The primary user is a specialist ambulance nurse, trained for critical care, currently made passive at the road end. The moodboard that shaped the vehicle's visual language: tent structures, cracked ice, the geometric contrast of nordic mountain terrain. Form derived from the world the vehicle belongs to.
Land Rover 365
Degree Project
2026
Land Rover 365 is a purpose-designed rescue vehicle for pre-hospital care in remote mountain terrain, developed with Land Rover and Region Västerbotten as part of an MFA in Transportation Design at Umeå Institute of Design. The project addresses a clear gap in mountain emergency response. When helicopters are grounded and road ambulances reach their limit, medical teams are stopped, fully equipped yet unable to reach the patient. This can mean hours without clinical contact and transport in vehicles not designed for trauma care. Grounded in nine expert interviews across mountain rescue, clinical ambulance, disaster medicine, and rural healthcare, the proposal builds on operational evidence. Each design decision responds directly to identified needs. Land Rover 365 bridges this gap. Road-legal and terrain-capable, it departs from the hospital, travels at road speed, then continues beyond the road end without transfer. At 3.3 metres long with minimal overhang, it navigates narrow tracks while maximising interior space. A reconfigurable wheel system shifts from circular to triangular track geometry for stability on soft ground. Magnetorheological dampers read terrain and protect patients from impact. Inside, a standard ALS stretcher is positioned longitudinally with full clinician access on both sides. A pop-up roof extends from 2.0 to 2.5 metres, enabling on-site treatment. The lime yellow cross-frame functions as rollover protection, medical symbol, and terrain marker. The interior is designed to support patient wellbeing from the outset. Unlike helicopters, Land Rover 365 operates year-round, regardless of conditions. A proposal for wherever mountains begin and the road ends.
In collaboration with:
UID26 | Josephine Samuelsson Wahl – Grad project presentation
The chosen design direction. The triangular geometry found in cracked ice became the formal foundation of the entire vehicle, a shape derived from the terrain, not imposed onto it.
The lime yellow cross-geometry frame reads immediately as medical before any detail is visible. The dark anthracite body communicates authority without aggression. The triangular wheels communicate terrain capability without explanation.
The rear bumper folds down to create a loading ramp, reducing the lift height and allowing two crew members to load a patient smoothly without strain or instability. The loading sequence is designed for two people, in terrain, under pressure.
Ground clearance and magnetorheological suspension working together. The vehicle reads the terrain ahead through LiDAR and continuously adjusts the damper system, absorbing impact before it reaches the stretcher. The forest is not an obstacle. It is the operational environment.
From alarm to hospital in four stages. Dispatch from base. LiDAR scanning terrain ahead and feeding real-time data to the damper system. Wheels reconfiguring from circular road geometry to triangular track mode as the vehicle enters soft ground. Patient loaded through the rear door directly onto the longitudinal stretcher.
At scene, the roof extends from 2.0 to 2.5 metres, giving the clinician full standing height to perform CPR, airway management and IV access. The same protected clinical environment that began at the hospital continues here, two kilometres past the road end.
Trained medical personnel at first scene able to assess, stabilise and prepare the patient for loading, without waiting for a handover or a second vehicle. The clinical chain begins here, not at the road end.
Land Rover 365. A rescue vehicle for pre-hospital care, every day, regardless of weather, terrain, or helicopter availability. Designed in collaboration with Land Rover.
The medical zone is designed around one clinical requirement, full access to the patient on both sides throughout the entire journey. The clinician is never crouching, never reaching over, never compromised by the vehicle's movement. The stretcher is loaded longitudinally. The interior is the treatment environment.
