BMW’s Hussein Al Attar Says Car Design Is Changing Forever

Car design is in for a reckoning. The field is changing fast, but the upheaval seems to suit Hussein Al Attar just fine. He’s the director of automotive design at BMW’s Designworks studio in Los Angeles, a multidisciplinary creative agency that designs everything from airline interiors to boats, trophies, digital experiences, and yes — cars. In Toronto, sitting in the cabin of BMW’s brand new iX3 “Neue Klasse” EV, we recently met up with Al Attar to talk about creativity, Donald Glover, fashion and architecture. Read on to learn what he’s spending his money on these days — and how BMW has completely changed the way its cars are conceived.

How did you get to design cars for a living?

I’m basically doing my dream job that I wanted as a kid. I started drawing everything, and then cars stuck. Maybe it comes from my dad, who was very enthusiastic about cars back in Iraq. I started drawing cars that didn’t exist, and I didn’t even know that was a job you could do. I didn’t even know it was called design. That started when I was five or six.

You were born in Basra, grew up in Baghdad, then moved to Libya, and finally landed in Germany as a teenager. When did your dream job designing cars start to feel possible?

It was such an impossible dream. There’s no car industry in Iraq or Libya. I was thinking about alternatives — maybe architecture, maybe art — but never car design as a profession. Then we ended up in Germany, and that dream became tangible. I did research on what you have to do, and my first job out of university was at BMW.

You’ve been at BMW for 14 years. What are some of the cars you’ve shaped?

The main projects were the M2, the F87, so the predecessor to the current one. The current-generation X6, and the BMW 6 GT. Then when I moved to Designworks LA, the most significant project was our Le Mans endurance race car, the M hybrid V8.

How has your creative taste evolved over those 14 years?

My taste definitely developed in everything else that inspires me. I always try to find connections between creative disciplines: filmmaking, music, architecture, fashion. Whether you’re telling a story or designing a car or writing music, there is self-expression that needs to be crystallised into a final shape. My creative quest has been to understand that core essence.

“I don’t think the future of a creative is to be an expert or a specialist. I think it’s to be a generalist, to understand that invisible structure that connects everything.”Hussein Al Attar

Yes, I feel like car design is at its best when it’s not siloed. So, is there someone or something that embodies this boundaryless creative ideal for you?

Someone like Donald Glover. Whatever he touches, it feels like he’s been doing it for a while. The first time I heard of him was as a comedy actor in Community. Then all of a sudden he’s working on an album, and you listen to it: amazing! Then he has this show called Atlanta, and you’re like, ‘how is this so good?’ That kind of talent and expression is really fascinating…. I don’t want to see him with a pen trying to design a car, because that might be a very depressing experience for me.

Do you think the future for creatives is going to broad and multidisciplinary like that?

I don’t think the future of a creative is to be an expert or a specialist. I think it’s to be a generalist, to understand that invisible structure that connects everything. My goal is to be able to have those conversations so I can learn a little bit more and see how I can use that to further my own creative endeavours.

Your approach kind of aligns with Jony Ive’s critique of modern car design, which was that the field is too specialized: one team does the software, another does the dashboard, etc.. The result is that, in his view, modern cars lack a cohesive experience. What do you think?

That was really the goal with this car, the iX3, to look at it from a more holistic perspective. The approach for the Neue Klasse [BMW’s next-generation vehicles] is to really look at everything at the same time and try to come up with solutions. We literally changed the mindset of how we develop our cars by bringing people together, literally, physically putting people in the same room. If the aerodynamicist has a certain requirement, but the ergonomics engineer has a different requirement, they’re now sitting in the same room so they can work with the designers and engineers together to figure it out. I mean it just accelerates everything. It’s really a complete mindset shift.

“I’m seeing architecture that’s not just a copy of what’s happening in the West. There’s a very strong movement by creatives in the region creating their own aesthetic based on Middle Eastern and Arab art — ornaments, calligraphy — all interpreted in a very modern way.”Hussein Al Attar

How does this radical new holistic approach to car design translate to the real world, for drivers, on the road?

You can see it: how clean the iX3’s design is on the outside and how it corresponds with the interior design or vice versa. It’s the same also with our infotainment system, and the overall experience. That’s a good keyword —  maybe it was a buzzword for a few years — but experience is really at the core of everything.

Experience is tricky. It can’t be described in usual car terms like horsepower and torque.

Experience is a very amorphous concept. It’s not very clear what it can mean. But, yes, it’s a feeling. It’s very hard to design a feeling but we really tried our best to get there. I think what we’ve done here was… I feel like we got very close to it. You see and drive the iX3 and you feel like, ‘Oh! This is new. This is different. This is a different animal. This is a new era.’

What are you excited about in design right now, outside of cars?

Something I’m really excited about is what’s happening in architecture and graphic design in the Middle East. As a kid, nobody around me knew about design. But now I’m seeing architecture that’s not just a copy of what’s happening in the West. There’s a very strong movement by creatives in the region creating their own aesthetic based on Middle Eastern and Arab art — ornaments, calligraphy — all interpreted in a very modern way.

Last one: outside of work, what are you into? What are you splashing out on?

Fashion, definitely. Film. Sneakers for a while, not as much anymore. I struggle with the car-guy label. I look at cars almost like sculptures: movable art, mobile architecture. That allows me to draw inspiration from other fields. Right now, I’m really into Issey Miyake and a new UK brand called House of Errors; they do very interesting things with knit and soft denim. It’s streetwear but very artistic. What I look for is a strong visual identity, something where I can see a vision behind it. Someone’s personality is in that, and I can see it, and I can understand how that person thinks. That, to me, is very fascinating.

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