Sunday, January 10, 2010

Airstream Morphology in the 90s - Felix Cheong

In the late 1980s and early 1990s Airstream trailers went through a design change where it shifted from the sleek bullet form to a boxier outer shell. The reason for this change in style is not known but most Airstream fanatics did not like the direction that this was headed. They liked the iconic look of the classic Airstream trailers and not this new square aluminum trailer that the designers decided to paint beige. One such trailer is called the Airstream Argosy. All the airstream parks did not even allow these types of trailers into the camps. Most of these "SQUARE-STREAM" trailers fell out of popularity fairly quickly. In 3 years time they were discontinued due to general design failure and rising prices. Airstream quickly went back to their classic bullet design soon after.

This kind of shows the mentality of Airstream enthusiasts and how people see Airstreams as an icon. It's a big difference from the way that FEMA trailers are perceived compared to Airstreams. The desirability of Airstream is not only based on the idea of freedom and choice, part of it is also because of its construction and the way that it looks, or the way that it's supposed to look in the minds of people.



Information Sources:
Reasons, Don. "Airstream History." Calldon. 2007
http://www.calldon.com/air.htm (Accessed  January 10, 2010)

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