The Smart ForWise concept is a compact sports car created using smart and shape-shifting materials for light weight, efficiency and a clean overall aesthetic.
Mohammad Hossein Aminiyekta’s mission for his MA thesis project at Pforzheim University was to design a car that celebrated Smart’s 40th anniversary whilst retaining the brand’s values. He therefore went to work defining the Smart ForWise concept.
“It has to be clever and needs to have some smart solutions. It has to be simple and have its own character. It has to be efficient, compact and safe. Most importantly [it has to have] a rear engine,” says Aminiyekta.
Taking into account the brand’s origins as an urban vehicle and how advancements in technology have altered the way we communicate, Aminiyekta determined that cars of the future would be used mostly for pleasure and devised a compact sports car concept for the brand.
The design was developed based on some folding techniques as a result of using smart materials. Aminiyekta says his aim was “to design a car using alternative materials such as ‘shape-shifting’ and ‘shape memory materials’ to come up with a clever yet simple solution.”
Such materials, he says, could be used to create new surface treatments: “The goal was to create the whole body with the minimum number of unified surfaces and simple folding technique to minimize the number of parts, welding and hinges [required] both on the exterior and interior”.
Using shape-shifting materials allowed the car to be very lightweight and, as gaps and shutlines were reduced, enabled a more modern aesthetic.
The resulting 3.5m long sports car has clean exterior surfaces and a fresh take on Smart’s defining ‘tridion safety cell’, which is made from a single surface and serves to protect occupants as well as shape the interior and a part of the exterior.
