(16 Mar 2017) LEAD IN:
A car should be a reflection of the human dream to fly - that's according to Nissan's new design chief.
Alfonso Albaisa draws upon elements of the cultures of Japan, America and Cuba in concocting car designs with a flair that critics say once was lacking at Japanese automakers, but now is thriving as they globalise.
The Cuban-American was promoted this week to head design at Nissan Motor Co. as a senior vice president.
STORYLINE:
Alfonso Albaisa's promotion follows his appointment last year as the Japanese automaker's design director for Infiniti after working on the luxury brand's Q30 and award-winning Q60 models.
Car makers are increasingly focusing on design to woo customers in an industry where high performance, safety and mileage are largely high quality across the board.
The Infiniti Q50, which debuted at the Geneva International Motor Show this month, showcased a stylish interior with hand-worked materials like genuine-looking wood dashboard trims.
At the Nissan Technical Center on the outskirts of Tokyo, Albaisa speaks lovingly of that dedication to craftsmanship, what the Japanese call "monozukuri" whilst pouring over an Infiniti QX Sport Inspiration.
"This interior is actually quite cool. This is so much, for me, this inside is Japanese, in the sense of - like if you see this part here - these cuts. My Japanese designers were working with this leather that's quite thick. It's saddle leather. And the saddle leather is wonderful it has a smoothness and a sheen that is quite beautiful, but it is frustrating in it won't bend - only simple bends. And, but in these areas, the bend had to be much tighter. And so the designers started slicing the leather and finding patterns where the slice allowed them to fold it into a sharper bend. And as a result, though, it has this kind of beautiful chaos, but the chaos has a harmony to it. I think this is Japanese. And all these very delicate edges that are painted so the edge of the very thick leather is hand-painted. This kind of stuff to me is so beautifully Japanese, but it's also quite visual so there is a sense of Western," he says.
The 52-year-old graduate of the Pratt Institute joined Yokohama-based Nissan in the U.S. in 1988, a decade before it forged an alliance with French automaker Renault.
Partly due to that tie-up - its chairman is Brazilian-born Frenchman Carlos Ghosn - Nissan's ranks are more diverse than many Japanese companies: half its top 10 executives are non-Japanese, compared to about a fifth at rival Toyota Motor Corp.
But Albaisa's Japan connection started much earlier: growing up he was exposed to Japanese artists and architects like Isamu Noguchi and Kenzo Tange by his father, an architect who moved to Miami after the Cuban revolution of the 1950s.
"Japanese culture is not boring. Japanese culture is beautiful. It's innovative. It's thoughtful, inward-looking, outward-acting, and we have to make a car like that. We have to
make cars like that. If that is perceived as boring, then we are not doing correctly, so my job one is to make Japanese cars reflect the beauty and innovation of Japan," he says.
The Cuban-American says Japanese artworks, his love for his Cuban roots and the muscles of a cheetah are among the East and West influences at the heart of his sometimes whimsically poetic approach.
"We dream. We dream of more than what our body can give us and the car is that. OK Yes, we need to go to shopping, yes we need to go to school and we use the car for that. But I think it's a reflection of our dream to fly, to move," he says.
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