DRIVE BY DESIGN
Back to the Future The 2012 BMW EuroStyle Tour joined design dots from the third interglacial period to some point in the future when fast, quiet electric cars will respond to their owners’ voices. Words LES AUPIAIS
FORTY-EIGHT THOUSAND YEARS AGO, the first green shoots of a Kauri tree pushed through the rich soil of a South Pacific island, which would in the distant future become ‘the land of the long white cloud’ − New Zealand. When the tree finally fell millennia later, its massive trunk left the island’s shores by ship in broad slabs of richly coloured wood destined for Italy and the hands of a craftsman. In its new form, it would become a grand table top of 12 metres long and two wide, weighing 20 tons and large enough to seat 30 people. Men and women would dine around it or perhaps decide the future of nations with their elbows resting on material that had witnessed the dawn of modern man. The family that owns the Riva 1920 business are wood design masters who also turn le Briccole di Venezia – wooden oak poles that act as marine markers for boats navigating the lagoon – into bookcases, tables and stools. Embedded in the wood are the tracks left by marine organisms that leave distinct burrows giving the finely crafted furniture its texture and patina. But is it the Kauri that commands reverence simply for its survival and reinvention in modern times? The company also supports rehabilitated drug addicts working on wood to give them a reason to re-enter society with skill and some pride. Recycled, reincarnated, repurposed, reinvented and reprised became the buzz words of the tour. Even our introduction to the new BMW ActiveHybrid 5 had a ‘retro’ angle. A little backward glance in history turns up a flurry of mid 19th-century inventiveness with Hungarian Jedlik’s version of a battery driven vehicle, a Dutchman’s small-scale electric car and smart Scot’s ‘electric carriage’ in the 1830s. Mind you, you’d travel half the speed of a decent golf cart, but the glimmer of the concept was there. BMW’s now come up with the requisite 21st-century combination of fuel economy and performance. The ActiveHybrid 5’s the ultimate ‘electro glide in blue’: The car comes in a distinctive sky-blue shade they’ve called ‘Bluewater metallic’, which is only available for the ActiveHybrid and not for other
[Opposite] Bergisel Ski Jump towers 250 metres above the city of Innsbruck and is the only sports venue in the world that has hosted the opening ceremonies of three separate Olympic Games [This page] Bergisel’s eastern elevation
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