If there is one thing kids really want to do, it’s to drive a car just like mom and dad. Inversely, if there’s one thing a lot of grown-ups wish they could do now, it’s to return to the simplicity of childhood and play in a cardboard box. The full-scale cardboard Karoq SUV by British designer Liam Hopkins of creative studio Lazerian just might cover both.
Commissioned by UK car manufacturer ŠKODA, it’s set to coincide with the launch of the real-life Karoq. Unlike the actual mid-size SUV, the cardboard version takes its inspiration from 1000+ suggestions from kids who gave their input on what they’d like to see in a car. Combine this with a child’s natural love for cardboard (which seems to be instinctive), and you have a crazy corrugated replica that houses everything a kid (or adult) could want.
Among other design decisions chosen by the designers-in-training? A game console, a dashboard tablet (naturally, it plays a selection of kids music), onboard Wi-Fi, and a film projector for searching and binging Netflix on-the-go. Not bad! For kids who prefer to make their car rides more of a physical activity, the car also comes with a disco ball, a slide, and ball pitt in the back. (YES!) Finally, bean bag chairs and a toy box round out the rest of the activities. Finally, the bonnet of the engine-less cardboard car comes with spyholes, ya know, so kids can hide themselves and spy on any would-be cardboard car-jacker. You’ll never hear “are we there yet?” in a car like this.
How was it made? That’s an even cooler story. The entire automobile was built from scratch, taking over 600 hours across ten weeks to create. Painstakingly measured, cut on a CNC, size, matched, cut and glued. All the pieces were built over a full-scale model (for structural support, of course) with attention given to the details provided by the children. The size of the real-world Karoq is 14.5 feet wide x 5.25 feet wide (4.4 meters and 1.6 meters), so you can imagine translating it into cardboard form while maintaining those accurate vehicular proportions was likely no easy task.
Sadly, this cardboard version won’t be made available for children or drivers ed courses, but you can see more of the design process over at Lazerian.