Roadtrip in Australia

2,5 months - december/fabuary 2015

I went in Australia for an internship in the field of industrial design. After this internship, I spent a few months travelling in Australia. It was an amazing human experience and adventure to discover this country.

During this trip I researched autonomy and self-sufficiency. Most of people who travel in Australia for a long time buy or rent a van and subsequently practise self-sufficiency. Because of how vast and desolate the country is, this warrants the need for complete self sufficiency with the exception being fuel. Most of the time, the design on their vans are very clever and efficient and permit to them to be autonomous.

Travellers in Australia make use of objects that are very efficient for this kind of life: light, cheap, solar powered, weather resistant and sustainable. I studied the backpackers needs and answers they found that to be self-sustaining during their travels a lot of planning is required. For me, an efficient object is essentially born from a need.

An observation from my travels was that people tend to use what is available to them at that moment. It's the case in a lot of vans. The next stage is to continue to work and iterate a concept and eventually develop an product that is efficient and commercially viable. Studying these needs enabled me to reflect on such topics as autonomy and ultimately provided me with an alternative view of Australia.