Material girls lead revolution

One of the key innovations of Mazda’s latest Hakaze concept car is the use of revolutionary interior materials.

The Mazda Advanced Colour and Material Design team worked closely with Flotek, a design and prototyping consultancy, to come up with new materials for the Hakaze compact crossover vehicle.

Flotek International is a market leader in the design, development and application of textures and surface finishes for clients, including car makers.

And, when a theme of meeting the needs of outdoor, adventure seekers – such as kite-surfers - was identified, so was the idea for developing a material with a natural, grainy feel.

Maria Greger, Senior Designer Colour & Materials, and Luciana Silvares, Designer Colour & Materials, from Mazda Motor Europe's Design Centre talked to kite surfers to discover how their lifestyle influenced what they wanted in a car.

With Flotek, technology, a variety of textures can be created on one surface. The Mazda team created patterned surfaces reminiscent of sand dunes.

The Hakaze’s floor is covered in leather, soft and welcoming for naked feet just off the beach. The material is embossed with a flow pattern of different textures that feel natural to the touch.

The dashboard has a special grain over it that feels sandy in some places and has line texture in others, helping to create flowing forms by making them not only look natural, but feel natural as well.

This touch experience also extends to the seats of the Hakaze, which are made of smooth, high-tech leather with a surface coating to make them feel similar to the material used for wet suits, Neoprene, but with a higher quality.

Luciana explained: “We took leather for quality and developed a surface treatment which makes the leather feel much more smooth and waterproof.

"For finishing we also used zigzag stitches, which look sporty and similar to those you see on a wetsuit. In some parts, we printed the leather with a special 3D printing process.

“These graphical elements on the seat buttons represent water drops. On the driver’s backrest we printed the Japanese symbol for Hakaze in Kanji script, which is a reminder of the branding that typically appears on surfwear,” Luciana added.

The concept’s boot also has a practical double floor construction on both sides of the centre tunnel in the boot, whose underside is made of rubber making it ideal for transporting wet and sandy gear.

And, finally, most of the switches in the car are sensors that are under the surface so there are no shut lines. This prevents water or sand from getting into the switches and makes cleaning the vehicle on the inside easier as well.

The Hakaze is the latest concept car to express a new design language called Nagare, developed by Mazda’s new global design director Laurens van den Acker.