When you think of recreational vehicles, you may picture a sleek Airstream. And when you think of architects, you may think of 20th-century design icon Frank Lloyd Wright. So, in a way, it makes sense that Airstream partnered with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation on a recreational trailer.
Dubbed the “Usonian Limited Edition Travel Trailer,” the towable design looks like a classic silver Airstream from the outside: Wrapped in stainless steel and aluminum, the trailer is just over 28 feet long and nearly 9 feet wide, with window awnings that a user can lower and raise until they protrude like elephant ears. But it’s the Airstream’s interior that boasts much of its Wright-inspired features.
Inspired directly by Wright’s Usonian period, which followed his turn-of-the-century Prairie-style work, the trailer’s interior captures the warm-wood tones and horizontal forms that give midcentury design its distinctive look. Its entrance features a “Gordon Leaf” mural, which Wright asked his apprentice Eugene Masselink to develop in 1956. Rendered in muted tones, the mural’s curving forms also appear in the unit’s sconces, on its walls, and in its cabinet hardware, helping “create the sense of fluidity and continuity from interior to exterior that you see across all of Wright’s work, Henry Hendrix, foundation vice president said in a press release co-released with Airstream.
Usonia sleeping quarters and a never-before-built kitchen
Four-person sleeping quarters — two twin beds that convert into a king-size option — rest at the trailer’s rear hatch. That hatch pops open and usually features an Airstream’s dinette, but transforming it into the sleeping area echoes a Usonian obsession with maximizing views of the natural world.
Daylight that spills into the unit through its many windows — the design team relocated some overhead storage to expand fenestration options — offers another manifestation of the Usonian naturalistic focus. Some of those windows are even portholes, pulling from Wright’s affinity for circles.
The trailer also has subtler treasures for Wright-fanatics: Its kitchen comes directly from an unbuilt design in the architect’s 1939 archives, and the colors (think tawny browns, clay reds, and turquoise) and materials in the trailer are part of a Martin-Senour paint collection Wright curated in 1955. For buyers that want to juice up the trailer’s Usonian aesthetic, Airstream and the FLW Foundation also created an accompanying home goods line that includes pillows, a blanket, a charcuterie board, and coasters.
The trailer is, of course, limited edition and part of a 200-unit run, Airstream said. Priced at $184,900, the unit costs much less than a Wright-designed home you might find on the market, but it’s a chunk more than the “Classic” Airstream, which sleeps five and starts at $179,900, and its “Globetrotter,” which sleeps six and starts at $132,000.