Low Volvo (2000)

Low Volvo is a design for an air-spring lowering system for a new Volvo V70 station wagon. This lowers the ride height of the car, and is automatically adjustable so that when parked the frame literally sits on the ground. This project is a manifestation of a coincidental formal aesthetic shared by two disparate cultures. Volvo station wagons are the iconic white upper-class professional family car, and their boxy form speaks of safety and responsibility. Chicano lowriders are attracted to American cars from the 70âs and 80âs with the same formal characteristics of boxy shapes, which they transform by lowering the suspension into boulevard cruisers. This project manifests this aesthetic intersection and contrasts the two different cultureâs attachment of meaning to form.