Behing The Curtains Of The Mercedes Advanced Design Center

17 September 2016 Redazione Lifestyle, News

Words by Giancarlo Gnepo Kla

Photos by Gabriele Cotti Piccinelli, Daimler Group

Edited by Vita di Stile

I have always been an “annoying guy”, just to set the record straight … especially when it comes to cars.

Conversano (Ba), october 2004.

Thanks to this characteristic of mine, at only 13 I wrote to the former President of Mercedes-Benz Italy Wolfgang D. Schrempp, asking about the Advanced Design Center in Como: “There they will point you in the most suitable direction for your studies”, and so for me it was a mirage just the thought of being able to cross the threshold of that place, 12 years later I finally got my chance.
I state that in this article there will be no scoops on future Mercedes-Benz models, we can’t (and we do not want) to say anything, this is an informal chat among car enthusiasts. We can tell something without being charged with industrial espionage though: the Mercedes-Benz Advanced Design Center in Como hosts thirty people including designers, color and trim specialists (for the choice of materials and finishes) and also manuals and virtual modelers.
Away from curious eyes they develop the interior of production cars and concept cars, also running an Advanced Design projects (think of the Silver Arrow Marine 460 Granturismo super yacht or the interior of the Eurocopter EC145 helicopter).

Como,  february 2016.

Meeting me in front of the Mercedes-Benz Advanced Design Center in Como, the Director of the Centro Stile in person Michele Jauch-Paganetti: “Hi, what are you doing here? What do you want to know?” He jokingly asks and we start talking about the location, a nineteenth-century villa just a few meters from Lake Como.

“It has been chosen because it is a quiet place, from the point of view of its history I could not tell you much, it seems that here a “certain” Versace has designed his clothes between the 70s and 80s, then it was our turn” – “1998 if I remember correctly”, I add,”you probably know more than me about it … the choice fell on Como as Mercedes-Benz wanted to have an HQ near the capital of fashion, the most important companies in design and Italian style without the chaos of a big city like Milan”.

Then we go to lunch together and briefly retrace his career: starting at Volkswagen in Wolfsburg in the 80s before going on to Skoda in the early 90s: “The Czech Republic was quite different at the time, we were in fully post-communist period, but it has been a beautiful experience. For a while I’ve enjoyed a warm climate, in Brazil as Team Leader at the end of the 90s, finally in 2000 I switched to Mercedes”.
We talk a bit ‘of our lives and what we have in common: a passion for cars and Michele Jauch-Paganetti is an authentic “Car-freak” as the Anglophones would say.
“I have the impression that many young people today are moving away from the world of cars and in general from all that is analogical … I’m glad still some guys are interested in nice cars, objects to see and drive” he says pulling a sigh of relief.
We review some of the most beautiful cars ever, like the Citroen DS, the Ferrari 250 Testarossa, the Jaguar E-Type and the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing.
I ask: “What do you drive every day?” He replied: “I have an ML, excuse me … it is now called GLE. My personal one is a Triumph TR 250: I like old British cars. You know, out of the office area there is no “hatred” between competitors because a beautiful object remains such, regardless of the brand. The problem is that today there is a lot of confusion: Germans are dominant in an overall battle, Italian cars were beautiful and now they lost something on the road, Brits are dead (or naturalized Indian or German), French are basically German cars made worse and US ones are all equal and unrecognizable, there’s no personality”.
Michele tells me about the early symptoms of this “disease” that afflicts the four wheels world: “I am designing cars since I was a young boy, I had an uncle in Bellinzona that left his cars in the backyard, at 12 years I was tall enough to reach the pedals and shift gears and I do not tell you how many funny moments I lived with that Renault 5!
Even today I do a couple of “messes” with my Triumph: I was in Brescia with a friend for the Mille Miglia and one of the nicest things is to follow the participants cars, having an historical one too, I snuck in the convoy and I followed the path for a while, with people waving and cheering for us.
The problem is that during the last part I could no longer leave the group so we arrived a few meters from the finish line, I tried to pretend nothing would happen, then one of the judges noticed that we were without number and asked us how we got there and immediately brought us out by opening a passage between the fences: what a moment … but it was fun”.
Needless to say, there was a moment of general hilarity.

Returning to today, is there any particular project that you’re proud of?
“The interior of the last C-Class C205 and also the F015, we’ve made them here in Como: with show cars is a constant struggle against time and you end up that you’re never fully satisfied with the work despite the fatigue you put in”.
“Any funny anecdote you can tell us about it?” I asked slyly and the answer arrives immediately, “2007 Frankfurt Motor Show, we presented the F700 and the cockpit had a fridge; some have proposed to put Sushi for doing something “stylish”, clearly we could not put real fish otherwise the whole car would stink for days, then after gone crazy to find fake food, we finally placed it in place.
Lewis Hamilton came to take pictures and took a piece of that, he realized that it was plastic and put it back in place just in time before breaking his teeth”.
With a certain impertinence I ask about the infotainment tablet, a stylistic feature of current Mercedes which divides the opinions so much: “Do you remember when LCD screens have arrived? Everyone was so proud to showcase ‘em, they did not put a curtain above. I understand someone may not like them, but others manufacturers are also currently following this solution, so maybe it’s the right path”.
A ‘last question: “What can’t you miss in your car?” He thinks for a moment, then: “Having a car that does everything is a compromise, I would prefer to have a car for every situation. It MUST HAVE A SOUL, this is the key thing for me”.