Concept cars are cool. Even if you’re not a particularly car-savvy person, you can usually get something for them. Whether it’s about aesthetics or a different way of looking at vehicles, the ideas behind concept cars are arguably more important than the cars themselves. Traditionally, we’ve been impressed by BMW concepts, usually in the form of an ethereal roadster or a low-slung coupe. Today we see something completely different. And actually different than almost everything that BMW or Designworks have ever presented to us: the Dwell Box Concept.
The Dwell Box concept
Designworks, BMW’s in-house design studio, draws inspiration from everywhere to deliver compelling designs. Of course, not everything the studio works on has to be production-ready. There is perhaps no better example than the Dwell Box concept. The “living room on wheels” served as a design study, inspired by the housing projects that emerged in the Venice area after the turn of the millennium. “Not just from a philosophical point of view, but also from a material point of view,” said a Designworks spokesman when presenting the concept.
The wild Dwell Box concept inspired another unorthodox BMW model: the BMW i3. One of our long-time favorites here at BMWBLOG: The small car’s widespread use of sustainable materials – and some of the car’s body lines – come from the Dwell Box concept. “What if we had corrugated iron or wooden panels on the side,” the speaker continued. “That gave us an idea that influenced the design of the i3,” he says. And it’s probably pretty clear if you’re familiar with the i3. The huge windshield and “bubble car” give it a clear resemblance. Especially from the front fenders forward – without the aggressive widening – the Dwell Concept and the i3 could almost be brothers. But even the curved, bubbling rear of the car is almost reminiscent of the i3.
Of course, the Dwell Box has taken the focus on sustainability and naturalness to a completely different level than the BMW i3. The i3’s extreme focus on sustainability was just one of the things that set it apart from the crowd. The Dwell Box was even more extreme as the exterior materials developed patina over time. Of course, it’s easy to leave such details in a concept car rather than actually releasing them to the public. The design study was actually built in California. “It’s perhaps more architecture on wheels than car design as we knew it back then,” the spokesperson told us. Nevertheless, its influence on the i3 should not be underestimated. “Without this input, the i3 probably would not have become such an innovative, radical design.”
[Lead photo courtesy of Designworks]
