mtu Engine Housing

This is how an mtu 2000/4000-series engine leaves production: visible engineering, no designed surface. That was the brief, set jointly with mtu and Rolls-Royce Power Systems. The approach: input, black box, output. A shell that doesn't explain what happens inside but gives it a calm, modern surface instead of a technical one.

The first attempt was a sealed, glossy cladding with an inset mtu logo and cutouts sized to show only what had to be seen, with consumer electronics as the reference rather than mechanical engineering. The references behind the material shift deliberately skipped mechanical engineering: a see-through vintage chassis and medical products for transparency, perfume bottles for the emotional read, tubing systems for the frame.

Frame and frosted surface together, with the mtu logo still visible beneath it. But the sealed shell hid too much of what actually makes the engine what it is. The turn: a second, frosted material held by a visible frame, letting the mechanism show through without laying it bare.

In the end the frame stayed visible and the surface carried the brand, with a parametric vent grille built to repeat across the whole engine range. The small 3D-printed model existed only to check the form by hand, not to be shown off. In service, you'd barely notice: two of these engines, side by side in a yacht's engine room.