By Karin Bendixen

Giugiaro Design has integrated Danish culture and user needs into the Metro train

As the seats are suspended from the wall, the Metro train has no chair legs, making it easy for passengers to push their luggage under the seat. The blind passenger has plenty of space for a guide dog. And the train is also easy to clean.

The off-white paint, the daring slanting headlights in the panoramic glass front, the bright lightness of the interior, the suspended seats and, not least, the sculptural design of the litter bin – the design of Copenhagen’s new driverless Metro train is so characteristic. Above all, it is Italian. Designed by one of the world’s most prominent transportation designers, Giugiaro Design.

"Crisp & Clear" visited the design firm in Moncalieri, near Turin, to interview Technical Manager Massimo Scavarda and Transport and Architecture Manager Franco Carretto, the duo who headed up the Giugiaro Design team in the Copenhagen Metro project, about the integration of user needs and a foreign culture into the design process and about their idea of Design for All (DfA).

Wall-hung seats

Giugiaro Design’s task was based on a number of requirements concerning functionality, doorway dimensions, size of seats, arrangement principles, etc. that had been established in a major Danish user test: all principles that Giugiaro Design embodied easily and discreetly in the design. The seats, for example, are placed in special mountings that keep them completely free of the floor, in a solution that satisfies the needs of passengers and cleaning staff alike.

"The Danish user requirements inspired and developed our design, and we have had some very valuable discussions with our Danish colleagues about the Danes", comments Massimo Scavarda. "The usual procedure in our design process is that we are briefed by the client on the basis of a market research, which also gives us some idea of the user. An actual prototype test is only made towards the end of the project; a kind of verification of the project to show whether we have met the demands."

Integration of culture

"Although we have "translated" user requirements and technical specifications into an Italian design of the Metro train, not everything is Italian," says Scavarda.

"We wanted to consider Danish culture, the Danes themselves and their everyday life. Here we ran up against some differing opinions, for example to do with the conception of colours, and we discovered that the Danes have a considerable history of their own related to their transportation design. Although we tend to believe that we all share a common European culture, the fact is that there are many cultures."

Adds Franco Carretto: "We do not try to force our way of thinking and of designing onto our designs. Our philosophy is to work very closely with the client, in a vivid, stimulating relationship that starts from the brief and goes on through all the possible further steps."

Styling

Italy is famous for its beautiful, stylish design. But that does not mean that appearance and style go to the top of the list, as Massimo Scavarda points out: "In a train, a true product for all – something which must be accessible to all – styling is really the last priority. We do not work with the style until we have solved the problems. But we should always take style into account, also the ergonomics and functional aspects of the products we design."

DfA and ergonomics

"Working with Design for All is not always straightforward, as there is a number of processes related to the design of a product," says Massimo Scavarda.

"When we say DfA we think of ergonomics and a holistic view: we style, but in a very ergonomic way. An ergonomic and functional product combined with an innovative design to meet future market requirements is important," comments Franco Carretto.

Working closely with people and for people is something fundamental to this designing duo. They have also drawn on their experience with a previous project for the Italian railways, in which they worked together with disabled people.

"We became aware of other types of problems which we knew nothing about. It is very important to work together with these people," underlines Massimo Scavarda.

For all and for some

Is it possible to make products for everybody?

"If we think that something is DfA, then it is because many people will buy it and use it. It means that our work has been successful," says Massimo Scavarda.

Both Massimo Scavarda and Franco Carretto find that a product which people can buy of their own free will is one thing, while public equipment and services, which we all use or need, is quite a different matter.

They believe that it is not necessarily a problem that not all designed products are suitable for everyone. Scavarda mentions Bang & Olufsen products, whose price certainly en-sures that they are not intended for everyone. In addition, he believes that buyers of this kind of products are not motivated by DfA.

But in the development of a pro-duct that is intended for everybody – such as the Metro train – a DfA philo-sophy is a must. It is for all and must be for all, underlines Scavarda, while at the same time emphasising that an industrial designer cannot always have the same approach to a problem. He concludes: "The most important thing in an industrial designer is his inclina-tion to be flexible. He must have more than one approach to a problem – he cannot have a standard approach to a problem or a project."

Facts

Giugiaro Design develops projects of product design (from cameras to household appliances and from telephones to furniture), transport design (from motor cycles to trains and from aircraft cabins to boats), architecture and graphic design. Giorgetto Giugiaro is known all over the world as the designer of a very wide range of cars, such as the Fiat Punto, the Saab 9000, the VW Golf and the Bugatti.

Published in Crisp & Clear No. 1, April 2000