Page 5 - AIT1019_VolvoXC40

SERIEN ARCHITEKTUR UND AUTO • ARCHITECTURE AND AUTOMOBILE

A ugust 2019: Having found a parking space for our good Volvo, we are sitting on a
café terrace on the Middle Rhine. Everything is actually as he had imagined it, Ro-
drigo is pleased; behind us the ruin of a castle and a Gothic chapel; in front of us the
river; on the opposite shore vineyards and rocks. Only the sound does not fit the picture
– every few minutes, trains pass along both banks; behind us on the B 9, coaches and
motorhomes are rolling past. I think of Lord Byron who was here 200 years before us,
maybe in the same spot; his ears still heard the stream rushing past. Even before Lord
Byron, Madame de Staël had travelled through. De Staël and Byron sparked a downright
Germany hype which attracted above all the English to the country – particularly, howe-
ver, to the Rhine, the number one landscape of longing in the early 19th century. Turner
still made the journey on foot; Victor Hugo went upstream on a steam-powered boat, at
the time the most modern means of transport on the Rhine. We arrived on four wheels,
with the Volvo XC40, a compact SUV with upscale equipment. In Koblenz, we left the car
and took the funicular diagonally across the river and high above the ships. I had asked
Rodrigo where to go in Germany and he wanted to head to the west he was still not very
familiar with. He had never been at the Rhine and thus we drove there.

The car never disappointed us

As an antidote to the touristy cliché, we then went north to a famous “folded mountain”
of cast concrete. We visited Gottfried Böhm’s magnificent pilgrimage church in Neviges
from the 1960s. In Essen, we parked the Volvo at Zeche Zollverein, formerly one of the
most modern coal mines on the Ruhr River, today a cultural centre and a UNESCO World
Heritage Site. At the periphery of the grounds we are welcomed by SANAA’s concrete
cube, playfully penetrated by small and large square windows. Next to it stand the cubic
halls of the former mine. Their external walls are covered by the grid of the steel lattice
Auf nach Tirol: Der XC40 probt Offroad-Kompetenzen. • Off to Tyrol: XC40 proves off-road skills which somewhat reminds of the buildings designed by Mies van der Rohe in Chicago a
bit later. Everything is topped by the skeleton of the former shaft tower. A rough indu-
strial landscape of which, however, only images remain. It is paradox but on the Rhine
so romantically sung about there was often permanent noise; for Zeche Zollverein, one
Angekommen – im Ferienhaus von Paul Schmitthenner • Arrived – at Schmitthenner’s holiday home has to mentally add the rattling of the machines and the whistling of the sirens as well.
The buildings and the rust-red steel skeletons rest silently in the afternoon sun. The
tracks of the industrial railway are covered with concrete slabs and have become bicycle
paths. We spent the second week in Tyrol – in the holiday home which the architect Paul
Schmitthenner had built for himself and his family in 1932 (AIT 6.2018, pp. 64-68). The
Volvo XC40 took us almost to the door yet the last 50 metres had to be covered on foot
through steeply sloping fir forest. The car never disappointed us: The seats are comfor-
table, it runs quietly and quickly, subtle assistance systems increase the safety. On the
mountainous forest path which is the only way to get to Schmitthenner’s house, I had
the feeling that this is where the car belongs, this youngest member in the series of
Volvo offroaders. In the cities we visited, it only had to climb curb stones and the upper
levels of car parks. If one there had the bad luck of only finding a parking space between
SUVs, getting in and out of the car was only possible with contortions.

Longings for prairies and adventures

The Neue Zürcher Zeitung recently put it in a nutshell: “There are hardly any mountains
Neugierig beäugt von der heimischen Tierwelt. • Curiously eyed by the local wildlife in Berlin. But everyone is driving an SUV.” It is no secret: Not logical reasoning but lon-
gings for prairies and adventures are decisive when buying this kind of car. The longings
are also satisfied by the moderately less chunky Volvo XC40. We recall: In the 1990s, the
SUV hype started in North America, reached Europe and later China as well. With the
spread of overweight in the population, the cars also started to get fatter. The current
Porsche Cayenne weighs up to two and a half tonnes. In 2002, Volvo put its first SUV on
the market. This was the start of the XC90 series, the elephants at Volvo. The XC40 is
also available as an SUV in the Volvo product range but as a “premium compact” with
24 percent less empty weight compared with the “elephants”. “Look here, we shrunk
the car” is Volvo’s current message to the public which has turned greener. You guys at
Volvo, that’s still not enough! Just for comparison’s sake, my first car – it was a Renault
4 – weighed when it was empty no more than 750 kilogrammes. We are here at AIT and
not at Auto-Bild where they have never had a problem with the trend towards obese
monsters. What environmentally responsible mobility will look like 50 years from now
…. I cannot predict it. But one thing is certain, if you want keep the massive cars, not
only are electric cars needed but the weight has to be very much decreased.

050 • AIT 10.2019