MINI Concept Car

The ensemble consists of a shelf, in three sizes, with cups, dishes and objects made from the finest, hand crafted Nymphenburg porcelain. One of these has a clasp with a miniature cherub, a Bacchus from Nymphenburg’s historical repertoire. Bowls for amuse-bouches and other treats are centrally placed on a middle console running throughout the vehicle between the front and back seats of the MINI Concept car, one of this year’s most respected concept cars.

The design began to take shape following a request from BMW in summer 2008. The idea: increase exclusivity and comfort in the new MINI model varieties using individually designed porcelain finishings. Nymphenburg porcelain was to be used for the swivelling bars and for all the positioned elements, its elegance emphasising the aesthetic aspiration of the Munich automotive manufacturers. In a mere three months, the BMW design department’s first sketch had become their first presentation at the Paris Automobile Show in October 2008 .

The objects were completely handcrafted in the Porzellan Manufaktur workshops. Only with the craftman’s decades of experience and the use of traditional manufacturing technology was such a rapid transformation successful. Each element, whether cup or figure, is poured out individually using fluid porcelain, intricately formed, completely covered with a fine glaze coat and then burned. Nymphenburg developed a new burning technology for this process making it possible to burn entirely glazed porcelain objects in a single process. The result is a pure white, particularly smooth and hard surface, for which Nymphenburg porcelain is renowned.