During Milan Design Week 2017, Citroën presented a new way of bringing design closer to the automotive industry by uniting technology and cutting edge materials. In collaboration with Gufram – the most irreverent brand of Italian design – Citroën revamps the interior and exterior design of the C4 Cactus while redefining the original Airbumps® with the unconventional approach of Gufram. Hence the Citroën C4 Cactus Unexpected by Gufram, the Concept Car born of two brilliant Brands, each of which, in its own particular way, has made the history of design. On one hand, Citroën which, consistent with its promise to Be Different, surprises the automobile market with its proposals, as was the case with the C4 Cactus, the Unconventional Crossover characterized by the Airbump® feature. On the other hand, Gufram, a brand with a relentless desire to experiment which has regaled some iconic products of unique aesthetic impact to the world of radical design.
The strong character of the unconventional crossover bearing the Double Chevron trademark mixes with radical pop design to come up with a concept based on an innovative use of materials, as in the characteristic Airbumps® reinterpreted for this occasion in the inimitable soft polyurethane textures of Cactus® by Gufram, the iconic domestic sculpture hand finished in Guflac®, a special patented process allowing for some truly unique and experimental aesthetic effects. The fact that the innovative French car and one of the symbols of the Italian furnishing brand share the same name - Cactus® - prompted a reflection on and around an unconventional and irreverent contamination. This creative dialogue then materialized thanks to a further contamination between the industrial design approach, artisanal production and the creative flair typical of the artistic world of Gufram. By hand modelling a material as malleable as clay, step by step, and balancing convexity with concavity as in a piece of sculpture, the innocuous bumps of Cactus® by Gufram were reconstructed on the Airbumps® of the Citroen C4 Cactus. With the aid of three-dimensional scanning and sophisticated numerical control machinery, it was then possible to reproduce the same depths, reliefs and hollows on flexible polyurethane foam sheets of varying density. The final step consisted in the manual application of Guflac®, an all over layer of special paint that creates a flexible skin for preserving the softness of the material. The final touch is conferred by the bodywork paint of the C4 Cactus Unexpected by Gufram which is gradient shaded from lime green on the back to bright orange on the hood, with an explicit reference to the Metacactus® by Gufram, the Cactus® limited edition produced in 2012 to celebrate its fortieth anniversary. Not to be outdone, the interior design is just as fresh and original. The seats and door panels are completely upholstered in a microfibre fabric specifically conceived for automotive applications, in the same colours and gradient shading as the bodywork. The fabric has also been quilted in patterns of concentric circles whose circular stitching and top stitching are orange in colour.