The Air Inside
Adventure Vehicle No. 019
Air has got a bad rap of late. It’s dangerous, a thing to be feared. When this van came to us it was musty. The air inside was stale and old. It smelt like the years it had seen. I stepped inside and the air filled with dust. As I pulled away the old wall coverings I smelled the fibres in the air, the old glue. It took me down a nostalgic path.
The VW T25 came to us in its original guise. A previous life as an ambulance in eastern Europe and subsequent storage made sense. We found remnants of its previous life. The old bill of production, stamped in the German factory, taped to the backside of the headlining. The owners; our customers, had brought it to the UK with a long distilled dream.
We saw what they saw. Something special A thick coating of original cream paintwork, engine conversion, syncro drivetrain, rare Dehler fiberglass hightop. This van filled us with quick excited breaths when it arrived on the flat bed delivery truck, deserved some deep calculation as we figured how to best honour it with a beautiful interior. One that would match the wandering of its new owners.
Since the day the panels were pressed, assembled and spot welded into place, this van has been a container for air. The wind has blown in through the windows and air vents, through open doors. Through the speech of its previous occupants. The engine draws it into dark chambers and it is blown hot and loud out of the exhaust.
We build by the hour, we charge a rate based on those 60 minutes. But what if that rate was based on the breaths we take. Surely we can attach every action of a human to the exact number of breaths it took. The amount of air used while we draw a pencil line, take a photo, tell a story, make a plan, feel something…
Maybe I know the exact number of breaths we took while we built this van. I know how it smells now. The woollen upholstery, new but with slight organic tinge. The new systems are box fresh, a clean composite odour. The timbers, warmed in the sunlight, smell of tannin and natural oils. That old air has been moved out. It’s ready to be filled again. With the exact amount of breaths required to synthesise with those new dreams.
