BMW's designworks opens studio in 'silicon beach' santa monica

gearing up for the future

Following its 50th anniversary, creative studio and BMW Group subsidiary Designworks opens a new workspace in Santa Monica, the ‘Silicon Beach’ of California. To help shape the future of mobility Designworks will take inspiration from this creative tech hub to provide services for both the BMW Group and other industries in the fields of mobility, transportation, consumer electronics, and charging infrastructure. As both a design studio and creative think-tank, Designworks will tap into global trends while presenting innovative and sustainable design solutions across the automotive and tech industries.

‘Santa Monica is a test bed for the innovative and sustainable mobility solutions of tomorrow,’ says Adrian van Hooydonk, Senior Vice President, BMW Group Design and a former Head of Designworks. ‘Designworks will generate valuable impetus, inspiration, and new ideas for the design of the BMW Group brands right here.’

Designworks’ newly opened studio in Santa Monica | image © BMW Group

a creative think-tank in santa monica

designboom was in attendance as BMW Group‘s creative studio Designworks opened its doors in Santa Monica alongside the 2023 Frieze Los Angeles art festival. The new LA studio covers an area of about 16,500 square feet and now stands as the largest of its three locations which include Munich and Shanghai. Since its inception, Designworks has expanded from hand-crafting clay models for vehicle design to developing all-encompassing mobility solutions for an entire urban ecosystem.

‘Our new studio allows us to fully exploit the freedoms digitalization gives us,’ explains Head of Designworks, Holger Hampf. ‘Personal interaction remains a focal point, but we do work differently in Santa Monica: In this new workspace, our processes are geared towards virtual communication, and we are able to bring the results of our work to life for clients in an entirely new way.‘

inside Designworks’ newly opened studio in Santa Monica | image © BMW Group

integrating art and design

To celebrate the event, Adrian van Hooydonk — Senior Vice President at BMW Group Design and former head of Designworks — spoke with German artist Thomas Demand about the extent to which art and design are mutually inspiring — a discussion which highlighted themes of innovation across creative industries, the core spirit of the collaborative efforts between BMW Group and Designworks.

The run-up to the BMW Vision M NEXT’s unveiling further illustrated the potential for art and design to inspire each other — to tease the new vehicle without revealing the full design, Adrian van Hooydonk asked the artist to photograph detailed frames of the car, capturing artistic abstractions without revealing the full design — see them in the gallery below!

artist Thomas Demand (middle) speaks with BMW’s Adrian van Hooydonk (right) at the LA studio’s inauguration
image © designboom

trans-disciplinary explorations

In addition to its work for BMW, Designworks collaborates with external clients from other sectors in order to gain an ‘outside-in’ perspective. This allows the company to develop a user-centric approach, as well as two innovative seat studies for the BMW brand that combine sustainability and visionary design. Designworks is also working with start-ups to experiment with new production methods and sustainable, recyclable materials to create a high-quality look and feel with improved durability. These materials include bacteria-based, plastic-free, and non-animal textiles.

The creative studio recently unveiled the BMW M Hybrid V8 race car at the 24 Hours of Daytona. This vehicle brings together classic details and the modern technology needed for a successful race. Its special paint job is reminiscent of classic race cars from the past five decades, blending together the past and present of motorsport history.

BMW M Hybrid V8 race car | image © designboom