Elegance
Flowing attack and decay become continuous curves, without abrupt breaks.
04 / Bachelor thesisSound × Transportation design
A Frozen
Sound.
What if a brand’s identity
began with a sound?
A sound-first design exploration: one acoustic identity expressed through two driving states and a continuous physical form. Field recording, composition and exterior design meet in an electric boat concept.
01 / The premiseIdentity you hear.
Identity you hear.
Identity you see.
Before drawing the object, I explore how the brand should feel. Sound becomes the starting point for its physical expression.
For this BMW ALPINA brand exploration, elegance, performance, exclusivity and serenity guide the acoustic and visual decisions. A shared sound palette connects the calm of an idle state with the energy of driving; the same material informs the hull’s surfaces and proportions.
The branding opportunity is coherence: what a product sounds like, how it feels in use and what it looks like can grow from the same idea. The thesis develops this idea through an electric boat concept. Synesthesia, Kandinsky, the Wave Organ and Pinuccio Sciola informed the research.
Brand character→Acoustic identity→Driving experience→Physical form
02 / Listening in SardiniaThe place
The place
inside the sound.
Stone, wind and water form one acoustic signature.
I travelled to San Sperate to record Sciola’s sound stones. Their metallic, glass-like resonance suggested light glittering on water. My field recordings of wind in Sant’Anna Arresi and water in Porto Pino complete the palette.
Sound stones · San Sperate
Original recordings included in the thesis. Select a source, then press play.
The same seven notesTwo states.
Two states.
One sound identity.
The tonal centre shifts from F minor at rest to A-flat major in motion. The pitch collection stays the same; its emotional centre changes.
FGA♭B♭CD♭E♭
Calm, grounded and quietly powerful. A moment of suspension before movement.
Harmonic source material credited to Yannis Armbruster in the presentation.
A sound,
held in space.
The tool samples a sound over its full duration and translates its changing properties into a controlled geometric system.
The hull develops along time, from bow to stern. Each new moment contributes another section. When the sound ends, a closed form retains the progression of the recording.
01
Listen across time
The complete recording is considered at short intervals, capturing loudness, frequency and spectral change throughout its duration.
LoudnessLongitudinal length
BassHull depth
Spectral centroidSubtle asymmetry
BandwidthSecondary surface
Design mappings defined in the thesis. These are choices within the design method, rather than universal rules linking sound and form.
The tool / In useFrom sound
From sound
to form.
Watch the program in action: sound becomes the starting point for a changing three-dimensional form.
Explore the original form studiesSeven notes.
Seven notes.
Seven expressions.
Select a note to compare the forms presented in the thesis. These are the original study images, not a live sound generator.
Two chords.
One continuous volume.
The F-minor and A-flat-major chords define two driving states. Their forms come together as a single volume.
At rest, F minor gives the concept a calm, grounded character. In motion, A-flat major opens that character into a flowing expression. Bringing the two together creates a connected exterior and interior — one physical identity holding both states.
Inside and outside
merge seamlessly.
Performance
Amplitude dynamics become tension in the hull: acoustic energy translated into geometry.
Exclusivity
A personal acoustic signature gives the form its own starting point and character.
Serenity
Muted, low-frequency bands inform a quieter, more concentrated interior.
Acoustic structure.
Design judgement.
The generated studies become material for sketching, proportion and surface development.
The thesis explores flowing attack and decay as elegance, amplitude dynamics as hull tension and a personal sound signature as identity. Sketch pages develop these principles through silhouettes, proportions and surface details.
The final conceptA continuous
A continuous
sculpted hull.
The final proposal carries the acoustic idea into its surfaces and details. The concept also explores airflow entering at the bow and a sound-producing outlet at the stern, taking inspiration from Sciola’s stones.
Sciola’s stones principleLow-frequency
Low-frequency
output.
Air enters at the bow. Sound emerges at the stern.
The concept brings the sounding-stone principle into the boat itself. An intake at the bow guides air towards the rear outlet, exploring a natural acoustic expression as part of the exterior design.
The concept in contextSame waters.
Same waters.
A deeper frequency.
The presentation places the concept on a route from Porto Cervo through the Lavezzi islands to Cavallo. This final graphic connects the boat’s identity with its Mediterranean setting.
Explore the concept specifications
Proposed specifications from the thesis, not measured production performance. Dimensions with inconsistent unit conversions in the presentation are omitted.
- Length
- 13.40 m / 44 ft
- Electric propulsion
- 2 × 120 kW
- Battery capacity
- Approx. 340 kWh
- Maximum speed target
- 32 kn
- Cruising speed target
- 22 kn
- Range at cruising speed target
- 65 nm
- Passenger capacity
- 5
05 / The filmA Frozen Sound
A Frozen Sound
in motion.
The complete animation brings the sound, place and final design together.
Sound can be
a place to begin.
This thesis brings my work in sound and transportation design into one process: listening, translating and shaping. The result is a design exploration of how an invisible experience can become a physical identity.
Thesis, exterior design & sound exploration
Matteo Just
Sound-stone inspiration
Pinuccio Sciola
Harmonic source material
Yannis Armbruster
An academic concept developed in the BMW ALPINA brand context. Text, studies and imagery adapted from Matteo Just’s “A Frozen Sound” thesis presentation.
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