Three-box design is a broad automotive styling term describing a coupé, sedan, notchback or hatchback where--when viewed in profile--principal volumes are articulated into three separate compartments or boxes: engine, passenger and cargo.
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 ?koda Octavia integrates a hatchback with the articulation of a three-box. This style was later used by its larger ?koda Superb, which marketed as the TwinDoor, within the liftgate operable as a trunk lid or as a full hatchback. 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--and most examples of the markedly bulbous styling of the ponton genre are three-box designs.
Video Three-box styling
One-box design
One-box, also called a monospace, mono-box or monovolume configuration, is a design that 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 Toyota Prius, Renault Espace, 1992 Renault Twingo I, Tata Nano and Japanese microvans amongst others.
Maps Three-box styling
Two-box design
Two-box designs articulate a volume for engine and a volume that combines passenger and cargo volumes, e.g., station wagons or (three or five-door) hatchbacks, and minivans like the Chrysler minivan.
See also
- Ponton styling
- Coke bottle styling
- Glossary of automotive design
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia