Vandwelling (vanlife)

Vandwelling, also known as vanlife, refers to the alternative lifestyle of using a van or other converted vehicle as a temporary or permanent home. People who participate in vandwelling are known as vandwellers. The subculture also distinguishes between people who permanently and occasionally reside in converted vehicles, referring to those who do not maintain a conventional home as full-time vandwellers and those who engage in vanlife on a temporary or occasional basis as part-time vandwellers.

Among advocates, vandwelling has been promoted as a simplified, cost-controlled path to a travel-oriented or nomadic lifestyle. It has gained widespread popularity and an elevated public profile in the social media age, with hashtag campaigns promoting vandwelling as a liberating substitute for conventional living. Yet, even the practice's staunchest supporters note that social media representations of vandwelling tend to glorify it and overlook many of its more challenging and unappealing aspects.

Brief History

A 2018 feature article published in the San Francisco Chronicle examined the history of vanlife, tracing the practice back to the pre-automotive era. In 1880, British surgeon and author William Gordon Stables commissioned what he called a “land yacht,” consisting of a large, furnished horse-drawn van carriage. Stables then undertook a journey of more than 1,300 miles (2,092 kilometers) across Great Britain, later publishing an account of his travels in a memoir. He used the term “vandweller” in the memoir, marking one of the word's earliest known appearances in the English language.

In 1910, the Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company unveiled the Touring Landau, which automotive historians describe as a predecessor of the recreational vehicle (RV). The Touring Landau was equipped with facilities including sleeping quarters and a functioning toilet, with early automakers experimenting with several other vehicle designs capable of supporting extended on-board stays over the course of the decade.

Contemporary vandwelling began to evolve in the context of the countercultural movement of the 1960s, when Volkswagen Type 2 vans became a ubiquitous symbol of popular culture. Young people seeking personal freedom from conventional social norms took to converting these vans, colloquially known as “VW hippie vans,” into mobile living quarters. In 1967, Winnebago Industries began to mass-produce their iconic motorhomes, reducing their price points and making them more accessible to middle-class buyers. These trends combined to broaden the lifestyle appeal of long-term road traveling to a larger cross-section of the public. An increased lineup of modern motorhomes with complete on-board facilities became widely available during the 1970s and 1980s, making extended road trips a viable option for family travel.

The social media-fueled vanlife movement began in 2012, when former New York City fashion designer Foster Huntington abandoned his career to embrace a full-time vandwelling lifestyle. Huntington uploaded photos of his travels to the Instagram image-sharing platform, attaching the hashtag #vanlife in what he initially described as a joke. In a 2016 interview, Huntington explained that he first used the #vanlife hashtag in reference to his vehicle's constant breakdowns, intending it as an ironic comment on his new lifestyle. However, Huntington's adventures proved to have mass-scale, inspirational appeal; as of year-end 2021, more than 11.7 million Instagram posts featured the #vanlife hashtag. In 2022 the number of vandwellers in the United States reached 3.1 million, having grown 63 percent in just two years.

Overview

During the 2010s and early 2020s, vandwelling morphed into a distinct subculture complete with its own elaborate language. It was comprised mainly of young adults dissatisfied with the prospect of living a life defined by conventional goals such as career achievement and home ownership. Observers note that the phenomenon initially became popular in the immediate aftermath of the 2008–2009 global economic downturn known as the Great Recession. Many theorize that the appeal of vandwelling was accelerated by the widespread disenchantment with the economic system and the lack of fulfilling opportunity that defined broad cross-sections of public sentiment after the Great Recession. Huntington's story—in which he abandoned a seemingly desirable and glamorous career to take up a vandwelling lifestyle—ultimately served as a catalyst for the resultant movement.

Contemporary vandwellers use many types of vehicles to support their lifestyles. However, long-term and full-time participants tend to favor converted vans or RVs with self-contained power generation features like solar panels along with on-board bathrooms, simple kitchen appliances, and cooking facilities. The RV and full-size motorhome markets have also seen strong resurgences since the rise of the vandweller social media movement. Some vandwellers elect to equip their vehicles with wireless internet service, allowing them to use the vehicle as a base for working remotely. Vandwellers tend to use their mobility and freedom to explore nature, with many uploading images of their travels to various social media platforms.

Researchers reported a surge in interest in vandwelling lifestyles in 2020, when the global COVID-19 pandemic left billions of people confined to their homes. According to surveys conducted by the Move.org moving service, 52 percent of respondents said the COVID-19 pandemic made them more amenable to adopting a part-time or full-time vandwelling lifestyle. An additional 72 percent indicated a willingness to move out of their home to become a vandweller in order to free up financial resources to pay off debts.

Despite its surface appeal, many experienced vandwellers stress that social media posts and hashtag campaigns romanticize and glamorize vanlife, causing newcomers to misunderstand or underestimate the many challenges that accompany it. These include significant limitations to activities and amenity access, as most retrofitted vehicles are not large enough to accommodate shower or laundry facilities. Vehicle breakdowns and repairs also rank among commonly reported problems, especially if they occur in remote areas with poor telecommunications network coverage. Some vandwellers who take up the lifestyle on a whim also find they are not as well-suited to vanlife as they initially believed.

Bibliography

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