"Form Follows Function" -- For Automobile Styling?

For more than a century a secular religion strongly held by many architects and designers is the idea that "form follows function," as mentioned in this link to Wikipedia.

The dean of the University of Washington architecture school, Arthur Herrman, was my instructor for a class on architectural history.  He was seriously hard-core when it came to form and function along with being true to one's building materials.  The following year I took first-year Architectural Design, where one student was gently, but firmly, told that his non-modernist apartment design was verbotten territory so far as the School of Architecture was concerned.

At that time I had been reading early books by American industrial designers (I was an ID major then). The goal of making designs where form was shaped by function was mentioned along with the need to streamline and simplify products.

I'm sure that this carried over to early automobile stylists, a number of whom had architectural backgrounds or had read some of those industrial design books.  Nevertheless, I am pretty sure that most stylists then and later tended to not practice "form follows function" to the nth degree.

That said, not long ago a Fiat stylist proclained himself a follower of the religion. The above Wikipedia link includes the following quote:

"If the design of an automobile conforms to its function—for instance the Fiat Multipla's shape, which is partly due to the desire to sit six people in two rows—then its form is said to follow its function." -- Fiat Multipla designer Roberto Giolito, via Automotive News Europe 19 July 2019 (link here).

I posted about my dislike of the Fiat Multipla design here.  Even if Giolito was correct in his statement (which I dispute to some degree), the result was not attractive.

But enough theorizing: The present post presents examples of designs that are fairly pure followers of the dictum.

Gallery

Gestetner duplicating machine - c.1929
The redesign of this device was important in launching Raymond Loewy's career as an industrial designer.  This is what a pre-Loewy machine looked like.

Gestetner duplicating machine - c.1930
And this is Loewy's version.  The functional parts are hidden by cladding that simplifies the appearance.  The main purely "functional" benefits are: (1) the machine is easier to operate, and (2) less dust will collect on the mechanisms, making it easier to maintain.

1926 Essex Coach
Now for automobile design.  Essex began making closed-body sedans of this style for the 1922 model year.  The car shown has a functional exterior design in that the main components are clearly seen: passenger compartment, doors and windows, radiator, headlights, bumper, fenders, running board.  However, the design seems awkward in terms of proportions -- especially the short hood that functionally houses a short, inline four cylinder motor.

1930 Packard Standard Eight Sedan
A luxury car of similar vintage.  Its functionality is of the same ilk as the Essex's.

1930 Packard Standard Eight Sedan
Note the separate trunk.  Thee are some decorative moldings below the windows that are non-functional in mechanical or layout terms.

1930c Audi Type T "Dresden"
The same can be said for this European design from the country that hosted the avant-garde Bauhaus design school.

1933 Tatra 77 prototype
Another function is aerodynamic streamlining which is related to fuel consumption efficiency.  For this function to dominate, components such as were mentioned with regard to the Essex are now merged  into a wind tunnel tested envelope shape.  Here the front fenders are not well integrated and the hood seems too stubby.  But the car is fairly attractive.

1939 Horch 930 S Stromlinie
The front fenders of this Horch are better integrated than those on the Tatra above.  However, the passenger compartment seems out of place.  That might be because it is functional in terms of passenger access, headroom and outside visibility -- not so functional in terms of streamlining.

1949 Nash
An American example of streamlining in the early post- World War 2 years.  The simple, slab sides cover what would have been wheel openings.  This streamlining contradicted the functional needs of easily accessing the tires and of a better turning radius.  The overall design seems too heavy looking.

1952 Saab 92
Saabs at the time were made by an aircraft company, so the body was wind tunnel tested.  This early Saab is attractive seen from this angle, though the back window seems to be placed too low.  Also, there is no trunk lid, making access quite inconvenient.  Two functional demerits there.

1951 Gutbrod Superior
Now for some designs that emphasize simplicity such as Loewy promoted.  The Gutbrod was a very small, inexpensive car.  Small cars can't carry much decoration, and the only decorative elements seen here are the simple grille bars and the nose crest.  All told, a fairly attractive design.

1952 Škoda 1200
This Škoda is larger than the Gutbrod, yet also has minimal decoration.  Although the exterior shapes are simple, they strike me as being awkwardly proportioned.

1947 Kaiser Special - Mecum Auction photo
A post- World War 2 design from an essentially new carmaker.

1947 Kaiser Special - Mecum Auction photo
Again, simplicity of forms is stressed, but like the later Škoda, the overall effect appears awkward.  Simplicity itself does not seem to guarantee aesthetic success.

1957 Imperial Southampton Coupe
Another function of an automobile's design is being salable.  That usually means that a car's looks are in tune with current design fashions and the functions discussed above are sublimated to marketing prowess.  The 1957 Imperial is shown here because this design let to the brand's greatest production volume year in its history.

1957 Imperial Southampton Coupe
Another view of this successful in marketing terms design.

Cross-posted at Art Contrarian

Ur-Saab and Some Antecedents

In 1947 SAAB (Svesnska Aeroplan AB), builder of military aircraft, was exploring entering the automobile market.  The initial result was the prototype that some people nowadays call the UrSaab.  (In Germany and some parts of Europe probably including Sweden, the prefix "Ur" is sometimes applied to the earliest example of something.  The word Ur is the name of what some anthropologists claimed was the world's oldest city.)

A series of prototypes were built, details edging towards the first production model, the Saab 92 that reached the Swedish market in 1950.

Below are images of that car and another prototype along with two earlier cars with similar rear styling details.  Because Saab built aircraft and had a wind tunnel, it is no surprise that the new car was tested to enhance aerodynamic efficiency.  Whether or not the other streamlined examples actually influenced Saab designers is belong the scope of my source materials.  That said, I hope you might find the similarities interesting.

Gallery

The UrSaab.  There are no wheel openings.  The hood has "boat tail" sculpting on the part covering the high parts of the motor.

Lower level view of the front.

A later prototype featuring wheel opening spats similar to those on production cars.  The visual feeling is "teardrop" -- a common automobile aerodynamic solution of pre- World War 2 days.

Rear quarter view of the UrSaab in motion.  The plan view of the passenger compartment has the "boat tail" treatment.

Rear quarter view of the Phantom Corsair, a solitary concept car of 1938.  Although some details differ, it and the UrSaab are conceptually the same from this perspective.

The is a Tatra 97, marketed 1936-1939.  Unlike the UrSaab and Phantom Corsair, its engine was mounted in the rear.  It too has something of a passenger compartment boat tail.  The same was true of production Volkswagen beetles.

The front of the Phantom Corsair differed greatly from the UrSaab, which was a much smaller car.

The same can be said for the Tatra 97.

As it happened, production Saab 92s had a different rear end shape than those of the first prototype.  The boat tail plan view was abandoned, perhaps to simplify production or perhaps because more trunk space was desired.  The rear window is now one-piece, but it's mounted so low that I wonder how good rear vision was for Saab drivers.  This is a 1952 model.

Saab 99: The Quirky Swede's Second Act

Around 20 years after Saab's first car, the 96, was being developed, the company finally got around to adding a newer, larger model.  The Saab 99 was produced 1968-1984, and introduced in the USA in 1969.  Although they don't seem large today, the 99s looked big at the time they were first seen when compared to the fairly small Saab 96s people were familiar with.

The Wikipedia entry for the 99 is here. It mentions that it was designed by Sixten Sason who was responsible for the styling of Saabs up to that point.  He died in 1967 while the 99 was being readied for production.

Saab 99s eventually appeared in a four-door version, but the first ones only came with two doors, as this site mentions.

The Saab 99 was not good looking.  This wasn't because it was one of those stark, by-the-book "functional" designs.  Instead, while aspects of its appearance might have been rationalized in functionalist terms, it was simply quirky-looking.  Rather like a number of French designs.

Gallery

This is a 1966 prototype 99, called Padden (Toad) by Saab staff.  The Wikipedia link above states that these early prototypes were cobbled from Saab 96s.

Here is a later, four-door Saab 99 as seen in a publicity photo.  The comparatively shorter front door's B-pillar and the post for the rear quarter window (needed so that the main rear door window could be rolled down) resulted in a busy appearance for the passenger greenhouse.  Two-door Saab 99s had a cleaner look in that area.  Saab 99 windshields were long, shallow curves when seen in plan view.  I'm not sure whether this was for aerodynamic reasons or had to do with reducing distortion found in conventional panoramic windshields.  Maybe for both reasons.  The hood (hinged at the front) had its cut line part way down the front fender.  A character line extended this mark to the rear of the car.

Just for fun, here is a publicity photo intended to show how roomy the back seat of a 99 was.

The side character line beginning at the hood transitions to the trunk's rear cut line, a touch that helps to integrate slightly a somewhat confused overall design.  Tail lights and rear bumper are spartan, and have a tacked-on appearance.  On two-door models such as this, the rear side windows do not roll down; instead, they are hinged at the front and can be unlatched and pivoted out a short distance.

This side view is of a 1972 Saab 99 EMS.  It's included to further demonstrate the quirkiness of the design.  Front overhang is considerable, but that is the norm for a front-wheel-drive car.  Due to its curve, the very front of the windshield is about even with the rear of the wheel opening.  This helps make the front look stubby.  What looks to be a cabin air outlet, that louvered patch below the C-pillar, is oddly shaped, not fitting into the overall design.  If it had to be there, the louvers should have slanted in the opposite direction, reflecting the angle of the C-pillar.  Another odd feature is the quasi- sail panel ensemble of the C-pillar, back window, and trunk -- a scooped out look.  This helps make the 99 look distinctive and also lightens the appearance compared to, say, a conventional three-box with bustle-back design.  But it seems quite unrelated to the rest of the car.  Some of this is because the backlight is concave and the windshield is quite convex, giving the greenhouse a disjointed look.