This is the GINA Light Visionary Model, BMW’s new research vehicle, and the
fruit of a project that has been shaping the brand in terms of design, research
and development, and manufacturing for nearly a decade.
On the surface it looks like a modern day BMW sports car, all sculpted taut
muscles, displaying an interactive flow of concave and convex surfaces that
has become the brand’s signature form language. GINA, however, may look
like a typical car, but is in fact made of cloth.
The virtually seamless polyethylene-coated Lycra stretch fabric is secured
on a meshwork formed from metal wires. Individual elements of the aluminium
substructure are movable. Electro-hydraulically controlled, they change their
position to help the flexible fabric skin take on new shapes for a high degree
of personalisation. For instance the driver can activate a sensor to lift the
beltline slightly to form a more aggressive stance. Another slowly opens the
door triggering almost shark-like creases across the profile. On entering the
stark cloth cabin, GINA awakens; the centre console and instrument panel
swivel to almost cocoon the driver whilst invisible headrests rise from the
minimalist seats.
The car is based on the Z8 chassis, BMW’s first aluminium space frame
roadster where the frame carries the crash and structural load so that the
rest of the car can have its own purposes. GINA was conceptualised in
California at the think-tank studio Designworks, and later made into a
full-scale sculpture by head of exterior design Anders Warming in Munich.