Beautiful design has always been at the heart of Jaguar; exciting proportions, elegant form and innovative luxury. Recent World Car Design of the Year awards for the Jaguar F-TYPE, F-PACE and I-PACE are testament to the Jaguar Design team’s successful approach.
How Jaguar achieves its design leadership has always been a closely guarded secret with work happening behind closed doors in Whitley. But with Jaguar Design moving into a purpose-built studio at the Gaydon Design and Engineering Centre in September 2019, Jaguar has thrown open the doors to give a unique insight to the fascinating journey that will bring the next-generation Jaguar vehicles to showrooms – from initial sketching and clay sculpting to final engineering.
· New Jaguar Design Studio led by Design Director, Julian Thomson, opens at redeveloped Design and Engineering Centre in Gaydon, Warwickshire, UK
· The studio is built around a ‘Heart Space’, putting people at the centre of the design journey, supporting a seamless workflow between creative and engineering teams
· Six key design disciplines, operating across Interior and Exterior teams, develop innovative solutions and define future trends
· The most technologically advanced design studio in the world, featuring industry-leading modelling robotics, Virtual Reality and an 11-m 4K digital display wall
· New Design Studio allows 20 full-size clay models to be worked on simultaneously with a 33% increase in floorspace compared to prior site
Across six-stages of the design journey the Exterior and Interior teams collaborate throughout a well-defined process that can move from inspirational first sketch to finished car in around four years. From start to finish, each project is overseen by a programme management team that ensures integration with all business functions at each of the six stages:
1. Sketching
2. Clay Sculpting
3. Digitalisation
4. Colour and Materials
5. Design Technical
6. Model Manufacture
All of this happens at the new facility in Gaydon site in Warwickshire, creating one of the UK’s most sustainable non-domestic buildings and the country’s largest automotive creation and development centre.
The Gaydon site forms part of Jaguar Land Rover’s Destination Zero mission; an ambition to make societies safer and healthier, and the environment cleaner. Delivered through relentless innovation, the company’s focus is on achieving a future of zero emissions, zero accidents and zero congestion – across its facilities, and through its products and services.
Gaydon is home to almost 13 000 highly-skilled engineers and designers who are developing the current and next generation Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles. The industry-leading centre is also creating future autonomous, connected, electrified and shared mobility technologies that will enable Jaguar Land Rover’s long-term, sustainable growth.
At Gaydon, we have invested into the future and an inspiring environment for our people. We have created the prerequisites that Gaydon can design and engineer the next generations of outstanding cars in highest quality. We have consciously invested with a “Destination Zero” attitude.”
The advanced product creation centre brings design, engineering and production purchasing under one roof for the first time in Jaguar Land Rover’s history. The site is 4 000 000 m², the equivalent to almost 480 football pitches.
The new facility delivers more than 50 000 m² of additional world-class innovative workspace which has been designed to encourage collaboration throughout the entire vehicle development process – from sketch to showroom. It includes the new Jaguar design studio, co-locating Jaguar and Land Rover design for the first time.
Gaydon’s new offices are rated in the top 10 per cent of most sustainable non-domestic buildings in the UK. Up to 20 per cent of its energy will come from almost 3 000m² of photovoltaic solar panels on the roof, and the remainder from 100 per cent renewable sources. The same glazing technology as the Eden Project has been used to bring natural light into the building wherever possible and make it more energy efficient.
Bringing the outside in, the company has created a natural environment in the expanded facility to promote the personal health, wellbeing and productivity of its employees at Gaydon. A natural landscape is at the heart of the site, creating an ecologically diverse area reusing 80 000m³ of natural soil excavated during the construction process, the equivalent of 30 Olympic sized pools.
Jaguar Land Rover has already taken several significant steps towards its Destination Zero mission. During today’s event, it has showcased both latest vehicles and research technologies that will deliver this mission.
From the development of 3D printed ergonomic gloves and sensory steering wheels to upcycling domestic waste to create high quality materials for our vehicles, Jaguar Land Rover is delivering its Destination Zero mission to make societies safer, healthier and the environment cleaner.
Investing in a future that is autonomous, connected, electrified and shared, Jaguar Land Rover has already successfully tested self-driving vehicles on complicated inner-city roads. It is working in collaboration with academia and leading technology companies to deliver relentless innovation across its future vehicles and services. For example, the continuous running of a fleet of all-electric Jaguar I-PACE taxis in Munich gives insights and learning to incorporate into the next generation of Destination Zero vehicles.
Jaguar Land Rover is on track to deliver its commitment to offer customers electrified options for all new Jaguar and Land Rover models from 2020. Today’s opening at Gaydon follows confirmation of the company’s plans to transform its Castle Bromwich facility into the UK’s first premium electrified plant where a range of new electrified vehicles will be manufactured, starting with the next generation Jaguar XJ.
The new Land Rover Defender was designed and engineered in Gaydon. An icon reimagined for the digital generation; Defender uses the latest clean Ingenium engines built at Wolverhampton reinforcing the company’s British roots as well as the diversified nature of its manufacturing strategy. It will feature MHEV from launch and PHEV will be introduced next year.
