Three-box design is a broad automotive styling term describing a sedan, coupé, notchback or hatchback where — when viewed in profile — principle volumes are articulated into three separate compartments or boxes: engine, passenger and cargo.[1]
Three-box designs are highly variable. The Renault Dauphine is a three-box that carries its engine in the rear and its cargo up front. The styling of the 2008 Škoda Superb integrates a hatchback with sufficient articulation to still be called a three-box. As with the third generation European Ford Escort (also a hatchback), the third box may be vestigial. And three-box styling need not be boxy: Car Design News calls the fluid and rounded Fiat Linea a three-box design[2] — and most examples of the markedly rounded, full styling of the ponton genre are three-box designs.
One-box and Two-Box
Designs that articulate two major volumes, such as station wagons or (three or five-door) hatchbacks with no articulated third compartment are two-box designs.[3] [4]
A one-box design pulls the base of a vehicle's A-pillars forward, softening any distinction between separate volumes and enclosing the entire interior of a vehicle in a single form — as with the 1992 Renault Twingo, third generation Chrysler minivan or Tata Nano.
See also
References
- ^ "Car Design Glossary - Part 2: One-Box (Monospace or Monovolume)". Car Design News.
The principal volumes of the traditional sedan can be split into separate compartments or boxes: the hood/bonnet is the first box; the passenger compartment the second, and the trunk/boot the third - i.e. it's a 'three-box' car.
- ^ "Fiat Linea". Car Design News.
- ^ "Car Design Glossary - Part 2: One-Box (Monospace or Monovolume)". Car Design News.
A three or five-door hatchback (no separate trunk compartment) is a 'two-box' car.
- ^ Mike Mueller (2003). American Cars of the '50s. Crestline Imprints. ISBN 0760317127.