Now that I have answered the question of why a Teardrop Camper, I will describe how it happens – beginning with this post about the design process.
As an architect, I thought if I can design a building, certainly I can design a teardrop-styled camper. The process is much the same and begins with a phase known in architecture as design program development. Most design programs respond to a client’s set of criteria, and in this case, Janiece and I are the client. With my last camping experience decades ago, I needed to refresh my understanding of the subject and research others’ experiences, particularly with respect to teardrop campers. While researching, I fell in love with several campers I saw, each with attributes that appealed to me. However, after distilling this collection of teardrops, I realized that no one of them was a perfect solution for us.
Research led me to the realization that I needed to start from nothing, and design and build a teardrop camper in response to our needs. Thus, I conceived of the Tallgrass, a teardrop-styled overland camper, and my design began.
Where am I going to build the Tallgrass?
Where will I store it?
Our garage, the first garage we’ve ever owned, has three bays and was the obvious solution to both concerns. With that decision, the physical restraints for the width and height of the trailer were determined by the garage door opening. The trailer’s length was arrived at through the accrual of key features, including the physical length of the storage bay, the length of a queen-sized mattress and some shelving, and the depth of a galley kitchen area at the rear of the camper. I decided to use a standard utility trailer kit which could be assembled without welding and purchased a 5’ x 8’ heavy duty kit at Northern Tool. I’ll discuss this in more detail in a future post.
From an aesthetics standpoint, most of the teardrop campers I’d researched did not appeal to me. I found them awkward in profile – lacking in elegance of line – and missing the feeling of spaciousness inside the cabin. Also, the design of many teardrops did not reflect an understanding of how to create the most desirable relationships between several differing radii, to develop perfect tangency. A design which incorporates these calculations will result in a fluid elegance, shown in the sketch below.
In my design of the Tallgrass, I also wanted to speak metaphorically to the early settlers crossing the prairies as they made their way westward. Their mode of transport, the covered wagon, was a bed on wheels with cooking to the rear.
These wagons made of wood exhibited a panelized type of construction, with lines both functional and aesthetically pleasing.
Similarly, the “Woody” station wagon of the 1930’s, the same era as the first teardrops, incorporates a patterning of wood on the exterior and has always been appealing to my eye.
I wanted the design to incorporate components I’d selected from various vintage autos, like Ford, Pontiac, Lincoln, Chevrolet. This approach was satisfying, in that it represented the same way I built my first car many decades ago.
For the cabin’s interior, I felt it was important to achieve the appearance of spaciousness. As I mentioned before, I felt many of the other teardrop designs fell short of successfully addressing the sense of space within. Through choice of color, windows, patterns, and trim lines, I have worked to create an illusion of a space larger than it is, in reality. As an example of how this is accomplished, think of a television anchor desk, and how scale is manipulated through the use of horizontal elements, accentuating the length and narrowing the apparent height of the desk, placed before a backdrop casting a spacious scene. Together, this results in the appearance of space.
It has taken four months to design the Tallgrass, as I experimented at length with different ways to achieve the criteria discussed in this post. Now, I have fully developed plans and have begun construction.
Here are a few images of the final design.
Though the overall design is in place, I will continue to refine and make additions during construction. In future posts, I’ll elaborate on other considerations of design, as well as what happens during construction of the Tallgrass. I’ll also share process and progress images.
Thank you for your interest in my design and construction of the Tallgrass teardrop camper!
Stay tuned for more . . .
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