In the News: Adrian van Hooydonk
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Our friends over at MWerks recently sat down with BMW ‘s head of design Adrian van Hooydonk for a one on one interview of sorts. The interview is interesting as it discusses the current design of BMWs and some insight as to what the future may bring. There are some other facts about the man and his passions as well. It is a great read.
Excerpt from the Mwerks Interview:
MW- How will we remember the “van Hooydonk” era?
AvH- It’s too early to say. Plus, my mission is not to create a van Hooydonk era. I work for BMW, and I want to do good BMWs, good Minis, good Rolls-Royces. That’s my goal; history is written later.
MW- Which production car best exemplifies your design ethos?
AvH- I would say the new 5 Series is a good example. We are about to launch it soon; in Geneva we will show the car. The 5 Series is a very important car for BMW. It is bought by people who drive long distances, so they know what it means to drive a BMW; they like sporty driving. The 5 Series needs to express all of that, and it is really the 120% BMW. It’s what the brand stands for.
I think the design team did a good job on that car. We developed it in a way that is more elegant and more sporty at the same time. That is the essence of the BMW brand. Elegance combined with sportiness. It’s quite difficult to develop both of them. Sometimes you cam make a car more elegant but then it becomes less sporty, or you make it more sporty and it becomes less elegant. I think in the 5 Series we were able to do both.
