Announcing the world’s
most expensive anything is a surefire way to attract attention, but when the
thing is a $3m motor home, questions arise beyond the obvious “Why?” After all,
designers create all manner of prototypes, and mythical potentates from Dubai
are always rumoured to be buying them.
Yet in this case, the
factory is up and running and ready to take your deposit money.
The recreational
vehicle, or RV, is the eleMMent Palazzo – the capitalisation an allusion to its
maker, the Austria-based Marchi Mobile,
founded by former trucking magnate Mario Marchi.
This mobile mansion
will be built on the chassis of a DAF XF105, a rectilinear semi-truck
that is ubiquitous on European highways, with aVolvo engine
for easy servicing. That trucking technology is
essential, as there will be a hefty payload of marble, rose gold and hubris to
haul around once Marchi Mobile locates a buyer for its Leviathan.
The Palazzo’s sweeping
lines, a heroic attempt at making a brick appear aerodynamic, were originally
penned by Luigi Colani, the irascible eighty-something father of so-called biodynamic
industrial design,
whose organically bulbous aesthetic has been channelled into vehicles for Fiat,
Alfa Romeo and BMW.
Colani’s trademarks are still in evidence, but the expanse behind the cab is
given over to the client’s every indulgence and whim.
Functionally, the
Palazzo has a slide-out room not unlike those found on nicer trucking rigs, but
it also offers a “Sky Lounge”, replete with banquette seating that rises out of
the body to create a rooftop nightclub, complete with mood-lit canopy, audio
system and wet bar. It is essentially a sky bridge, the likes of which might be
spotted bobbing off Cannes or
in the harbour at the Monaco Grand Prix, making the Palazzo – indisputably and
unironically – a land yacht.
Marchi Mobile has
produced several custom vehicles atop this platform, including a rolling health
clinic and self-contained mobile showrooms. The company expects the bulk of its
future commissions to come in its Viva line, a “jet on wheels” concept that
brings Gulfstream-calibre finishes down to terra firma.
The world tour of
these products will make North American landfall in early 2015. Marchi
meanwhile awaits a commission to make the Palazzo a reality, but the company
notes it is marketing heavily in Dubai.
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