An exhibition at London's V&A museum looks at the car as "a designed object", charting its 130 year-long impact on global culture from fashion and furniture to mass production and the built environment.
From the first-ever production car, the 1888 Benz Patent Motorwagen 3, to the 2017 Pop.Up Next flying car designed by Airbus and Italdesign, the V&A has brought together a vast collection of vehicles never before displayed in the UK.
Opening to the public on Saturday, Cars: Accelerating the Modern World sees 15 cars and 250 objects displayed across three main sections ? Going Fast, Making More and Shaping Space.
Each of the items in these three zones represent different ways that the car has changed how we live, including how our relationship to speed has inspired visual culture, and how changing landscapes have impacted consumer habits.
As V&A curator Brendan Cormier told Dezeen, he and fellow curators Lizzie Bisley and Esme Hawes wanted to create a show that didn't look at the design of the car, but rather focused on the car as a designed object and "an agent of change" that has shaped the world.
"The V&A's mission is to champion the power of design to change the world, and no other design object has impacted the world more than the automobile," said Cormier.
"This exhibition is about the power of design to effect change, and the unintended consequences that have contributed to our current environmental situation," h...