CDN goes behind the scenes of the SPACE D concept

One of the more prominent stands at the IAA Mobility show this year came not from an OEM but from a supplier. Continental, to be exact. The centrepoint of its display was the SPACE D concept, an interior design project that proposed a calming oasis for future autonomous vehicles.

Sitting in the seat, surrounded by foliage and taking a break from the busyness of the show floor, we could certainly see how this might work. To learn more, we caught up with Ralf Imbery, global director of design, to see how the concept came about and what kind of technology we should expect to see in future cabins.

Car Design News: When did the project kick off, and what was behind the idea of an oasis?

Ralf Imbery: In January we proposed the project to show at IAA. The timing was tough, but in the end we made it without a problem to finish the project in August. We have done plenty of concept cars before – the last one was the AMBIENC3, and then also we built the Conti-Home – so there were lots of lessons learned. That’s why the project ran so smoothly, and for me, it was the best project ever.

CDN: What did the development process look like?

RI: Generally speaking, if we decide on a project, we have a basic idea and we work on two or three different versions. Within Design here we have a group called Advanced Design who we will work with; there are three groups globally involving our colleagues in China, North America and Europe. Each team worked on a proposal.

We usually work with mood boards in the first instance, alongside trend research. We look accordingly to potential colour and trim trends, also to potential three-dimensional shapes and so on.

And for us as a team it was very clear that the one concept, the Oasis, was the standout and I think it really worked out fantastically. If you were sitting there during the IAA Show where thousands of people are running around you, it was genuinely like an oasis.

CDN: You could just relax.

RI: Exactly. And this was, I think, the key moment, or the best moment I had in the project.

CDN: So rather than the start of the project, the Eureka moment was more at the end once it was finished in a busy environment.

RI: Yeah, absolutely. I was sitting there with the wood and plants, the smooth colours, the soft materials, it was amazing. I hadn’t seen the final project until then, so seeing it finished in person was also a real highlight. There was nothing where I would have said, “this needs to be better, or, next time we have to do it like this.”

That’s really the first time in my life when I’ve done a concept where I was sitting and thought, this is just perfect. I could experience what was imagined.

CDN: If you think of the word oasis, you’re talking about a spa, a nice hotel, maybe you’re out in nature. Did you look outside of automotive for inspiration here?

RI: This leads to our trend research that we have been doing for years. Because in our opinion, the automotive interior and also the office and also at home, all these different kinds of spaces are merging. The catalyst here is autonomous driving of the future, but also the electrification of the cars, because now you have different car body shapes. There is no longer a gear tunnel down the middle of the car, and you are less performance- or driver-centric, so interiors look different.

What we also did already with the AMBIENC3 was to create different moods and possibilities for what you can do in the car. We always talk about work, relax, and maybe also drive.

If you consider that, you have to look into hospitality, into wellness, home living, and how you might work in the office. We look at all these different kinds of markets, not one specific hotel or office space but broader, and try to look into the future.

That’s our idea, and hopefully also for the OEMs, of the future interior of the car. You can work there. You can completely relax. Or do gaming. But also, you maybe want to drive. And of course, we work in the furniture and hospitality markets as well as in automotive, so we can lean on what we are doing there with our own collections too.

CDN: A bit of a loaded question, but with the broad range of sectors you work in, is Continental better prepared than others in this space to work on cars of the future?

RI: Yes, and I would go even further. We are the only one – we are the only one in the industry. That’s why we are very attractive for the designer groups of the OEMs to come to us and look at our trends and our markets. Take Milan Design Week, for example. Over the last ten years it has become very popular with the OEM designers. They’re all there because the future interior will move more into the direction of furniture.

In the automotive market, you now want to have a cosy interior like at home, and we have the necessary expertise around textiles, woodgrains, smart materials and alternative solutions. Again, we are the only one in the industry with these capabilities and with a huge design department.

CDN: It’s difficult to say that a car interior feels like a place of calm and ‘disconnecting’ when you’re surrounded by screens. Do smart surfaces provide an opportunity to retain that functionality without overwhelming the passenger or creating visual clutter?

RI: Let me ask you a question. Do you like these big screens everywhere?

CDN: No.

RI: I’m not a huge fan either, generally speaking, but they have their uses. I believe that in future, you won’t have a display any more, you’ll just project information into the windshield. We are providing this kind of technology today already. We are also working on a technology known as ”beaming.”

So in my opinion, in future there will be no huge displays, it will be more about a nice material perception and feeling cosy and nice. You only have displays where you want them and at the time you need them.

I think this is for the future, and this is coming in the next years, I’m sure.