A lighter look
Hot on the heels of securing a Red Dot Design Award for its latest, lower-waste leather seat design, we dive deeper into how South Korea’s Hyundai Transys has combined a natural finish with tech-forward, aesthetically minded underpinnings – with lots of help from Lineapelle along the way.
Further to initial introductions during leather exhibition Lineapelle and Milan Design Week last year, South Korean automotive parts business Hyundai Transys’ colour-materials-finish (CMF) or “future mobility” seat concept has won important plaudits. Created in partnership with Lineapelle, the concept has now been awarded a Red Dot in the mobility and transportation category by the international jury responsible for administering the annual Red Dot Award: Design Concept prize. Described by organisers as a “sought-after seal of quality”, the awards’ design concepts and prototypes strands have been managed by Red Dot Design Museum Singapore since their establishment in 2005. The official announcement of this year's results was made during a prize-giving ceremony in the city-state on September 27.
Natural credentials
The exhibition’s involvement, according to Lineapelle chief executive, Fulvia Bacchi, is bound up with the need to “spread the word about the sustainable nature of Italian leather”. Ms Bacchi, who is also general manager for Italian tanners’ association UNIC, has previously discussed how the word Transys itself implies a sense of both transformation and transcendence. The concept is built around the idea of “regenerative mobility”. It involves the use of leather scraps upcycled from Italian leather manufacturers Gruppo Dani and Manifattura di Domodossola, sourced from Korean recycled leather supplier ATKO Planning. This makes the venture inherently eco-friendlier, the partners suggest, with its reduced reliance on virgin resources. “For the Italian leather industry, it is very importance to share our knowledge with partners in other countries and other industries,” Ms Bacchi said during a keynote presentation delivered at the February 2022 edition of Lineapelle.
Surplus leathers make up the seat-backs, whereas textured woven leathers form the seatback bolsters. Regenerated yarns from powdered leather scrap, combined with recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET), constitute the fabrics used for the concept’s flooring. Through working with Seoul’s Hongik University, leftover leathers from the CMF initiative are made available to creatives to turn into entertainment, wellness and other goods further down the line.
Curator of the project, Orietta Pelizzari, described how the whole team first met in Italy back in 2019, including Hyundai Transys colleagues visiting from South Korea. Other partners included D-house by Dyloan and Dual. Their idea was to experiment and fine-tune a concept that was both responsible and technological, but at the same time aesthetically beautiful, as she told the press approximately three years later. The actual seat model, itself retained for ‘upcycling’ at a later date, first took shape in 2018, inspired by autonomous driving.
This group would ultimately go on to develop and hone not only a car interior, but also footwear, leathergoods and furnishings. Work commenced that same year, in 2019, although progress would be slowed by the onset of covid-19. In the words of Hyundai Transys design team leader, Sungkyung Hong, by the time the concept touched down at Milan Design Week last summer, it had already “generated much more interest than ever expected” at Lineapelle. Speaking during the online edition of the Preview in Seoul (PIS) trade show in late January last year, a month prior to Lineapelle, Ms Hong explained how CMF’s colour palette had been assembled to evoke the team’s impression of the two most dominant hues imprinted on the cityscapes of Milan and Seoul: for the former, Milan Brown and, for the latter, Seoul Grey. “Seoul’s nights are well-known for the endless light scenery, while Milan’s daytime [light] and historical, gothic-style cathedral stands at the heart of the city,” she added, fleshing out the collaborators’ inspiration a little bit more. Meshed together, the overall effect is meant to appear almost pixelated in certain areas.
Around the world
Commenting on the Red Dot win in July this year, vice-president and head of Hyundai Transys’ seat division, Seo Seungwoo, called the recognition meaningful and a reflection of the company’s “continuous efforts to develop human-and-nature-friendly seats … that enhance customer convenience”. Mr Seo’s reflections echoed those of Italy’s ambassador to South Korea, Federico Failla, on the shared duty of individuals and collectives alike to proactively integrate environmental sustainability in daily life. In celebration of the concept’s launch, Mr Failla anchored the innovation in ethically minded undercurrents including social wellbeing, welfare and prosperity. Perhaps most significantly, though, he also gave a very pointed nod to the capacity for eco-minded, lower-waste materials sourcing to reverberate in every contour of the globe.
Despite the model's progressive, almost cloud-like structure, it was the design team’s choice of interior materials that caught the jury’s eye.
All credits: Hyundai Transys
