At BMW Designworks, design is an interdisciplinary practice that covers a wide range of products from cars to charging stations, and from trains to smartphones. Above all, imagination is essential to create impactful products at the California-based industrial design company.
In 2022, BMW Designworks relocated to Santa Monica from its original studio north of Los Angeles. During Frieze Week in Los Angeles this past February, the studio opened its doors and shared some of its contributions from the past 50 years. “What makes it special is a team catering to what BMW needs, but also a wide variety of companies,” said Adrian van Hooydonk, Senior Vice President of the BMW Group Design who traveled to Los Angeles to inaugurate the space at the public opening. “Designworks is tasked to think about the future,” said Hooydonk in Los Angeles last month. He is the former head of Designworks, where he spent five years before he ascended to lead BMW’s car design arm in Munich.
Courtesy of BMW Designworks.
BMW Designworks divides its projects between commissions for BMW, its parent automotive company, and industrial design client-based projects. It’s a unique business model in the auto industry. The company is made up of 130 people, 65 of whom work out of the Santa Monica studio in flexible working conditions. The new 16,000-foot space is designed for co-working and to encourage the designer’s work processes and timing. Other Designworks locations include Shanghai and Munich, where BMW is headquartered.
To celebrate the launch, artist Thomas Demand joined Hooydonk in Los Angeles to discuss a series of past commissions between the artist and the company. One commission from 2019 featured images of car parts that highlighted Demand’s signature process of marrying modeling and photography from a 2019 commission. The talk underscored BMW’s commitment to artistry and creative thinking.
Courtesy of BMW Designworks.
Chuck Pelly, who founded Designworks in 1972, and was also present to talk about the space’s early legacy. BMW worked with Pelly’s design consultancy for years before acquiring it in 1995. And while BMW’s name is on the building, the designers work independently. When it does come to BMW projects, they compete alongside other divisions of the larger BMW car company. And the California-based studio has had much success in car design—pointedly on the X SUV lineup that’s core to the brand, as well as the design of X5 in 1995, and later the X3.
Designworks President Holger Hampf provided an overview of the studio’s current work which can include up to 300 outside clients in any given year. “You find a designer working on a car and then a cell phone a week later,” he said. Smartphones, charging stations, boating, aircrafts, trains, and John Deere tractors are some of Designworks project highlights. “Think less clay, more digital,” Hampf said.
Courtesy of BMW Designworks.
The studio is also focused on sustainable materials. Designers Margaux Reynolds and Wesselka Mandowa demonstrated their research into materials that could be used in car interiors. “What is the future of recycling and how can we recover our own materials?” said Mandowa. They work in collaboration with local startups like California-based Shred Skateboard Co which uses recycled and regenerative materials.
“Working with these new materials that have their own inherent performance and capabilities outperform the status quo of more traditional materials,” said Reynolds. Some examples include a car seat that had been 3D-printed from algae filament and regenerative materials such as cilium, cannabis plants, and calcium carbonate from oyster shells. “It’s all about taking nature and creating our own cutting-edge technologies,” she said.
Courtesy of BMW Designworks.
After only two months in the new space, the work in the new location is only beginning to take shape, while the paint is still fresh on the walls in Santa Monica. At the launch event in February, designers trickled in for the festivities including the staff from Hans Zimmer’s sound studio (located around the corner) which has a long history of sonic collaboration with BMW. A race car outfitted in the black, red, white, and blue livery for the IMSA series was parked in the middle of the sparse studio showing off recent work in shape and light on and off the track. In this collaborative environment, the 2030s don’t seem so far off.
Courtesy of BMW Designworks.
Courtesy of BMW Designworks.
