RENOWNED German designer Luigi Colani, who is in Shenzhen to attend the International Cultural Industry Fair (ICIF), was a bit surprised to see a Schimmel/Colani Pegasus grand piano in the city on Saturday afternoon (May 18).

THE 1.8-million-yuan (US$230,000) piano, which was designed by him, takes center stage in the lobby of the InterContinental Hotel in the Overseas Chinese Town.

"The Chinese people are keen to pursuit beauty and willing to pay generously for something different, with their purse swelling in a fast growing economy," he said.

Colani signed his name on his instrument. "I hand carved the Pegasus, a flying horse in the Greek mythology, on top of the piano hood," he said.

The bright-red piano, one of the only 10 ever produced, incorporates the flowing lines of a Ferrari car in its design. The bench, the cabinet and the pedestal are integrated with each other. It is 311 centimeters long, 162 centimeters wide and 112 centimeters high, and weighs 580 kilograms. High-tech materials and manufacturing techniques similar to those used in the aircraft and automobile industries have been used to create it.

"Traditional pianos have the pianist sit on a separate bench. The only contact between the players and the music instrument is between their fingers and the keyboard. My piano is a complete whole piece, where the music flows from the cabinet through the mind of the player, cheering and inspiring the player more keenly," he said.

The use of curves is visible in Colani's designs, from his automobiles, gliders and furniture to more mundane items.

"The earth is round, all the heavenly bodies are round; they all move on round or elliptical orbits. This same image of circular globe-shaped mini worlds orbiting around each other follows us right down to the microcosmos. We are even aroused by round forms in species propagation related eroticism. Why should I join the straying mass who want to make everything angular? I am going to pursue Galileo's philosophy: my world is also round," the designer said.

Born in Berlin in 1928, he began working as a designer in Paris in the early 1950s, focusing at first on automobile design.

Colani, who is a professor at Tongji University in Shanghai, also designs watches for local company Fiyta. He has designed products for Alpha Romeo, Lancia, BMW, Boeing, and Canon.

Editor: Wing