Pininfarina: you may know it as the high-end Italian firm that designs fast, expensive cars like Ferraris and Lamborghinis. Now, for the first time, its designers are branching out into residential design with a condominium in Singapore. And it looks like the cars they design.
Many architects have designed cars, including Frank Gehry, Bucky Fuller and Le Corbusier. But very few car designers have designed buildings. Pininfarina’s plan for the 104-unit, 100m high condominium quite obviously harnesses many aesthetic features of a luxury automobile. The lines of the towering red building compliment those of the body of a pricey Porsche. And the warm wooden interior of the building echoes that of a sleek woodgrain dash. For example, this is a 2006 Pininfarina Ferrari P4/5:
And this is a Maserati Birdcage 75th, a concept Pininfirina designed in 2005:
And this is a render of the building:
Either of those cars would fit right in the garage of this Singapore residence. It makes sense that a luxury car designer would design a luxury condo. Hell, the people who are buying Pininfarina-designed Maseratis would clearly be in the market for a big, showy building to call home. Now they can have the car and the condo to match.
It turns out that Pininfarina has quite the corner on the luxury living market — it’s designed not just fancy cars, but also yachts and private planes. Real rich people stuff! One thing’s for sure — these guys definitely know their audience. [DesignBoom]