Stuttgart, Germany – Mercedes-Benz is moving its Southern California advanced design studio from Irvine to a larger, newly-acquired facility near Carlsbad, south of Los Angeles, in order to strengthen its creative base in the U.S. The new studio is almost three times larger than the Irvine location and has enough space for the construction of 1:1 models, something that was not possible at the previous studio.

Mercedes-Benz opened its first advanced design studio in the U.S. in Irvine in 1990. It has similar studios in Como, Tokyo and Sindelfingen. The move to the new centre will begin in July.

“The substantial enlargement of our design studio in California bears testament to the growing importance of design at Mercedes-Benz,” said Gorden Wagener, head of Strategic Advanced Design. “With our studios in California, Tokyo and Como, we have established a creative basis for important markets. They function as our seismograph for influences emerging from art, culture and architecture.”