Famous Lingotto factory turns 100 and inspires Fiat designers
Italian brand’s iconic Lingotto facility will directly inspire design elements of future modelsFiat has announced it will use its iconic but ultimately retired Lingotto production facility as the ‘design marker’ for various aspects of its future model design, including a new model due for release next year.
The Lingotto factory famously has a 1.5km oval test track on its roof with banked turns at either end and it’s this oval shape that’s the most apparent element of the just-released design study for the upcoming model that will apparently feature a floating oval dash featuring an oval-shaped instrument cluster and trim elements.
Inspiration has been taken from the building’s ramp too, primarily the light and airy ambience provided by the immense glass windows which Fiat CEO and Stellantis CMO Olivier Francois says previews the brand’s “future vision of interior design” via the ‘less material, more space’ principal.
The windows will also serve as the muse for a full-width lighting arrangement at some stage, with a preview render showing a Hyundai IONIQ-style pixel texture spanning the curvaceous front-end of a future crossover.
Francois confirmed the Italian brand’s iconic striped logo would become a key part of Fiat’s marketing going forward, with the brand’s roots set to shape its future.
All of these original design markers are shown on-location in a new four-minute YouTube video released to commemorate the Lingotto’s 100th anniversary, and to give an animated preview of how each one will manifest itself in future vehicles.
Francois stars in the clip along with Ginevra Elkann, the president of Pinacoteca Agnelli – the art gallery within Lingotto – and the great granddaughter of the man who originally opened the facility.
A quick history is provided before Francois gets into his stride explaining the various design markers and locking in a Lingotto reveal for the first directly inspired vehicle.
Said vehicle is anticipated to be the Fiat 600: a light or compact SUV tipped to share its genes with the Jeep Avenger and reborn Alfa Romeo MiTo.
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