Friday, July 30, 2010

Washington State University WSU Airstream Trailer Design Project

My friend Cat told me about the Airstream project that the students at Washington State University were working on as a class project.  I decided to take a visit to see what they were up to and look at the progress the students have made to the project thus far.

As their website describes, "The WSU Airstream Studio is a Summer 2010 design build course for students of architecture and interior design at the Interdisciplinary Design Institute.

The course will focus on the design transformation of an American ICON of manufacturing–the Airstream trailer.  This transformation includes the redesign and build of interior (and perhaps exterior) components of a 1958 26’ Airstream chassis.

Design research for the studio includes a focus on ICONICITY, MOBILITY, and PRODUCT DESIGN."
Read more: http://spokane.wsu.edu/academics/Design/airstream/#ixzz0v5teZagh

Follow their progress on their Facebook Fan page HERE

I met the professor, Todd at the warehouse on campus where the Airstream is housed.  They just finished buffing the shiny exterior shell and plans for the design were laid out on a bench.  They took to the time to explain what they were doing to make it unique.  To read more about the idea behind the design and their progress, click HERE.

Meeting the students working hard on the project took me back to my college days.  It's so inspiring to see young minds developing new ideas and solutions to things when there aren't any rules.  As adults, we become more custom to why things won't work rather then thinking of new ideas on how things can be accomplished.  I look forward to following their progress in the next few months.  Thank you to Todd and the students for taking the time to meet with me and pose for the camera. 

I even pushed through my fear of heights by climbing on the scaffolding ladder (seen on right) to the top to take the image on the top right of the blog.  They kept saying, "you can get higher...go up higher."  Slowly but surely I climbed up to the top with my flip flops on to take a shot.  Very carefully I might add (as it turns out, you can see my reflection on the Airstream getting the shot).  As long as I didn't look down I was ok.  Unfortunately, I needed to look down to get off.  I don't see being a house painter in my future.