1889 October | November 2018

Photos: Modern Wagon
Wenatchee: An adventure wagon takes
a Washington couple to their new life
If you visited a national park out west last summer, you might
have seen Duff Bangs and Ashley Rodgers. The couple took an epic
11,000-mile road trip all over the western half of the U.S., hitting
as many national parks as possible over three months. Starting in
Seattle, they drove east to Chicago, then backtracked through the
Grand Tetons and Yellowstone, dropping as far south as Zion and
Joshua Tree. What made them stand out from other cars on the
road? They towed their 28-foot-long, 13,000-pound tiny home,
aptly dubbed the “Adventure Wagon,” the whole way.
The road trip was a reset for the Seattleites. “We were just ready
for a change,” Bangs said. “We were ready for that next step and
we also wanted to do some travelling.” Early in 2017, the couple
sold their city condo, then designed and built the tiny house as a
prototype for their company, Modern Wagon. “As an architect, I
thought it would be a great design project,” Bangs said.
From the start, they weren’t interested in allowing the notion of
tiny to dictate the home’s interior. “It seems like a lot of tiny homes
are traditionally a home shrunk down into a smaller space,” Bangs
said. “So, I feel like all the pieces get shrunk with that as well, such
as the sink and appliances. Something like the bathroom becomes
a very tight space.” Their approach was different. “It was an exercise
in picking out the amenities that were most important to us and
maximizing those spaces,” he said, “then letting the envelope and
form of the tiny home evolve around that.” To that end, the couple
identified priorities, such as a full-sized bathtub, washer/dryer,
plenty of countertops for meal prep, and an open floor so Rodgers
can roll out her yoga mat. Then the different areas were laid out for
ideal weight distribution along the trailer bed.
Final tweaks ensured the home achieves the modern look the
couple prefers and still feels roomy in its 270 square feet. Slanted
FROM TOP The Adventure Wagon has a sleeping loft over the couch. The
270-square-foot Adventure Wagon was home base for an 11,000-mile road trip.
front and rear walls cut a sharp silhouette and also increase
headroom, most importantly where the sleeping loft is stacked
over the couch. “We wanted to be able to sit up [in bed] and not
hit our head on the ceiling,” Bangs said. They lined the exterior
and roof with charcoal standing-seam metal, which provides a
nice contrast to the white aluminum plastic composite siding.
Large windows and an interior palette of bamboo floors and light
birch plywood further visually expand the space.
After logging many miles on the open road, the couple now
calls Wenatchee home, where Rodgers is a social worker and
Bangs leads his architecture firm modFORM. For it, he’s been
tapped to design a few compact Detached Accessory Dwelling
Units (DADUs). “They’re not on wheels but it’s a very similar
design exercise,” he said. “It really allowed me to bend my whole
design genre.”
28 1889 WASHINGTON’S MAGAZINE OCTOBER | NOVEMBER 2018