1995 Castagna Maserati Auge

The Auge is actually a cold wind that blows along the Côte d' Azure. It is a new breeze that announces a change of season. And this is an image that I would apply to my car when I designed it. But the Auge is also a wind that imbues the surrounding areas with the sweet scents of the hinterland.

It is a message of renewal, that makes us aware of where we have come from to enable us to understand who we are now. Therefore, the Auge is not just a modern answer regarding the style for a possible new taste of our times, but a careful analysis of history and what represents the Maserati style in general, i.e. the corporate identity. But my research would not really be complete without a serious analysis of methods that were used to govern the creative and productive process.

If it is true that to designing always means to respect the “shape-function” dogma, I think that nowadays it is indispensable to add the concepts of methodological and economic-productive planning to this rule. Without assuming to find a definite answer, the Auge is hence an attempt to answer the questions: " What must cars that belong to a product group called 'niche products' be like?" and "How do they have to be made?".

To find out what such production would entail today, a method of examination is to analyse a niche group that is one below that in the automotive industry, a group of special-built cars that were very famous at the end of the fifties. It is not only a nostalgic inclination for the fantasy expressed in those years or the wish for some “dolce vita”, but the conviction that to modernise methods for introducing a new product that fulfils all demands of today's market in every respect, i.e. more and more diversified products but with the best guaranteed quality standard – in short: a high-quality product made in serious way.

In order to guarantee these aspects, Auge has had as a plan, right from the start, the phase of briefing. The plan was to take up the “carry over” techniques, which have also allowed the team to control development costs, the homology for the use of the vehicle on road, that takes account of all ergonomic, functional qualitative aspects. To arrive at such an aesthetic end result has meant to try to recover the naturalness of the creative walk.

So computer-science devices were only used at the end of the process and developers did not avoid going to the drawing board to eliminate the risk of creating a shape that would be far too mathematical: Only the human touch can lead to natural dimensioning donating the magic of an object that does not age prematurely because is completely revealed in its appearance.