Airstream progress: Updating an American icon

 
Video by Matthew Haugen, WSU News Service
 
 

 

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SPOKANE – Take a quick video update of the progress that WSU Spokane students are making on updating and remodeling an American travel icon – the Airstream trailer.
 
The 26-foot trailer is the focus of a summer design studio led by Todd Beyreuther, a clinical assistant professor in the School of Architecture and Construction Management at Washington State University.
 
In June, six graduate students from the Interdisciplinary Design Institute at WSU Spokane were introduced to the travel industry, via a 1958 Airstream Overlander trailer. At that point, they had eight weeks to delve into the world of travel trailers and transform the interior into livable space.
 
Part of the focus of the project is to explore the sustainability issues of today’s society and to challenge the current image of the travel trailer industry. The course will concentrate on the design transformation of the Airstream’s interior components and chassis, while preserving its historic exterior character.
 
Participating in the project are master of architecture students Shona Bose, Aaron Pasquale, Jeff Smith, and Brandon Patterson, and master of interior design students Ashlee Holtman and Kait Tripp-Addison.
 
Together the students will not only redesign the trailer, but they will think about how its design can solve very global and economic issues related to mobility and living in small spaces.
 
The students have taken on the management roles of construction, marketing, social media, financing, digital modeling and manufacturing to simulate what they would normally experience on a construction project in their practicing professions.