The future of vehicle design is built in Budapest – the collaboration between Mercedes-Benz and MOME has been running for 20 years

Date: 2022.05.25
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the collaboration between Mercedes-Benz and the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (MOME), to be celebrated by the university with a grand series of events. The graduation ceremony in July will feature chief design officer of the luxury brand Gorden Wagener, who will deliver a speech, as well as inaugurate the Mobility Design Lab, the university’s new designer workshop exploring the future of transportation, together with the President of MOME Foundation.

Over the past two decades of collaboration between Mercedes-Benz and MOME, the university’s vehicle design programme has risen to the forefront globally. MOME’s students and teachers have been actively involved in the design programmes of the car brand, with a number of students first interning, and then working full-time at the design department of the company. The partnership has given outstanding specialists not only to Hungary, but the whole world: students graduating from here went on to excel at the designer teams of major automobile manufacturers such as Audi, KIA, BMW and Volvo. 

In the next 20 years, MOME will be engaged in researching and shaping the future of broader mobility, by designing drones, ships, bikes and other means of transportation in addition to cars, as well as the related user experience. The goal is to train designers with a diverse mindset and skilled in the latest technologies who can meet market needs and respond to changing social and environmental expectations.  

The Mobility Design Lab, MOME’s newly developed vehicle design studio with state-of-the-art equipment, will be opened by chief design officer of Mercedes-Benz Gorden Wagener and Chairman of MOME Foundation Gergely Böszörményi-Nagy on 1 July 2022.  

MOME’s vehicle design programme will make its debut at the AMTS (Automobile and Tuning Show), Hungary’s top car event. On the opening day of the event on 27 May 2022, head of MOME Design Institute Péter Molnár will talk about the collaboration with Mercedes-Benz as part of the exhibition Hungarians in the International Automotive Industry, while MOME’s stall will feature spectacular physical models as well as virtual representations of the latest works by students. 

MOME is changing its operational model 

Since August 2020, the 142-year-old Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (MOME), has been operating in a foundation model. As part of the model change, MOME has developed a long-term strategy, reinvented its research and development activity, launched the digitalisation of its internal processes, and proceeded to modernise training. In addition to providing a traditionally high level art and design education, the university will introduce entrepreneurial training for all of its BA students, and launch its first English-language MAs from 2022. In 2021, MOME's budget nearly quadrupled, and the foundation also decided to grant the most substantial pay rise to teachers in the history of Hungarian higher education.   

More about the AMTS’s Hungarians in the International Automotive Industry programme: https://www.amts.hu/hu/programok/magyarok-a-vilag-jarmugyartasaban-87

More news

The University of the Future initiative is a key focus this year, aimed at MOME’s comprehensive revitalisation. Thanks to persistent efforts over recent months, working groups have developed a detailed implementation plan for the University of the Future programme, a.k.a. the “Three Schools model”, which was unanimously accepted in December 2023. The process has now reached a new milestone: on 18 July, the Senate has pledged its support for the plan, paving the way for continued collaborative work to implement the new structure by next winter and to transform MOME into one of Europe's leading design higher education institutions.

Our University has been invited to exhibit at one of the world's most prestigious digital art festivals, the Ars Electronica 2024. Each year, the Campus series of the long-standing festival presents an art university. This year's exhibition is organised in collaboration with the University of Linz, and will feature outstanding student diploma works from recent years in Linz's main square selected by curators Judit Eszter Kárpáti, Esteban de la Torre, and Ágoston Nagy.

A new symbol has been added to the range of memorabilia that members of the MOME community can receive as they reach various milestones in their university careers. This new emblem, which reinforces a sense of belonging, is a turned and machined bronze item with a polished surface based on the letter ‘O’ in MOME’s logo. Designed by MOME MA teacher Krisztián Ádám at the initiative of Rector József Fülöp, this symbol will be awarded to all graduates at all levels along with the diplomas starting in 2024.
Member of the European
Network of
Innovative
Higher Education Institutions
9 Zugligeti St,
Budapest, 1121