Kinetic design has been around since as far back as the middle ages, but Ford was the first to implement it on automobiles.
When you think of a car, conceptually speaking, what comes to mind? A big box with four wheels and some windows? Certainly, that’s the simplest way to think of an automobile, and indeed, that’s been the dominating template for automotive design for about as long as it has been a thing. In the last couple of decades, however, automotive manufacturers have been looking for new and interesting ways to iterate on and evolve the simple concept of „a box on wheels.“
In the mid to late-2000s, automotive giant Ford came up with a concept for its vehicles that was intended to be the next big evolution in the silhouette of a car. This concept was known as „kinetic design.“ The idea of kinetic design has been around in general since as far back as the middle ages, but this was the first time it was being implemented on automobiles. But what exactly is kinetic design, and as far as Ford cars go, did it pan out?Kinetic design in general
Kinetic design, also known as kinetic architecture in regards to stationary installations like buildings, is a design philosophy that seeks to either emulate the idea of movement in the stationary, or apply the concept of movement to subtly shift the shape of the stationary. Examples of this notion include a lamp with a twisting fabric shade, or building walls with wavy, swooping patterns.
