The Vaya Home Is Unlike Any Other Tiny, Triples Its Size in Camp Mode

Vaya is named this way in honor of the river Vaya, which award-winning designer Svilen Gamolov loves and cites as his go-to place to find inspiration. Gamolov does a lot of furniture and industrial design, but he’s also branching out into alternative living, with help from partner Kamen Stankov, through their joint product, the Vaya.

Vaya is a tiny home in that it sits on a double-axle trailer, but it’s unlike any other tiny you’ve seen. It has a very sleek, almost futuristic design, and most importantly, can fold out to three times its original size when in camp mode. A bigger bang for the same buck in every sense of the word.

This is achieved by means of a porch that comes with an exterior awning, and a telescoping rear. Some compromises are still made, like moving the kitchen and the dining area outside, on the porch, but they’re only downsides if you regard them this way. Well, that and if you plan on using the Vaya in colder weather.

Fully expanded, the Vaya offers a layout of 50 square meters (538.2 square feet), which one Bulgarian publication claims is some sort of “record” for a trailer this size. The accuracy of this statement aside, the amount of space is impressive, as is the elegant styling of the mobile home.

The outdoor “kitchen” is shown only in renders, not on the prototype. On the official website, we learn that the burner starts electromechanically for the utmost convenience and that having a kitchen on the porch limits the number of unpleasant odors inside the shared living space – which actually goes without saying. The unit itself seems to be comprised just of a one-burner stove and a grill (no sink, little prep space, and no storage), so here’s to hoping they’re still working on the design, and this is not the final version.

No word on how many guests the Vaya can sleep, but there is a mention of a guest bed in the corner of the living room, so the answer is at least three. The interior is only scarcely shown, but Gamolov says for the same publication that it mirrors the exterior: sleek, elegant, minimalist, and, above all, original. A small variety of colors and materials will be available for a certain degree of personalization.

The Vaya uses lightweight materials, also found in aviation and the marine industry, in a bid to keep the overall weight under 3.5 tons. The focus with it was on delivering a unit that handles well when towed but offers the maximum possible amount of space at camp. Gamolov also wanted a space that was unlike any other, with clean lines and a design that would be instantly memorable.

There will be an eco-friendly focus to the Vaya as well. Solar panels on the roof and LED lighting activated remotely or by motion sensors are just two of the features presently included in order to reduce consumption and reliance on the grid.

We reached out to the team at Vaya Mobile Homes in the hope of getting additional details on the build.

For the time being, Gamolov says they have just one prototype, which was also shown at this year’s international motorhome and caravan exhibition in Dusseldorf, Germany, where it was received very well. They’re using this prototype as a platform to further develop the study, with the goal of turning it into a market-ready product. They’re not ruling out the possibility of offering various sizes of the original Vaya, maintaining the exterior and interior design.