Porsche Unseen
The Design Process
Half past eight in the morning in Weissach. It could be any normal small town in southern Germany, with a church and butcher’s shop on the village square, surrounded by gently rolling hills and golden fields of wheat – if it were not for the Porsche prototypes covered with camouflage film that visitors encounter on the country road leading to the town. Porsche has had its Development Centre here since 1971, in the middle of idyllic countryside and just 25 kilometres from the main factory in Zuffenhausen. All new series production models are created in Weissach – from the first sketch, through scale models up to development of new engines, chassis and near-production prototypes, which are evaluated on test rigs, in wind tunnels and on the in-house test track. The distances between the individual departments are short and there is an intense exchange of information between the employees. Even the proximity to motorsport can be taken literally at Porsche: the Porsche Motorsport Centre in the neighbouring village of Flacht, where the brand’s race cars are produced, is just a few hundred metres away. When the wind is blowing in the right direction, the sound of race engines acts as a soundtrack for the designers, model builders and engineers during their work.
“The Swabian down-to-earth mentality and the absolute avant-garde exist side-by-side quite naturally here,” says Michael Mauer. He joined Porsche as Chief Designer in 2004 – and quite clearly feels at home in Weissach. It is here that he and his team designed the Porsche Panamera and Macan, further developed the Cayenne, laid down a sporting milestone with the 918 Spyder, and re-invented the 911 twice with both the 991 and 992 generations. The product identity – the brand look of Porsche as we know it – has its origins in his pen. The designs from the Porsche Design Studio repeatedly receive major international awards, and Michael Mauer is considered to be one of the most influential designers of our times. While jurors and journalists might ask him about the evolution of the 911 or the silhouettes of the latest production models, his thoughts are usually already somewhere completely different. Like in the future…
This is because, unlike many other brands, Porsche relies on special teams for ideas and visions in
