Send email to akilian@mit.edu
parametric variations
frame-door concept

Concept car project - Gehry-GM-Media Lab
Fall 2003 - Spring 2004 - ongoing
Design studio lead by William J. Mitchell in collaboration with the office of Frank Gerhy and General Motors.
Frank O. Gehry, James Glymph, William J. Mitchell, Betty Lou McClanahan, Franco Variani, Anmol Madan, Chad Dyner, Jonathan Gips, William Lark, Jr., Ryan C.C. Chin, Donald Sadoway and John Heywood, Mitchell Joachim, Patrik Kunzler, Axel Kilian, Robyn Allen, Louis Basel, Raul-David Poblano, Christina Raber and many more in Spring 2004

Work shown here is by Axel Kilian, unless noted otherwise, as a collaborator in the concept car studio,
It does not represent the studio as a whole but rather my contribution to it. The official smart city media lab site. Mitchell Joachim also has a site as well as Franco Variani.
There have been a number of articles on the project, mostly featuring William J. Mitchell, as well as one of the students, Ryan Chin, who initiated the studio with William J. Mitchell and is coordinating it together with Betty Lou McClanahan.
News stories about the project
Popular science
Boston Globe
MSBNCNews

Parametric CATIA model
wood one-to-one
GM autonomy concept platform
physical parametric model
Walt Disney concert hall
kinetic door studies
founders room
assymetric gas turbine race car
3d prints
plexi mockup
people based variations
split frame
seat-door combination mockup
adabtable chair
foam core mockup
door concept
Gehry studio
early model
networked car
Images from one of the disney concert hall opening concerts
adaptable chair studies Idea and initial concept Patrik Kuenzler, physical digital sketches with Axel Kilian
Initial studio space at Gehry office - nov 2003 - I spend two weeks at the office working with Gaston Nogues and Jeffrey Caspar
exhibition concept
detail exhibition
one to one wood/metal parametric seating test platform. Gaston Nogues, Axel Kilian
design tree
Design space explorationbased on social configurations with Franco Variani, Ryan Chin, Victor Gane, Will Lark
Catia model and diagrams Axel Kilian
adaptable chair

Initial exhibition design concept - Axel Kilian summer 2004
Exhibition layout and implementation Will Lark, Franco Variani, Ryan Chin, Raul-David Poblano, Brian Spires, Bill Mitchell,Axel Kilian, Patrik Kuenzler, Phil Liang, Mitchell Joachim

Indy 500 cars give inspiration
CATIA model of the GM autonomy
Ingress/Egress studies in connection with seating and frame
Vertical frame (clothhanger) concept
clothhanger frame - initial concept model
3d prints of parametric versions
finished exhibition
networked car Jonathan Gips, Phil Liang, Anmol Madan - collage axel kilian
exhibition show case
Variable skin - various ideas around reconfigurable skin of the car from different groups