Richard James Hart

I grew up on a farm in the North East of England, where my passion for automotive design began with my classic Fiat Panda 4x4. I aspire to be a creative automotive designer, working on sustainable future designs, tackling the problems we face in our modern world. 

As part of my experience, I worked as an exterior designer and group leader to develop a proposal for a hemp-fibre electric sports car, with form language inspired by the art-deco movement.

Having been an avid enthusiast of electric vehicles since before they were cool, naturally my FMP focuses on sustainability. My project, titled ‘designing a car for longevity’ resulted in a minimal, blank canvas, modular estate car which is able to adapt to its owner’s changing life. 

As a designer I am attracted to simple but clever solutions, I use a postmodernist theme to simplify the project’s form as much as possible whilst taking inspiration from modular projects such as Google ARA. 

The project is centred around a 25 year mortgage style lease, exploring the effects on a cars design to overcome the challenges of extended ownership.