Salone del Mobile 2015: MINI and Jaime Hayon present ‘Urban Perspectives’. A fantastical installation on the future of urban mobility.

Munich/Milan. For this year’s Salone del Mobile, MINI has teamed up with Spanish designer and artist Jaime Hayon to present an installation that conjures up visions of tomorrow’s urban mobility in the form of an imaginary world.

The focus of the installation is the MINI Citysurfer concept, a flexible electric kick scooter that provides a smarter and more personalised way of getting around town. For Jaime Hayon it is the starting point of a fantastical journey through a modern metropolis, for which he is designing two variants of the MINI Citysurfer concept. He takes visitors along graphic paths and challenging routes through a surreal space, within which he applies his strikingly creative aesthetics to showcase the future of mobility:

“I wanted to create an incredible and immersive experience that pays tribute to MINI’s sophisticated design developments for future mobility,” says Jaime Hayon of his vision, which goes far beyond any fictional mobility scenario. He sees his installation as a collaborative design process that espouses the MINI claim to pioneering materials and high quality. For the execution of the overall concept, Hayon is working closely with the MIN Design Team and specialist craftspeople.

‘Jaime Hayon Urban Perspectives for MINI’ is a further highlight arising from the ongoing creative dialogue that MINI pursues with leading international designers. “For us, collaborating with creative designers from a wide range of disciplines is an important format that allows us to view automotive design from a different perspective,” says Anders Warming, Head of MINI Design. “Jaime Hayon is a partner whose sheer inventiveness and unconventional formal language are inspirational.”

In Jaime Hayon’s illustrated urban jungle, progress is bright and colorful: the designer has dreamed up a road made of Carrara marble supported by luminous blue pillars, while shiny brass lamps point the way to an imaginary destination. Accessories specially developed for the installation, such as a helmet – part high-tech object, part playful mask – and a jacket likewise designed by Hayon, symbolize the fantasy realm in which the Spanish designer dismantles familiar perspectives. They are indispensable accoutrements on this dynamic ride into the future which Hayon imposingly visualizes through his personal play with functionality fantasy and creativity.

The installation ‘Jaime Hayon Urban Perspectives for MINI’ will be on show from 14 to 19 April 2015 at the Laboratorio Bergognone in Via Bergognone 26 as part of the Salone del Mobile in Milan.