Mazda Nagare Concept (2006)

Mazda Nagare Concept

After presenting three ground-breaking concept vehicles during the 2005-2006 global auto show season - Sassou at the 2005 Frankfurt Motor Show, Senku at the 2005 Tokyo Motor Show and Kabura at the 2006 Detroit Auto Show - Mazda's global design team wasn't about to rest on its laurels. To keep energy levels brimming, and to begin the process of evolving Mazda's design and surface language for future Zoom-Zoom vehicles, Mazda's design division has invented a new surface language called Nagare for introduction at this year's Los Angeles International Auto Show.

NAGARE: (pronounced "na-ga-reh") Japanese for 'flow' and the embodiment of motion.

Under the direction of Mazda's new General Manager of the Design Division, Laurens van den Acker, the challenge given to the team was to invent a novel means of registering motion in vehicles whether they're moving or still. Nagare achieves that goal while also signalling a fresh design direction for future Mazda vehicles.

Nagare is the first of a series of design concepts - some closer to actual production vehicles than others - which Mazda will showcase this global auto show season, including Los Angeles, Detroit, Geneva and Tokyo.

Franz von Holzhausen, Mazda North American Operations' (MNAO) Director of Design, and the man responsible for leading the US-based design team which developed this vehicle, explains, "We're looking well down the road with Nagare. We want to suggest where Mazda design will be in 2020. To do that, we redefined basic proportions and the idea of driving without losing the emotional involvement. Mazda's driving spirit will be enhanced and intensified by Nagare."

"Mazda doesn't produce concept cars to spin its wheels, and while some are more forward-looking than others, we simply do not create pure flights of fantasy. We develop these ideas to demonstrate what we really intend to build and sell. It took soul-searching along with basic research to invent the new surface language we're calling Nagare. The dynamic qualities of Mazda products already do an excellent job of capturing the spirit of motion so our goal was to move our design language a major step beyond what we've already demonstrated with Sassou, Senku, and Kabura."

Von Holzhausen continues, "We began by studying motion and the effect it has on natural surroundings: how wind shapes sand in the desert, how water moves across the ocean floor, and the look of lava flowing down a mountainside. Natural motion registers an impression in your brain and that's what we hoped to capture with the new Nagare surface language."

"Once we started sketching our ideas, we weren't surprised to find similar quests underway in other product design disciplines. We found examples of motion influencing the shape and surface of furniture, architecture, apparel, and artwork. Nagare undoubtedly proves our confidence in identifying a new and exciting visual language for Mazda as we lead the way in defining the interaction of motion and flow in automobile surfacing."

"We began by developing a surface or textural language that describes flow. The motion of the vehicle is defined by, and evident in, the texture of its interior and exterior surfaces. There is no right or wrong way to capture the impression of motion, so each of the concepts we present throughout this global show season will embody a different interpretation of our new surface language."

CONCEPT OF A CONCEPT

Von Holzhausen describes Nagare as "a concept of a concept." It's intentionally a celebration of proportions and surface language that will evolve in subsequent designs planned for presentation at future auto shows this season. In other words, design first, engineering later at this point in the process, in contrast to the classic 'form-follows-function' approach."