sharon ramalingam

Due to rapid urbanization, there will be a lot of congestion in the urban areas. Forma is a fully autonomous subscription service that approaches South American Minimalism for Sao Paulo, solving the biggest car congestion problem caused by car population in the city. Minimalism has assumed different meanings and forms over the past years. This project approaches “minimalism” not only from a styling point of view but also in a functional approach for the city.

The car ownership culture that we are following now, has lead to owning multiple cars in a single household and it leads to a lot of space consumption and congestion in the streets in the name of parking. Cities in Brazil faces this problem. Lots of their spaces is been given to the cars leading to congestion in the city. I thought of a concept car that folds along the width when not in use. It becomes flat without occupying space in the environment. This is a low cost subscription mobility system which can be used by majority of the people in the city so that the space saving model works as a whole system.

I interacted and made interview with Mr. Arthur Mausbach, Senior researcher, IMDC who is a native of Sao Paulo to known more about the culture and practices of the people there. Because I want this project not only a problem solver but also be connected to the culture of the city and people. Through the researcher I came to known, Brazilians were the first to use hammocks back in the 16th century to protect themselves from animals in the forests. It is their way of life even today and every household in brazil have hammocks. With this as an idea, I thought of making the interior seats inspired by hammocks, as it is associated with their culture and at the same time it folds along with the exterior as it doesn’t have any hard elements. In a way of combining function and culture. The idea of using bright color scheme is inspired by bright and contrasting color clothes worn by Brazilians during festivals and carnivals which it resembles their experience, self-image, and cultures.

The system serves as a low-cost subscription service for the people of Sao Paulo to travel in and around the city and gives them the pride of traveling in it as it is attached to their culture. It becomes their identity like buses for London and rickshaws for India and also it will become extremely adapted to the environment by saving parking spaces both functionally and culturally.