Audi at the Design Annual in Frankfurt
• Audi celebrates premiere with extravagant exhibition concept
• Exhibition stand acts as house for the new Audi TT Coupé
• Photo and video artists record the exhibition
Car manufacturers usually present their latest models at the so-called “A motor shows”, the major motor shows which take place in Tokyo, Detroit, Paris, Geneva and Frankfurt. But how do you treat an icon? The Audi TT Coupé is an icon: thanks to its exceptional design, it has achieved cult status with car fans from all over the world. Audi is therefore also presenting the new TT Coupé among equals – alongside the best products that the international design scene has to offer, at the design exhibition “The Design Annual”.
From 6 to 10 May, the Messe Frankfurt is working in cooperation with Stylepark AG to stage “The Design Annual”, where major players in the fields of architecture, furniture design, interior design and industrial design will come together. This is the first time that AUDI AG has been represented by an exhibition stand at a design exhibition. “As a design icon and a technological highlight, the new TT Coupé fits in just as well at a design exhibition as it does at a motor show,” explains Bernhard Neumann, Head of International Exhibitions at Audi. “However, a design-oriented environment poses a completely different challenge than a typical motor show.”
This challenge was taken on by the architectural office Schmidhuber & Partner, which has been responsible for the design, planning and implementation of Audi’s appearances at international motor shows in recent years. Bearing the motto “inside:urban” in mind, the team worked on producing a tailor-made blueprint for presenting the new Audi TT at the Design Annual. The basic concept is that of the “TT loft” – a house for the new Audi TT Coupé.
The exhibition stand, or “TT loft”, was developed as a largely closed body. The open front wall provides a view into a light-coloured interior, in the centre of which the new TT is positioned. In the left wall, there is the so-called “media booth”, a niche in which visitors can watch the exhibition film on the new TT. At the rear of the interior, there is a “media horizon” which symbolises the view out of the TT loft in a manner akin to a window. Here, images and animations on the theme of urbanity are projected onto the rear wall by three projectors. BAUHOUSE, the Berlin video jockeys, developed this picture and sound collage from the photographic material of eleven different photo artists, including Andreas Gefeller and Henning Bock.
The entire exhibition area is subordinate to the design concept of the Audi TT. The architecture is derived from the typical design language of the Audi TT – the combination of curvy forms with sharp-edged angles. It is possible to recognise at first glance the genetic fingerprint, the original DNA of the Audi TT Coupé. The house of the Audi TT is a tribute to an icon.
Source: Fourtitude