our award prize money of 2015).
A gallery of Boris and students at work follows below.
Visit to Stieglitz Academy of Art & Design, St Petersburg, RUSSIA.
We began our visit presenting the results of our joint project- called No Infrastructure. We aimed to design innovative future transport systems for the remote areas of Russia and Finland. Next on our agenda for the week, was to visit many amazing museums and art galleries in St Petersburg, and to settle in during the weekend I guess you might say. We began our full week in St. Petersburg with a collaborative joint workshop at Steiglitz Academy, with the theme of creating an abstract artwork in one day, as a group. In total more than 20 students took part. The first one day intense workshop was created by our Russian colleagues Sergey Helmianov, and Vikenty Gryaznov. The exact theme was determined by each student group, based on a brief as follows “Abstract dynamic form sculpture, with a descriptive theme of your choice.”. The groups did not know each other before the day began, and language barriers meant that communication was not easy but somehow they pulled off some very interesting and exciting work within the space of just that day. A winning project was chosen, and prizes of a signed model minibus (the designer works at the academy!) were presented. 
Later that week our own teachers would set another 1 day workshop, created by vehicle design teacher Lee Walton. This time new mixed groups were formed to collaboratively work to design four different car designs for a future Hyundai Solaris. What is a Solaris, and why did we choose Hyundai? Well, midweek we had the pleasure of a factory tour at the St Petersburg Hyundai manufacturing plant, where a Russian build Hyundai Solaris car is built. This was invaluable research and experience for vehicle design students and inspired the topic of the vehicle design workshop. The broader theme was an exploration of differing styles of design. Four groups were created, with two groups exploring more traditional vehicle design practices while the rival groups worked on a more radical design philosophy. The one-day workshop created a lot of discussion, and again very impressive results. We ended our truly enjoyable visit with a sociable evening and we all felt we had made some genuine friends over in Russia. Lahti Vehicle Design department and St Petersburg are forming a close relationship for the long-term future, and we hope there will be more cooperative projects coming soon.
