Tony Peat wanted to create a light, airy interior through the subtle use of structures and materials, whilst emphasising the driver orientation.
The interior team wanted the driver to be enticed by the interior as the doors swung open. Immediately apparent is the ultra modern steering wheel fashioned from solid aluminium with contrasting orange glove leather grips and a black leather airbag pad.
Both Pauli and Peat are proud of the 'futuristic, aircraft fighter meets sportsbike' design cues.
The best example of this approach is in the Focus World Rally Car inspired sequential gear shifter, just a hand span from the steering wheel. Beautifully crafted from solid aluminium and finished in a unique anodised soft warm brown-grey with orange leather it embodies all the themes running through the interior and includes the starter button mounted beneath a flip lid on top of the shifter.
Ahead of the driver is a simple instrument binnacle, featuring counterbalanced needles as in a high quality chronometer. Between the dials is a high definition LCD display for navigation or to display views from the three rearward facing cameras.
Vidakovic describes the centre stack as the car's “art gallery”, housing auxiliary switchgear that can be used in conjunction with, or instead of, touch screen controls for navigation, in-car entertainment or air-conditioning controls.
The centre stack also houses docking points for a pair of memory sticks. It is possible in the future that rather than using a conventional key or even keyless entry, a memory stick would be used.
The skeletal frames of the seats feature a ribcage and vertebrae structure fashioned from aluminium and formed rubber . Separating the front seats is a 'flying bridge' centre console housing the electronic parking brake. When viewed from the rear seats the cues drawn from motorcycle design are very evident.
Another interesting feature is the extensive use of electroluminescent foil to illuminate the doors and ceiling. In addition to being very package friendly, it emits a gentle, even light and can be cut into any shape, hence the roof pattern reminiscent of Peruvian Nazca geoglyphs.
Ruth Pauli was keen to move Ford's use of colours and materials forward by exploring new combinations: “I wanted to create an ambience with very technical metals and other finishes in combination with very fresh and crisp modern looking materials. A key image we kept coming back to was of a 'combat swimmer.' As a result, neoprene has been used in a technical orange shade and in dark charcoal featuring the same stitching used on wet suits, especially in touch areas."
A unique leather finish has been specially developed for iosis that has a subtle metallic look. It still has a natural grain in a deep charcoal tone and the top surface is picked out with a subtle graphite shade.
Other contact areas such as the steering wheel and the shifter combine the stark, cold hardness of bare metal with the peach skin softness of orange glove leather. Whilst the centre stack and console is a combination of leather in their upper portions melding into rubber in the lower section to achieve a distinctive graphic split down to the floor covering.
For the floor, conventional carpeting has been replaced with a more rugged, structured weave with technical silver highlights.
“The interior architecture is quite simple in itself,” explains Vidakovic, “but its design shines through in its detailed execution and the choice of contrasting materials unusual in automotive applications.”
