Soft Vehicle by RCA graduate Raquel Aparicio Lopez

on 10/1/10

One of the key features of The Trend Boutique online resource is that we not only want to feature accomplished artists and designers, but also some of the most cutting-edge up & coming designers and we have found just that in the work of Raquel Aparicio Lopez. As an MA Graduate from the prestigious Vehicle Design courses of both Royal College of Art and ELISAVA School of Design, Barcelona, Spain, we love not only her visionary design capability, but also the way she brings a soft feminine touch to car design previously very much the domain of the male designers.

_{Soft Car designed by Raquel Aparicio Lopez}

Raquel sees a future where GPS Satellite Systems will control and drive all kind of transports (public and private ones), making accidents a thing of the past. This was the initial concept that then went on to drive her designs forward and radically change the materials used in vehicle design, alongside the very definition of how we travel.

Her ideas are that it would be possible to create an ecological method to produce the power to move, based on the idea of this futuristic GPS Satellite System. Because the vehicles will move inside a 'System', it makes sense therefore for its movement and the power supplied, to come through the very system itself. The road, as part of the 'System', will contain the energy that the wheels use by electromagnetic induction.

Also the energy for propulsion is taken from the front wheels, and fibers will conduct it into power for the interior, and it will go back to the system by the rear wheels. Tires are covered by the exterior soft surface to emphasizing their own importance. The exterior is soft therefore it will deform allowing the wheels to steer. 'The System' she sees has no end of possibilities, in the same way as GPS has no limit, so the 'driver' will be able to move to wherever the road leads.

_{Soft Car designed by Raquel Aparicio Lopez}

As a result, her designs focus around the idea of a 'soft' vehicle due to no longer needing to protect passengers from the impact and damage of collisions. The material chosen for the exterior of this 'Soft Vehicle' was that of EVA foam, a recyclable material. Its appearance is similar to that of neoprene or rubber, it exists in lots of densities plus can be colourised. Because of its properties it is also able to be 'Vacuum Formed' even permitting negative surfaces, and with this material it adds the possibility to have a shape that maintains its position itself, without any external structure, being soft. Cleverly if you deform it in any way, after pressing it, it goes back to the original shape.

To create the doors to enter the vehicle a simple cut can be made on the surface, and then by just opening the cut there is enough space to get in, when we leave the vehicle the surface will go back to its place, due to the material properties. Unique for the interior too is the way that this is also soft, 'like a puff', it follows the passenger body when they are seated and it is the use of a 'kind of jelly' that permits the maximum comfort to the passengers.

_{Soft Car designed by Raquel Aparicio Lopez}

Raquel also sees that this new breed of vehicles will see something where the interior and exterior of the car will be understood in a different way, something very different from the traditional modes of transport we use nowadays. The interior will become the most important part containing the wheels that contain the engine and the passengers and will support the soft exterior. And the exterior will contain the control panels to communicate with the system.

_{Soft Car designed by Raquel Aparicio Lopez}

Raquel Aparicio Lopez's ideas are extremely radical, but we love the way she has combined her various experience (she has completed an intership at GM Europe & SEAT design Centre plus worked as a designer for Furore Design International) and qualifications (she also has an MA in Furniture & Lighting and an BA (Hons) in Product Design to amazing effect. It is not surprising that she has previously won awards for her work, and as we say we love the way she combines the intellect and radical thinking behind her creativity with the a desirable, curvaceous feminine sense of design. We look forward to her making a huge impact in years to come.

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