Volvo's Whisper

Sammanfattning: The reason why the author came to Sweden made her think about her own experience living in the megacities. She realized that the people live nearby nature have more attention care about themselves, others, and the environment. They have a sensitivity of quality, comfort, and freshness, and even sustainability since they are young. Those are also the brand cores of Volvo. Besides, the comparison between the childhood living environment of her generation and that of her parents’ generation made her think about the expectation for the future. So the author thought why not use this project to bring the values she understands now to children. Since she was one of them, it would be interesting to think about the usages and experience from their perspectives. How would they like to perceive nature? How would they like to travel to nature? How would the whole society’s attitude be towards this? These questions guided the author to go into the research phase. Imagining being a kid again was the most delightful part of this project. The author implements creativity in two lines together. On one hand, she collaged natural elements to create an inspiration board, to think about the new possibilities of structure and atmosphere. On another hand, she abstracted her thoughts and imagination to communicate with children, so that she could get clear feedback and preference from her users, and finally was able to settle the concept. Forms and shapes were developed further during the design and refinement process. Sketches, immediate tests, modeling, and additional researching, and data queries were included along the way. The final result is the interior concept ‘ Volvo’s whisper’, one autonomous electric minibus, supporting children’s educational trips around the city. The Interior structure represents the natural unstructured environment. Physical shapes and visual interaction would inspire kids to care about lives in nature. and also teach them about safety. This is the way the author designed to show her thinking of how to encourage children’s biophilia.