In 2012, Peugeot unveiled its Onyx trio, superbike supertrike & a supercar whose innovative bodywork is made of carbon fibre and copper, its pure cabin made of felt and Newspaper wood, the vehicle is powered by a 600 hp hybrid drive train. This supercar, which associates the latest technologies with natural raw materials, has found its static partner in the Onyx sofa, a 3-metre long seat made of carbon fibre and Volvic volcanic lava stone.
Presented for the first time at the 2014 Milan Design Week, the Onyx sofa is the demonstration of a made to measure furnishing concept dreamed up by Peugeot Design Lab, the Peugeot global brand design studio created in 2012.
For Gilles Vidal, Peugeot Styling Director: “Peugeot is one of the rare brands in the world able to claim 200 years of industrial creativity. Since its beginnings, Peugeot has designed and manufactured thousands of objects, whether for domestic, daily uses, or to provide mobility – objects for the kitchen, tools, bicycles, motorcycles, cars… - all of which are evidence of our multi-faceted industrial know-how and our ability to use new forms to aid function."
"At Milan, with the Onyx sofa, we are drawing a thread between the Onyx concept car, an alliance of efficiency and the use of audacious and natural materials, and the Onyx sofa. By means of a sharp straight cut, this contrast is powerful, voluntary and assumed in the way we look at the materials and how they are used : the hi-tech carbon fibre with its very structured and technical texture, its shapes precisely adjusted to the volcanic stone with its texture & fault lines, perfectly adjusted in its dimensions and proportions, but with which one accepts not being in complete control, like the
stonemason’s random chisel marks.”
The Onyx sofa has become a demonstration of this, questioning the performance of materials, and with no antagonism between progress and nature, between ultra technological materials and raw and natural materials.'
For Cathal Loughnane, the Head of Peugeot Design Lab: “This project was started in May 2013. From the beginning we had a very raw, very powerful sketch. The Onyx sofa is an illustration of a new concept that we intend to explore : unique pieces of furniture, made to measure, to suit the choice, origin and personality of the customer, but which always respects a common idea : the union, via a pronounced clear cut, between hyper-technological materials – carbon fibre, glass fibre, aluminium,…- and raw and natural materials - rock, wood, stone."
"In a world where high technology changes products very quickly, where people grow tired of things very quickly, we want new & disposable objects, we want to offer technological furniture that remains respectful of natures materials & the ancestral craftsman’s skills, a balanced marriage between performance and responsibility.”
Seven sculptures, from 10 to 70 cm, accompany the Onyx sofa. Lamps, shelves, armchairs, tables, etc..., designs that explore other alliances of materials, marrying obsidian with concrete, red ferrous jasper & steel, quartz crystal & aluminium, sculpted wood & 3D printing, black palm & basalt, marsh oak & Corian.
The Onyx sofa has has required a total of 70 days work for this version in carbon fibre/ Volvic volcanic rock. The prices for other creations will depend on the cost of the materials chosen by each client.
