UCLan works with Lunar Caravans to create van of the future

Students from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) are working with local caravan company Lunar Caravans to create the micro van of the future.

Lunar, which has been trading for 46 years and reaches an international market, has created and delivered a prototype micro caravan to the Preston campus specifically for the UCLan students to test out their ideas before presenting back to the company next year.

The collaborative venture means that the final year undergraduate product design students and postgraduate interior design and surface pattern design students can work on a real-life industry projects and potentially see their designs manufactured by Lunar in the future.

“Although we are still in the middle of the project we’re already seeing exciting ideas from students across all courses who are coming up with creative solutions to making small spaces work efficiently, producing energy smart vehicles and devising special functionality designs that will ultimately mean a person can tailor a caravan design to suit their individual needs.”

“It’s fantastic that we have a full-size prototype to work on. It makes it much easier to test our designs and helps us to visualise our ideas. It’s exciting to work with an industry client and have the chance of seeing my work manufactured by them. It’s the ideal grounding for my future career.”

The students will showcase their final designs later next year when Lunar will also decide whether to take any ideas forward. In addition, students studying fashion brand management have also worked with Lunar Caravans to conduct initial customer demographics research to analyse the caravan market.