H2 Bus Project by Gustavo Guerra and Fabricio Baessa, Brazil

2006: California.

Scale Model on Display at Michelin Challenge Design™

Biography:

Gustavo Guerra
Gustavo Guerra, 23, is a Brazilian designer with a degree in product design from UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) with a specialization in transportation design. He has been dedicated to new project development in the transportation sector with large companies like Volkswagen of Brazil and now, Obvio? Cars.

He also has experience in product development working with companies like Crama Design, COPPE and INT (National Institute of Technology). As a professional, he has been awarded prizes around the world in some important events such as Michelin Challenge Design in 2004 and 2006; NASA/Emhart Design Contest in 2004; 3rd ALCOA Innovation Design Prize in 2004; VOTORANTIM Prize in 2005 and BERTA LEITCHIC Design Contest in 2003.

Fabricio Baessa
Fabricio Baessa, 26, is a Brazilian designer who graduated with a degree in Product Design at UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) with a specialization in graphic design. He has a vast career experience in graphic development working at recognized companies like CadMasters, 3DGraphics and SevenLAB. He is currently working at the art department as a CG Artist at Globo TV Network in Brazil.

Description:

Facing the lack of energy sources and the need to develop less offensive products to our environment, the BUS H2 Project aims to outline a new concept for urban means of transportation technology. Intending to improve all the requirements involved in the development and production of urban buses, we created a new way to design and engineer an integrated project optimizing its performance as a whole. Making use of a low power hydrogen fuel cell system, inside a hybrid energy management concept, it was possible to compact the entire traction system 100% located on the chassis. This reduced the vehicle weight and gave more freedom to design the interior and the bus body now that they are free from technical gears.

Therefore, we reached an entirely practical and dynamic interior focusing on the passengers comfort. The configuration of the seats, as well as its ergonomic design, was all reviewed resulting on a totally new interior, with side-by-side seats giving the passengers a free access to every space on the bus. We attempted to make it easier to get-on and get-off the bus by designing a wide aisle. This allowed a very dynamic flow of people inside the bus and mainly around the door areas. This flux of passengers is only possible because of the ergonomic support bars distributed along the floor and ceiling.

The on board hi-end hydrogen technology (even hidden on the chassis) becomes evident when you analyze its exterior design. With absolutely flown, modern and bold aesthetic lines, this new bus can transmit how updated and advanced it is beside the standard and conventional model. But still being feasible and being able to be industrial manufactured, due to the simple processes and materials chosen. Some details must be particularly analyzed, as the side-mirrors, head and back lamps all the air captivating areas artfully located around the body and the bumpers integrated to the front and head windshield. All of these points were thought simultaneously making the difference in the final design being more harmonic and fair to its functional proposal.