Audi 2012 Annual Report Download - page 39

My Perfection
Is the line correct? The work on the clay
model demands absolute concentration
from modeler Joachim Müller (left).
Everything must be just right: Some
details have to be revised again and
again (top right). The modelers confer
regularly with the Audi designers as
they work (bottom left).
Light brown surfaces and
taut lines. The vehicle in
the hall looks at first glance
almost like a chocolate car
that has been removed
from
its packaging. But with the dimen -
sions of the Audi crosslane coupé
concept study corresponding to those
of a mid size car – around 4.20 meters
long, al
most 1.90 meters wide and
1.50 meters
tall – it is too big for that.
But that is not the only perplexing
thing at the Audi Model Studio in
Ingolstadt. Instead of the computer
workstations and high-tech equipment
you would expect to see, you find handi -
craft. Fine handicraft, to be precise.
The room seems almost like an artist’s
studio. But the people working here
are ahead of the times – years ahead,
in fact.
This is true for Andreas Sommer,
for example, who like his colleague
Thomas Walther works on the interior
of future models. They are currently
giving a dashboard a shape which is not
seen in any current Audi, but could be
in the future. Next door Joachim Müller
and Volker Ried are working on larger
surfaces as they shape the exterior.
All four work with modeling knives and
wire loops, delicate spatulas, planes
and seam rollers. In other words,
with tools that have been around for
centuries – and that in an industry that
revolves around high-tech and future
technologies.
Sommer and his colleagues are in -
volved from the very beginning of
every new Audi model. Long before a
drivable prototype is built, they form
a 1:1-scale model out of industrial
clay, a special plastiline comprising
primarily wax, paran oil and micro-
fine glass beads. It looks like a clay
sculpture. There is a reason for the
clay’s special brown color: It is better
than any other shade for enabling
the designers and modelers to assess
the harmony of the surfaces, lines,
transitions and other forms.
And forms are the central focus
here. Sommer, Walther and their
colleagues are clay modelers. The
designation denotes particular skills
that these specialists have acquired
over the years. “To a certain extent
it’s learning by doing, since nearly all
of us come from some other field,”
explains Sommer. He originally worked
in the porcelain industry, where he
trained as a ceramics modeler. Walther
was originally a model builder; other
modelers are trained carpenters or
even dental technicians. What they
all have in common is a talent for
handicraft, attention to detail, the
will for precision, the endurance
associated with this and, last but not
least, a trained eye for aesthetics.
Designers supply the first draft
models, and CAD simulations already
give the viewer a pretty precise idea
of how the finished vehicle might
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