The focus of my master’s thesis is to establish sustainability principles for the design of caravans, based on a practical analysis of wear and tear on various caravan components.
The company I collaborated with is one of the leading manufacturers of recreational vehicles and carries a strong responsibility for integrating sustainability into its product design — a commitment that is also supported by user research.
Based on my observations and experience with recreational vehicles, I initially hypothesized that the interior of caravans tends to wear out and change more over time than the exterior, which remains largely consistent even across newer generations. I therefore assumed that a simple and standardized system for interior replacement could help maintain both full functionality and a modern appearance, ultimately extending the lifespan of the caravans.
However, my research disproved this hypothesis. The difference in how much interior and exterior elements wear down turned out to be negligible. In reality, both types of components exhibit highly specific patterns of wear, and replacing them is often technically complex. Because of this, developing a simple, unified replacement system would be difficult.
Instead, I tackled the issue of component degradation by addressing it on three different levels of intervention. Based on this approach, I developed three core principles that can serve as sustainability-driven guidelines for designing future generations of caravans.
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