Maranello, 4 December 2015
What seemed like the wildest science fiction in the days of Jules Verne has
been more than surpassed by modern invention. Maybe in a quarter of a
century’s time, we’ll be saying the same about a slew of present-day
projects that endeavour to envisage the Ferraris of the future.
We are talking, of course, about the 12 models to have reached the finals of
the Ferrari Top Design School Challenge. Also run in 2005 and 2012, this is
the third outing for a competition in which the world’s most prestigious
design institutes vie for supremacy. Around 50 schools were considered in
the first round and this number was then whittled to eight before four
third-level institutes (spread across three continents) were selected as
finalists.
They are: the Hochschule Pforzheim (Germany), which has a hugely
successful automotive design course and is one of Europe’s leading
schools; the College for Creative Studies in Detroit (US) which attracts
students from all over the world because of the incredibly high standard of
its facilities and teaching staff; the Asia-Pacific region’s top design school,
Hongik University in Seoul (Korea), which had the largest number of
entrants in the competition and also won the 2011 Ferrari World Design
Contest; and, lastly, the ISD-Rubika in Valenciennes (France) which has a
cutting-edge computer modelling course that embraces structured
interdisciplinary projects.
The students began working on their Ferraris of the future in October 2014
and a year later, the 12 finalist models, three from each school, arrived in
Maranello. This marked the start of the trickiest phase in the competition:
choosing the winner! Or rather the two winners as there are two prizes. The
overall “Gran Premio” is awarded by a jury made up of Ferrari exponents in
the broadest sense of the term – designers, engineers, drivers and even
famous collectors. The “Premio Speciale”, on the other hand, is awarded by
open online vote cast on the official Ferrari Facebook page where finalists’
work can be viewed.
The jury very shortly knuckles down to the difficult task of making the final
decision about the overall winner and will officially announce its choice on
January 15 2016. So, the very best of luck to Nicola Boari, Franco Cimatti,
Aldo Colonnetti, Rodolfo Gaffino Rossi, Jay Kay, Flavio Manzoni, Nick
Mason, Andrea Militello, Marc Newson (TBC), Paolo Pininfarina and
Sebastian Vettel as they embark on this home stretch in this long process.
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