ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Christopher C. Deam - Designer
A fascination with clean lines, modern materials and tiny houses made Christopher C. Deam the perfect designer to rethink the Airstream trailer right down to its aluminum skin.

Why you should listen

Looking at his work, with its clean, swooping lines and elegant economy of movement, it's easy to guess that Christopher C. Deam is a surfer. His designs for spaces and furniture are light and clear and thoughtful, unleashed by modern materials and anchored in old-fashioned craftsmanship.

Deam's work came to national attention with his remodel of the iconic Airstream trailer, a project for the laminate maker Wilsonart -- a sweet-spot project that fired the design world's love of modular and small homes. (In 2009, it's hard to realize how radical this little trailer looked in 2000, during the heyday of the megamansion.) His other design work includes designs for Target, Herman Miller and many other manufacturers, as well as an architectural practice.

More profile about the speaker
Christopher C. Deam | Speaker | TED.com
TED2002

Christopher C. Deam: The Airstream, restyled

Christopher Deam redesenha o Airstream

Filmed:
340,193 views

Nesta palestra discreta e cheia de imagens realizada em 2002, o designer Christopher C. Deam fala sobre a transformação de um clássico americano: o trailer Airstream.
- Designer
A fascination with clean lines, modern materials and tiny houses made Christopher C. Deam the perfect designer to rethink the Airstream trailer right down to its aluminum skin. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:12
I was asked by Wilsonart International,
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Fui contactado pela Wilsonart International,
00:16
a plastic laminate company, which is
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uma empresa de laminados plásticos que é
00:19
the largest plastic laminate company in the world --
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a maior do setor no mundo todo,
00:21
they asked me to design
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e eles pediram que eu projetasse
00:25
a trade show booth
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um estande de exibição
00:27
for exhibition at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair
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para ser usado na Feira Internacional de Mobiliário Contemporâneo
00:31
in New York, in 2000.
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de Nova Iorque em 2000.
00:33
So looking at their three main markets
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Ao observar os três maiores mercados
00:37
for their product which were basically
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dos seus produtos, que eram, basicamente,
00:40
transportation design,
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design de transportes,
00:43
interiors and furniture,
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interiores e móveis,
00:46
we came up with the solution of taking
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pensamos na solução que foi pegar
00:48
an old Airstream trailer and gutting it,
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um antigo trailer Airstream, dissecá-lo
00:51
and trying to portray laminate,
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e tentar expor os laminados
00:54
and a trailer, in kind of a
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e o trailer, em uma espécie de
00:56
fresh, new contemporary look.
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visão rejuvenescida e contemporânea.
00:58
When this trailer showed up at my shop
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Quando este trailer apareceu na minha oficina
01:01
in Berkeley, I'd actually never stepped foot in
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em Berkeley, eu nunca tinha sequer entrado em
01:03
an Airstream trailer, or any other trailer.
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um trailer Airstream ou em qualquer outro trailer.
01:06
So I can be somebody that can look at this
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Então eu pude olhar para isso
01:08
in a totally fresh perspective and see if I can
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por uma perspectiva totalmente nova e ver se podia
01:11
optimize it in its most idealistic fashion.
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otimizá-lo da maneira mais idealista possível.
01:14
I decided I had to do some research
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Decidi que tinha que fazer pesquisas
01:17
and really figure out what had gone wrong
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e realmente entender o que havia dado errado
01:19
somewhere along the history of Airstream.
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ao longo da história da Airstream.
01:22
What I discovered in these interiors is that
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O que eu descobri sobre estes interiores é que
01:25
there was a disconnect between the exterior shell
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havia uma desconexão entre a carcaça exterior
01:28
and the interior architecture of the pieces.
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e a arquitetura das peças do interior.
01:30
In that the shell was originally conceived
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No fato de que a carcaça foi originalmente concebida
01:34
as a lightweight, modern, futuristic,
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como uma cápsula leve, moderna, futurista,
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high-tech pod for hurtling down the freeway, and
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de alta tecnologia, para enfrentar as rodovias.
01:42
the interiors were completely out of sync with that.
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O interior estava completamente em desacordo.
01:45
In fact it appeared like they
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Na verdade, parecia que eles
01:48
referenced a mountain cabin.
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faziam referência a um chalé.
01:51
That seemed really like a crisis to me,
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Isso realmente me pareceu ser o ponto crítico,
01:53
that they had never been able to
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por eles não terem sido capazes de
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develop a vocabulary
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desenvolver um vocabulário
01:57
about escape, and about travel, and modernity
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sobre fuga, viagens e modernidade
02:01
in this trailer that was consistent with the shell.
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neste trailer, o que seria adequado à sua carcaça.
02:03
We really needed to do some archeology
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Precisávamos de um pouco de arqueologia
02:07
in the trailer itself to figure out what's authentic
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no trailer em si, para entender o que era autêntico
02:09
in an Airstream trailer,
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em um trailer Airstream
02:11
and what feels like it has true purpose and utility.
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e o que parecia realmente fazer sentido e ter utilidade.
02:14
We stripped out all the vinyl
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Arrancamos todo o vinil,
02:16
and zolatone paint that was covering up
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e a pintura zolatone, que estava cobrindo
02:18
this just fantastic aluminum shell.
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esta fantástica casca de alumínio.
02:21
We took off all the visible hardware and trim
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Removemos todas as aparas e ferragens à mostra,
02:24
that was kind of doing the country cabin thing.
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que de certa forma davam o ar de chalé ao trailer.
02:27
I literally drew on the walls of the trailer,
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Eu literalmente desenhei nas paredes do trailer,
02:31
mocked it up in cardboard,
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fiz uma maquete de papelão,
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we'd come in and cut, decide things were wrong,
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entrávamos, cortávamos, decidimos que as coisas estavam erradas,
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pull it out, put it back in.
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tirávamos, colocávamos de volta.
02:38
The main goal was to smooth out the interior,
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O objetivo principal era suavizar o interior,
02:42
and begin to speak about motion,
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e começar a falar sobre movimento,
02:45
and mobility, and independence.
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mobilidade e independência.
02:48
The biggest difficulty on one of these trailers
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O maior obstáculo em um trailer destes
02:51
is that when you're designing there's actually no
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é que quando você está projetando, não há
02:54
logical place to stop and start materials
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um lugar lógico para interromper os materiais,
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because of the continuous form of the trailer.
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em função da formas contínuas do trailer.
03:00
There's no such things as two walls and a ceiling
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Não há duas paredes e um teto
03:03
coming together, where you can change materials and shapes.
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se juntando, onde você poderia alterar os materiais e as formas.
03:06
So that became a challenge.
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E isso pode tornar-se um desafio.
03:08
Compounding that,
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Somando-se a isso,
03:10
the material of choice, laminate,
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o material escolhido, o laminado
03:12
that I was trying to highlight,
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que eu estava tentando colocar em destaque,
03:14
only bends in two dimensions.
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só pode ser dobrado em duas dimensões.
03:16
It's a compound curve interior.
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É um interior de curva composta.
03:18
What I had to devise was
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O que eu precisava ter em mente era
03:20
a way of fooling the eye
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uma forma de confundir os olhos
03:24
into believing that all these panels
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para acreditar que todos esses painéis
03:27
are curved with the shell.
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estavam acompanhando as curvas da carcaça.
03:29
What I came up with was
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O que eu desenvolvi foi
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a series of second skins
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uma série de revestimentos
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that basically float over the aluminum shell.
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que basicamente flutuam sob a casca de alumínio.
03:38
And what I was trying to do there was
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E o que eu estava tentando fazer era
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direct your eye in the space,
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desviar seus olhos para o espaço.
03:42
so that you would perceive the geometry in a different way,
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para que você percebesse a geometria de uma forma diferente,
03:45
and that the casework wouldn't break up the space.
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e que o resultado não interrompesse o espaço.
03:50
They also gave us a way to run power
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Isso também nos propiciou uma forma de passar a energia
03:52
and rewire the trailer without tearing out the skin,
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e refazer a fiação do trailer sem ter que cortar a casca,
03:54
so they function as an electrical chase.
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fazendo a função de um abrigo elétrico.
03:57
That's the trailer, pretty much finished.
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Aqui está o trailer, praticamente finalizado.
03:59
That trailer led to another commission,
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Esse trailer levou à um outro projeto,
04:02
to participate in whats called Tokyo Designers Block.
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para participar do chamado Tokyo Designers Block,
04:06
Its a week of furniture design events in Tokyo, in October.
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uma semana de eventos de design de móveis, em Tóquio, no mês de outubro.
04:10
Teruo Kurosaki, who owns a furniture company called Idee,
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Teruo Kurosaki, dono de uma empresa de móveis chamada Idee,
04:13
he asked me to ship him two trailers to Tokyo.
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pediu-me para enviar dois trailers para Tóquio.
04:17
He said one he would like to
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Ele disse que um deles ele gostaria de
04:20
make a real trailer, functioning, and we would sell that one.
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usar como um trailer de verdade, funcional e que iríamos vendê-lo.
04:24
Trailer number two, you have a blank slate, you can to anything you want.
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Para o segundo, me disse que eu tinha carta branca, que poderia fazer o que quisesse.
04:27
We came up with a fantasy scenario
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Pensamos em um cenário de fantasia
04:29
of a DJ traveling around the States,
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com um DJ viajando pelos Estados Unidos,
04:31
that would collect records and go on tours.
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que ia colecionar discos e participar de tours.
04:34
This trailer housed two turntables,
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Esse trailer era equipado com dois toca-discos.
04:37
mixer, wet bar, fridge, integrated sound system.
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um mixer, bar, geladeira, sistema de som integrado.
04:41
It's got a huge couch, fits quite a few people,
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Tem um sofá enorme, para várias pessoas,
04:44
and basically we'd had a great time with this.
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e basicamente passamos ótimos momentos ali.
04:47
And so in this trailer I took it upon myself to think about travel,
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E este trailer fez-me refletir sobre viagens
04:50
and escape, in an idiosyncratic sense.
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e fuga, no sentido idiosincrásico.
04:54
A lot of these ideas migrated into
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Muitas idéias migraram para os
04:56
the production trailers for Airstream.
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modelos de série da Airstream.
04:59
This brings us up to the time that I started consulting to Airstream.
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Era a época em que comecei a trabalhar como consultor para a Airstream.
05:03
They came to me and said,
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Eles vieram até mim e disseram
05:05
"Well, what can we do to freshen this thing up?
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"Então, o que podemos fazer para atualizar essa coisa?
05:07
And do you think kids, you know, skateboarders, surfers,
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Você acha que crianças, ou skatistas, surfistas,
05:11
rock climbers, would use these things?"
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alpinistas, usariam esses trailers?"
05:13
And I said, "Well, not in that interior."
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E então eu disse "Bem... Não com um interior desses."
05:16
(Laughter)
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(risadas)
05:17
Anyway, I went out to Airstream
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Enfim, eu fui à Airstream
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about six times during the process of building this prototype,
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umas seis vezes durante o processo de construção deste protótipo
05:22
and it's called the Bambi prototype.
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e ele é chamado de protótipo Bambi.
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I thought, "Finally, oh yeah great,
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E pensei "Finalmente, ótimo,
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big company, I'm gonna work with somebody with money
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grande empresa, vou trabalhar para alguém com dinheiro
05:28
for tooling and molding."
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para ferramental e moldagem."
05:31
And I walked in their prototype facility, and
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Então entrei na fábrica de protótipos deles e
05:34
it's exactly like my shop, only bigger --
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ela era exatamente igual à minha oficina, só maior,
05:37
same tools, same things.
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mesmas ferramentas, mesmas coisas.
05:39
So the problem became -- and they set this dilemma to me --
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Então o problema passou a ser, e foi como o dilema me foi apresentado,
05:43
that you have to design the interior using only our existing technology,
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você precisa projetar o interior usando somente nossas tecnologias disponíveis,
05:48
and there's no money for tooling or molding.
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e não há dinheiro para ferramental ou moldes.
05:50
The trailers themselves are actually hand-built.
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Os trailers em si são na verdade construídos artesanalmente.
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All the casework is hand-scribed in, uniquely,
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Toda a decoração da carcaça é feita à mão, de forma única,
05:56
so you can't just cut 100 parts for 100 trailers,
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então você não pode simplesmente estampar 100 peças para 100 trailers,
06:00
you have to cut them big, and every single one is hand-fit.
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você tem que cortar peças maiores e ajustá-las manualmente uma a uma.
06:03
They didn't want to go to a componentized system.
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Eles não queriam migrar para um sistema componentizado.
06:07
And there it is, that's the Bambi 16.
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E aqui está, eis o modelo Bambi 16.
06:11
(Applause)
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(aplausos)
Translated by Ricardo Teixeira
Reviewed by Moreno Barros

▲Back to top

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Christopher C. Deam - Designer
A fascination with clean lines, modern materials and tiny houses made Christopher C. Deam the perfect designer to rethink the Airstream trailer right down to its aluminum skin.

Why you should listen

Looking at his work, with its clean, swooping lines and elegant economy of movement, it's easy to guess that Christopher C. Deam is a surfer. His designs for spaces and furniture are light and clear and thoughtful, unleashed by modern materials and anchored in old-fashioned craftsmanship.

Deam's work came to national attention with his remodel of the iconic Airstream trailer, a project for the laminate maker Wilsonart -- a sweet-spot project that fired the design world's love of modular and small homes. (In 2009, it's hard to realize how radical this little trailer looked in 2000, during the heyday of the megamansion.) His other design work includes designs for Target, Herman Miller and many other manufacturers, as well as an architectural practice.

More profile about the speaker
Christopher C. Deam | Speaker | TED.com

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