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Recycled Airstream RV is Now Earthy and Green

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RVs are hardly the greenest of vehicles with their heavy carbon footprint — most have mileage under 9 miles to the gallon on the highway. They are surely prime targets for redemption in their afterlife.

And here’s one that in retirement from highway driving has been greened up to the most eco-conscious levels and recycled into a dwelling that is positively earthy…

Not only does Jim Gooley plan to take the Airstream entirely off-grid; producing all its own energy with solar power, but Gooley has partnered with Livingreen to detail the Airstream’s interior with all sorts of eco-conscious products:

• American Clay earth plaster walls;
• Bamboo counters and cabinets;
• Cork floor tiles throughout;
• Energy efficient LED lighting; and
• Eco-friendly fabrics and organic bed.

The renovated trailer was on display at Altbuild last weekend in Santa Monica.

This is not the first recycled trailer. Paul Villinski has also created a solar-powered, mobile artist’s studio from an old FEMA-style trailer. His Emergency Response Studio is an off-grid FEMA-style trailer that was gutted and retrofitted inside and out with everything needed to make it a zero carbon RV. But it is not an aesthetic retrofit.

By comparison with his FEMA retrofit — this green redesign is very calming.  In this repurposing of an old Airstream, Jim Gooley  has successfully counteracted the harshness that comes from too much aluminum which makes most RVs faintly nauseating places.

By contrast these earthen walls relax and sooth. And the rounded shapes are reminiscent of earthen dwellings everywhere, an ancient language of design that we all understand at the most visceral level.

By Susan Kraemer
Via Re-nest