RECARO
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MORE POWER FOR RACING ICONS
Porsche outside, RECARO inside
The rise of RECARO started with car seats.
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AUTONOVA GT
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he team behind the autonova project wanted to inspire people to think and reflect. Form followed function. Yet despite the modern approach to automotive engineering, the creators also wanted people to still have fun behind the wheel.
To achieve this goal, the designers came up with a sports car built on an NSU basis. The body was produced in record time by Sibona & Bassano in Turin. Despite the remarkably low drag coefficient, which was intended to enable a top speed of up to 170 kph (106 mph), the sporty two-seater with a flat hood and high rear was surprisingly spacious. Michael Conrad, Pio Manzù, and Fritz B. Busch once again worked with the seating specialists from Stuttgart on the “autonova GT”. From the perspective of RECARO, their timing could not have been better. After all, the company had long been busy developing a new seat. The design sketches of the autonova GT led to the creation of a ready-to-build prototype and also had an influence on the development of the Sport Seat. TOP SPEED: 170 KPH (106 MPH)
Until then, wedge-shaped seats, like those found in the GT, had not been a common sight. The design was a perfect match for a sports car. The finished vehicle was unveiled at NSU’s IAA booth in 1965. The media interest was huge. Just a few feet away, RECARO showcased the Sport Seat developed along with the vehicle for the first time. Both projects had more in common than met the eye. Initially, NSU had planned an affordable sports car called the NSU autonova GT. But, ultimately, neither the fam nor the GT were ever produced. Perhaps the manu facturers were not ready to invest in the vehicle — or perhaps the concepts were too far ahead of their time. The RECARO Sport Seat, however, made its debut at the right time. The model entered into mass production and went on to become a phenomenal success.
1965
Prototype seats: the Sport Seat's contemporaries.
1963 – 1970
C H A P T E R
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1965
Design sketches of the interior with its wedge-shaped seats.
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1963 – 1970
C H A P T E R
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1969
The idealseat-S featuring the patented reclining seat fitting.
Roundtable
The people in charge of design in the company’s business areas exchanging ideas.
DESIGN
D O S S I E R
DESIGN AND ITS ROOTS — YESTERDAY, TODAY, TOMORROW
R E C A R O I S A B R A N D T H AT I S C O N S TA N T LY E V O LV I N G . C H A N G E A L S O H A S A N I M PA C T O N T H E C O M P A N Y ’ S D E S I G N . I N A U G U S T 2 015 , T H E D E S I G N E R S B E H I N D T H E B R A N D M E T F O R A R O U N D TA B L E D I S C U S S I O N AT T H E H O L D I N G ’ S O F F I C E S I N S T U T T G A R T. W H AT M A K E S R E C A R O S P E C I A L? W H AT I S B E H I N D T O D AY ’ S “ I N G E N I O U S D E S I G N ” – T H E P E R F E C T C O M B I N AT I O N O F F U N C T I O N A L I T Y, ERG O N O M I C S, A N D A EST H E T I C S? A N D FO R W H I C H F U T U R E T R EN DS I S T H E C O M PA N Y A L R E A D Y L O O K I N G F O R A N S W E R S T O D AY ?
HARTMUT SCHÜRG (HS) — When
I look back and think about my early days at RECARO some twenty years ago, it was a whole different game. The opportunities offered by craftsmanship and the ability to make things a reality are much greater today.
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T H E G LO BA L ASPECT IS E X T R E M E LY I M P O R TA N T TO US.
FRANK BEERMANN (FB) — You had to use your head more when you drafted things. I used to have to sketch out in my mind what I wanted something to look like. The more exact that picture in my brain was, the easier it was for me to share my ideas with colleagues. Today all I have to do is press a button to see a three-dimensional model.
HS — Despite
the time pressure, we have to force ourselves to think things fully through before we get going. In the past, that was a necessity, plain and simple. The process was so expensive and time consuming, you couldn’t afford to go through it several times. As a result of that, we didn’t even try to achieve lifeless perfection in the first place. After all, sometimes it’s the flaws, the imperfections, that make a product human. Today we have to fight for the freedom to be imperfect. OF — Precision technology plays a major role today. The next step is definitely going to be 3D printing, which will open the door to completely new opportunities.
DJUNIANTO KO (DK) — The finished prod-
uct is no longer a surprise. That’s definitely not how it was in the past. Computers today model things down to the last detail — including fabrics, leather, surface materials, and seams.
CHRISTINE BAUER Head of Industrial Design RECARO Child Safety Member of RECARO since 2014
OLIVER FORGATSCH (OF) — That
makes us quite a bit faster. And customers are used to this way of working, after all. They demand perfection — at the speed of light.
FB — The
fear of making a mistake is a constant companion nowadays. People want to hedge their bets beforehand. The result of that is a sort of average product, of course. But we’re different, and that’s always been the secret to the success of RECARO, after all: the fact that we don’t deliver average products.
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DESIGN AND ITS ROOTS
OF — That’s
definitely it. But we don’t just supply a seat — we supply subsystems that are built in elsewhere. Yet they still work on their own. It’s about giving a product a human scale. I think doing exactly that is the main ability of RECARO.
FB — You might think that a seat like that isn’t such an incredibly interesting product to begin with. They’re very polished and optimized in terms of price. Still, users later come into contact with the product with two-thirds of their bodies. And if it’s not right — the contours, the shapes — then the whole product isn’t worth a thing. RECARO is simply something special, and not just because of the name. We always aim to be the best, always testing the limits of what is technically possible, as well as the limits of economic viability. That makes it interesting.
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OUR DESIGN S TA N D S F O R T H E C O M B I N AT I O N O F F U N C T I O N A L I T Y, ERGONOMICS, AND AESTHETIC S.
OF — In
HARTMUT SCHÜRG RECARO Holding
HS — We are, of
course, associated with much larger organizations and structures these days than we were twenty years ago. We have a global presence, and we have to contend with clients’ demands, which can vary around the world. The question is: how far can and should you go to meet the market’s current needs? To be a trendsetter, you have to go beyond what the market is asking for today. FB — Design
has to be in close contact with the customer, even when defining the requirements for a new product. However, globalization is broadening the profile of demands being placed on products tremendously. That means we have to develop more and more parts for specific markets. There is still no such thing as the global taste.
CHRISTINE BAUER (CB) — The global a spect is extremely important to us. We have to know the different demands of the markets down to the last detail, in the U.S., Japan, China, or Europe. People in China tend to mainly carry their children when they are very young. The grandparents are often in charge of raising them. Chinese babies tend to be heavier these days, and they don’t use a baby shell. Things here are completely different. In the end, we have to combine all this input into a product that is also supposed to be launched globally.
Member of RECARO since 1996
the aviation market, privacy is an e xample of one factor where everyone has a different opinion. Some people want everything to be totally open. They’re looking for contact to the person sitting next to them; they want to communicate. In Asia and the Middle East, privacy is very important. So we have to provide a platform that is modular and allows us to give everyone what they want, if need be. FB — You
can’t plan or design icons, anyway. Ergonomics is one value that we always have, whether we’re dealing with a car seat, a child car seat, or an aircraft seat. Our goal is to give shape to the function of supporting the body, which has led us to a certain idiom. Icons are born when customers later realize that they have gotten the best there is on the market.
Giving shape to imagination
Sketches help make new ideas visible and bring them to life.