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Concert Grand Piano by Audi Design Studio
by Harry / July 8, 2009


The Audi Design Studio in Munich, yes, the car designers, have designed a grand piano. "You can imagine the respect with which we approached the challenge of redesigning a musical instrument" says Wolfgang Egger, Head of Audi Group Design...

UPDATE: Commenter ori brings up a good point, is a Porsche better than an Audi?



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More from Audi Design Studio:

"We were obliged to study the instrument in depth, and develop an all-embracing concept from the very start. The project was a useful source of experience for our young designers, and will benefit them later when they work on car design." In due course it fell to pianoforte manufacturer Bösendorfer to build the first "Audi Design grand piano."
The decision to design an Audi concert grand piano is a logical consequence of many years of cultural involvement by the brand with the four-ring emblem. This includes the high-quality jazz meetings at the Audi Forum in Ingolstadt where the Audi Design grand piano will in future be seen and heard.
At a price of approximately 100,000 euros, the Vienna-based company will be including this design icon in its high-quality catalogue of instruments from July 16 onwards - the day of its world premiere at Audi's 100th anniversary celebration.

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brutal and ugly...........

michael / July 9, 2009 at 3:32 AM / Flag

looks like an office desk of the 70s

gen / July 9, 2009 at 8:27 AM / Flag

Porsche design nailed it ten times better...

ori / July 9, 2009 at 12:27 PM / Flag

It's beautifully modern. Compact... and holds true to an older classic design sense, but is currently relevant due to the use of modern materials and textures.

I'm impressed.

Joel Nealy / July 9, 2009 at 1:12 PM / Flag

audi design is way better than porsche's.

frukc / July 9, 2009 at 1:20 PM / Flag

it looks like a cross between a coffin and darth vader's helmet...

mk / July 9, 2009 at 2:15 PM / Flag

it's plain ugly, disappointing.

i somehow think they should stick to what they know best, cars. Though some Porsche products are not disappointing.

dot / July 9, 2009 at 3:05 PM / Flag

"...logical consequence..." Perhaps a polite stretch? In any event, it's a decent dabble, I suppose. Other piano makers have been at it for hundreds of years and they haven't proven particularly imaginative themselves.

StructureHub Blog / July 9, 2009 at 4:34 PM / Flag

As a pianist of 24 years, I vastly prefer this one to the Porsche. Of course, I think both are ridiculous and pale in comparison to an 1850's Steinway.

Jw / July 9, 2009 at 5:56 PM / Flag

audi's design.. is way better than the porsche one.. it is.. modern, and playful,.. classical and just beautiful... a perfect example of audi's superiority in every design aspect

cacho / July 13, 2009 at 1:03 AM / Flag

Uninspired and dry design. Absolutely no refinement in shapes or proportions. It is like no-brainer /"2004-5"-era/ product design.

CB / July 13, 2009 at 2:35 PM / Flag

It’s just a concept ...but true to its Germanic roots. Classic yes, so it has enduring qualities

Marie-Anne / July 14, 2009 at 11:54 AM / Flag

It doesn't feel right.

I have spent the last several minutes trying to decide what I don't like about it, and I think it is a lack of femininity. It looks very well-crafted and considered, and visually it is balanced and crisp, but music is more fluid than this. It sort of looks like a huge toy piano. A traditional grand piano is elegant and beautiful because it uses curves and a certain softness about it's shape, proportions, and materials. This looks heavy and thick and mechanical. These guys designed the R8... they are clearly capable of better.

That being said, Audi Design totally IS better than Porsche Design. I am not fully aware of how much the two relate to their namesakes though.

Joel Marsh / July 15, 2009 at 5:06 AM / Flag

the bench looks embarrassing. like breuer never existed

2ct / July 21, 2009 at 4:01 AM / Flag

Definitely..aesthetics...this is a work of industrial design, ..they can make it for thousands, therefore all the special hand made kind of instruments with its intrinsic value and unique one of a kind manufacturing is obviously lost, i think in this case they are not adding aesthetic value to the product, yet i might expect it to be truly remarkable when comes to sound accuracy.

Christian Barros / July 22, 2009 at 3:29 PM / Flag

Why the hell they didn't show it open??? Maybe it looks even worse when closed...

abc / July 24, 2009 at 8:06 AM / Flag

I have the same feeling about this piano as Joel above. Colani tackled the brief much more successfully than both Audi and Porsche.

http://www.noiseaddicts.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/pegasus_piano_red.jpg

Alex / July 26, 2009 at 3:18 AM / Flag

who plays this piano is there any recording or dvd where we can hear the sound

mduduzi madalani / September 28, 2009 at 5:39 AM / Flag

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