Germans Design ‘Multi-Cellular’ Life For Vacations

For some people, camping in a 45-foot luxury coach RV is too dreary to contemplate.

The Mehrzeller's body can be customized to look like any soap bubble you can imagine.

Fortunately for them and gas refineries everywhere, a pair of German design students has created the Mehrzeller travel trailer. Its luxurious interior (HD TV, full kitchen, etc.)  is surpassed only by an exterior fit for a Tokyo art museum.

Forget about impressive (Or menacing. Your call.) blocks of aluminum and glass or shining metal blisters; the Mehrzeller trailer is a polygonal puzzle. It might be a Four Seasons take on NASA’s lunar landers. I sort of see a White Castle bag left behind by Glenn Manning, The Amazing Colossal Man.

The jumble-of-angles theme is even more pronounced inside. Random outcroppings, nooks and wall angles make the Mehrzeller feel like a Fritz Lang movie set. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, given the intended audience.

Designers Christian Freissling and Theresa Kalteis dreamed up the Mehrzeller at Graz University of Technology, as an example of mass customization.

They prefer to describe their project as multi-cellular. Buyers would use an online tool — The Configurator — to assemble predesigned pieces, or cells, until they have the look and features they want.

And though the Mehrzeller is just a concept now, its site, www.mehrzeller.com, lists about 40 “partners,” including BMW and 3M. Whether those partners are laying down cash is an open question.

Personally, I’m still stuck on Europeans vacationing in trailers. Really?

The Mehrzeller's very post-modern interior

Admittedly, that's a show-stopping rear end.

One breakfast nook/bedroom configuration.