Motorscooters scare me.
The tiny wheels and see-through frame, along with the underpowered engine and brakes make a Vespa seem like a death wagon. Or maybe it’s the flip-flop wearing riders who just seem to be asking for a painful encounter with the road surface. Ironically I have no issues tooling about on a big fucking BMW or Harley motorcycle; they are the Mack trucks of two wheelers (as opposed to the Smart Car scooters) and I feel quite safe. But I am personally more like the big bikes than a petite scooter, so call it bio-identification, or bio-sympathy.
But Boxx is an entirely different matter. More like riding a big slab of bread than slipping into a sculpted Vespa, the Boxx projects a sense of humor and solidity that completely seduces me. The shipping crate ready little…box is the Braun clock of motorscooters. I can imagine Deiter Rams on one of these as easily as I can see him popping a John Cage vinyl album on one of his iconic turntables. Boxx is the ultimate token of cool modernity in a product known for a more shapely, if referential, form.
But not all boxxes are created equal, though both of these are all-electric and alarmingly Platonic. The Moto-undone takes a ‘let’s make it mirror glass so the building just disappears’ approach to cubic style. This mirrored crate is intended to be invisible, leaving the rider floating above the ground at top speed. A bit like the original Star Wars speeder bikes, which ‘floated’ above the ground in a pre-digital mirror (see above) or cloud of dust concealing the wheels.
Mirror glass buildings were always a ridiculous conceit. Honestly? They simply disappear? The intention is quite the opposite, just as a diamond ring is not intended to evaporate or a silver tea service to diminish to nothing. As the Anish Kapoor bean in Chicago proves, the intention is luxe, rich, polished and expensive. The disappearing trick is rarely accomplished by architecture but an interesting way to sell an idea to a gullible architectural review board.
And so the Moto-undone is quite the same; an exquisite take on rolling geometry. But which is, in the end, more successful? I would rather admit the importance of design and ride a Boxx than pretend I can make it disappear like the Moto-undone.
Plus, think of the fingerprints.
