An Even More Natural Feel: Continental Refits its Tiny House
- ContiHome tiny house offers a view of future living with new ‘Indoor Garden’ design concept
- Surface experts turned to nature for inspiration
- Surface materials used are highly sustainable
- skai artificial leather is made using fully vegan raw materials
Hanover, June 15, 2023. When it comes to its surface products for furnishings and interiors, Continental is increasingly favoring the use of sustainable solutions that blend style, quality and functionality with the latest global trends. The ContiHome tiny house first unveiled to the public in 2022 now showcases the very essence of this approach with a completely redesigned interior. The new interior concept for the house places the focus firmly on the use of sustainable and vegan surface materials. In so doing, the new design provides a window into a future way of living.
ContiHome ‘Indoor Garden’ refit reveals a new concept
The experts from Continental have used their smart and sustainable surface materials to completely refurbish the mobile tiny house, which was inspired by the trend toward compact, modular and flexible living. The new edition features the company’s own ‘Indoor Garden’ design concept. The consistent use of earthy and green tones sets the mood, creating a warm and cozy interior. An organic look and feel, an authentic, wood-infused ambience and natural green color shades are the defining elements of its visual appearance.
Bio-based and vegan raw materials, completely recycled materials
Continental’s skai Evida surface material, with its natural leather grain, is already 80 percent bio-based. The only material that is even more sustainable is the new skai Evida Fiber, whose proportion of natural and renewable constituent components exceeds 90 percent. And this is clear to see, with everything from the grain design to the finishing making its sustainability visible. These materials have both been used in the upholstery for the seating area in the ContiHome. The ‘Indoor Garden’ concept also features the super matte skai rPET PureLux furniture films made from 100% recycled PET polymer, which can be found in the kitchen, for instance. In the bathroom, meanwhile, the new design films and self-adhesive wall tiles from d-c-fix add a homely touch.
What is more, all skai artificial leathers are based on vegan raw materials. In other words, the use of materials of animal origin in their production is deliberately avoided – an approach that has been rigorously applied since 2020.
“With the ContiHome, we are presenting a property furnished almost entirely with our sustainable, easy-care and long-lasting surfaces, both inside and out. Here, in an extremely compact space, you can see how the terms ‘living’ and ‘home’ are defined now and looking into the future,” says Ralf Imbery, Head of Design, Marketing and Strategy at Continental’s specialist surfaces unit. “And the ContiHome is proof that circular economy, sustainable supply chains and fair working conditions are just as much a part of our concept as materials for maximizing the energy efficiency of buildings.”
Sustainable upholstery material uses coffee grounds as a filler
The latest variant of the breathable upholstery material skai VyP Coffee brings a further highlight to the ContiHome. For the first time, a proportion of spent coffee grounds are used as a raw material for manufacturing this upholstery covering. With its authentic look, soft feel and a bio-based and recycled content of around 65 percent, this material is further testimony to how Continental is striving to create sustainable products in this field. The use of breathable laif technology in skai VyP Coffee means it offers enduring comfort, too, even when sitting for prolonged periods. This sustainable innovation recently won the European Green Award.
Modern industrial aesthetic meets organic look and feel
Although Continental hasn’t abandoned its original industrial design with the new concept, there has been a shift in focus to also bring the sustainability factor of the natural resources to the fore. “The changes in the color scheme in particular bring much more nature into the tiny house,” points out Imbery.
The ContiHome is otherwise dominated inside and out by smart, high-performance surfaces and applications featuring patented technologies. The ‘cool colors’ technology employed for the outer skin, for example, reflects the sun’s rays so that the surface heats up less. Upholstery material with breathable laif technology ensures excellent comfort, while staynu technology produces dirt-resistant, hard-wearing surfaces that stay as good as new for longer. Finally, the new translucent Acella Hylite concept now makes it possible to create concealed lighting effects – thanks to backlit surfaces that can be switched on and off for visual enhancement of the living ambience.
Sébastien Bonset
External Communications Manager
ContiTech