Design concept of the day: NAU Ecco

Here’s a camper van for a Bank Holiday weekend. Design collective NAU – a loose collaboration of creative types with offices in the US, Zurich and Berlin – has come up with the Ecco, described as “a leap ahead of the original VW camper van”. It’s an aerodynamic teardrop-shaped low-rider on the road, but when parked up, it grows vertically to gain a sleeping loft, and its roof fans out in a far superior way to the old Westfalia pop-top awnings, thanks to expanding membranes. It’s electrically-driven, with built-in solar panels and quick-charge technology, plus a solar ‘sail’ to capture the maximum rays. Picture gallery and diagrams at the NAU website (I’m also liking the Stratocruiser ‘lifestyle zeppelin’). Thanks to Inhabitat.com.

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