Anyone wanting to make real changes in product design must have the courage to break with old thought processes. With the "EDAG Light Cocoon" concept car, the developers at EDAG Engineering GmbH have once again proved that they have the ability to think outside the box, and have been awarded the first prize in the "Design" category of the "Lateral Thinking Awards". In just five years, the Lateral Thinking Club, which now boasts 350,000 interdisciplinary decision makers and creative minds, has become one of the leading economic and industrial innovation networks in the German-speaking world. Awards were presented to the most creative individuals at the award ceremony held at the BMW World in Munich on 25.11.2015 and attended by 300 VIPs such as Thomas Gottschalk, Hans-Dietrich Genscher und Thomas Müller from the worlds of business, the media and culture.
In the end, the lateral thinking list in the "Design" category was headed by the "EDAG Light Cocoon": an automobile concept that features a filigree, additively manufactured skeleton structure combined with a fabric outer skin instead of a closed sheet metal exterior. The result is not just different and chic, it also opens up a new dimension for the ultimate in lightweight design of the future for the automotive industry and new design options for the automobile.
"Vehicles should, and indeed must become lighter and lighter. However, the equation that only lighter materials can lead to leaner vehicle types was quite simply too one-dimensional for us," explains Johannes Barckmann, Head of EDAG Design. "In cooperation with our development experts, we set out to find another strategy, and found it in the natural world. A stable, skeleton-like structure that we could then cover with fabric or other some material."
The jury awarded them first prize for having the courage to apply completely new thought patterns to the product "automobile".