“Pound for pound, we’ve now got the best design studio in the world.” So reckons Marek Reichman, Aston Martin’s director of design, speaking at the gala opening of the brand’s first dedicated design facility last week in Warwickshire, England (at which Aston’s latest concept car the V12 Vantage RS was also unveiled).
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It will house Reichman’s 26-strong design team and is situated next door to Aston Martin’s manufacturing and engineering centre at Gaydon.
The impressive building – all exposed wood beams, stainless steel and travertine marble – was designed from scratch by architects Weedon Partnership and constructed in just seven months.
The minimalist 2700 square-metre space features a huge floor-to-ceiling wall of glass on one side of the building braced with glass rather than wood or metal where possible to maximise the light. Inside are five full-size ‘plates’ on the studio floor for the creation of full-scale models, designer workstations upstairs with a viewing gallery over the main double-height space, a VIP-style foyer-cum-event space complete with state-of-the-art Bang and Olufsen projection and speaker system and an external design garden with natural stone walling to enable designs to be viewed securely in natural light.
Reichman told just-auto: “To design a car you need a lot of space around a vehicle. This studio offers lots of height and space to give natural light inside, but the building is north facing so it’s not in your face. And although we’re still separate from the rest of the company, when we need to communicate it’s right next door.”
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By GlobalDataBefore, Reichman and his team had to make do with using a space within Land Rover’s design centre a mile down the road, a situation that was far from ideal, and presumably increasingly so since Aston Martin was sold off by Land Rover’s parent company Ford in early 2007.
As Reichman explained: “Even when we were part of the Ford Group we had our own way of working so it was tricky. We were restricted by space previously but now we’ve got our own home, we’re not tenants anymore. We’re a small car company but a big brand and it is important that this new space reflects that. This centre will allow us to be infinitely more creative and enable designs to be implemented more quickly. It’s the culmination of all we’ve learnt and a cathedral for design.”
The building – that also features a high quality but sustainably-sourced modular wood structure with natural hemp wall insulation and a planned ‘green’ sedum roof – would seem to amply demonstrate its new independent owners are serious about investing in the brand’s future, as Aston Martin’s chief executive officer, Dr Ulrich Bez concluded: “The new design studio is a commitment from the new shareholders of how important the design of new models is to the company’s future. It also demonstrates the pace at which the company is capable of moving and brings one of our core competencies to Gaydon for the first time. From conception to realisation in just twelve months is a fantastic achievement by everyone involved.”
Guy Bird
