In a traditional carrozzeria in Italy, a young Lebanese man sits intently among master craftsmen, first sketching fluid lines, then carefully sculpting muscular forms with clay. Heated up, the clay softens into malleable putty, before hardening at room temperature. It is something of a return to older artforms; he learns to create without the use of computers, instead using only traditional tools. Imagine crumbling structures and faint strains of music, to contribute to the old-world ambience.

This man is one of BMW’s top designers, Karim-Antoine Habib, responsible for the most recent iteration of the flagship 7-series, among others. During the 7-series development, he was sent to Italy to learn from the veteran clay modelers of the carrozzeria, or coach building tradition. Today, his design process still begins with sketching on paper, before translating it to a computer screen. This is followed by producing a model with the special sulphur based clay, he explains, before returning to the computer to fine tune and tweak the design.

Just as BMW—which stands for Bayerische Motoren Werke—is a product of the first World War, Habib is equally a child of the country’s Civil War. He was born in Beirut’s Achrafieh neighbourhood, where he lived until he was six. As shrapnel began to fall, his family emigrated, pausing in Iran, France, and Greece before settling in Montréal in Canada. Today, although he remains connected to his Arab roots, he does not believe they inflect his design, at least ‘not consciously’, he says, ‘but they must be a part of who I am.’

He is softly spoken yet articulate; it is not difficult to imagine him as a child, preferring to sketch cars and furniture rather than roughhousing with the other boys in his Cartierville suburb of Montreal. As to their family cars when growing up, he remarks ‘we kept it pretty simple. What I remember best was in Canada: mostly Toyotas and Chryslers.’ His love of cars led him to take mechanical engineering at McGill University, before realising it was too limiting. Taking up transportation design, he enrolled in the now defunct Art College, spending a year in Switzerland before finishing up in Pasadenia, California. Here, he did an independent research course; under the supervision of professors who happened to work at BMW. Erstwhile design chief Chris Bangle noticed his promise, and offered him a job with BMW upon graduation.

The Lebanese-Canadian recently returned to Munich and BMW to head up its Exterior Design department, after a stint at rival firm Mercedes-Benz. Working carefully with the interior design department, he is essentially responsible for the whole exterior of the car, from nose to tail. Yet his ascent to the top did not come overnight. Rather, it follows a decade of careful mentoring at BMW, much of it under the watchful tutelage of Bangle. Although Bangle is today best known the originator of the controversial double-layered rear end most often dubbed the ‘Bangle Butt,’ he is equally respected for his energetic, almost sculptural visual style, which helped to transform BMW’s previously engineering-driven approach.

Habib has his hand in many futuristic advanced designs such as the Concept CS and Gina Light Visionary. The latter takes the often overused feline metaphor to an extreme, replacing the metal body with a textile skin and adding blinking eyelids to the headlights.  His personal favourite of his designs however remains the regal 7 series. When asked what classic car from history he wishes he had designed, he demurs laughingly ‘This reminds me of a question i read somewhere where they asked a fashion designer what they wished they’d designed; they answered the blue jean. So yeah why not, the Ford Model T.’ 

In this manner, Habib is careful to emphasise the mass produced aspect of his work. ‘What we do is essentially industrial design – the materialisation of a product plus the brand’. At the same time, he tries to imbue the cars with the appropriate emotion or spirit:  ‘to say something; to have a story behind it.’ As an example, he narrates the inspiration beyond the most recent iteration of the 7-Series; the design of which he is most proud. ‘It sounds a bit cheesy, but it really happened I swear. There was a moment where I saw a fleet of 7 series parked in front of the opera and was struck by their spirit, their character. “Sovereign elegance” is the phrase we use. A quiet self-confidence, announcing its presence without really shouting.’

“Rhythm” and “balance” might however be Habib’s most important verbal touchstones. ‘Rhythm. Rhythm and harmony. It’s a word we use and don’t think about where it comes from. Rhythm, harmony, balance. Function versus aesthetics; it is all about balance’. Along with music, he draws inspirations from across the arts, especially the metallic manipulations of furniture designer and sound sculptor Harry Bertoia. Yet it is within architecture that he feels most at home, drawing from theory as well as from works across the spectrum of renown ‘from small architects to Rem Koolhaas and Herzog and de Meuron.’ He also subscribes to, and regularly flips through architectural publications at his Munich office.

Habib finds himself especially appreciative of architecture’s problem-solving approach, even as he reminds that unlike architecture, he is in the field of mass production – or as mass as hyper-luxurious automobiles can be. He speaks of seeing the plans for a forthcoming Herzog and de Meuron building; an opera in Hamburg. He ‘was struck by their loop process; their approach to problem solving. Zooming in on detail, then out again.’ 

He further observes that while the majority of aesthetic culture in the West has tended to frown upon ornamentation, it is very much alive and glinting in the region, although tassels and golden curlicues on BMW flanks might be a way off yet.
As for the future, Habib points to ecological concerns, ‘The demand for low emission vehicles; the same with lower motor power and electric cars,’ he says. But when moving away from traditional combustion technology, the entire aesthetic of the car might change, leaving it anyone’s guess as to what the car of the future will look like.