Car
makers are putting their best foot forward for the Milan Design Week from April
8 to 13, 2014. The Peugeot Design Lab is unveiling its latest creation, the Onyx
sofa. It is showing off the stunning sculpted seat in a unique exhibition space
located in the bustling and bohemian Tortona district of the Italian city. It
took 70 days to make this Onyx sofa in carbon fibre and Volvic volcanic rock
and the price has been set to reflect that at £113,300 (Rs 1.14 crore)
The
all-new Onyx sofa will form the heart of this display and is intended as a
statement in pure form and materials. The three-metre long seat takes its
inspiration from the 2012 Onyx trio of superbike, supertrike and supercar.
According
to a company statement, the Onyx supercar was powered by a 600bhp hybrid
powertrain; yet just as memorable was its innovative bodywork made from carbon
fibre combined with copper and its cabin of felt and newspaper-derived wood.
The Onyx sofa has been designed as a static partner to that and has been built
from hand-crafted Volvic volcanic lava stone that is seamlessly joined with
hi-tech carbon fibre.
Peugeot
styling director Gilles Vidal said, “At Milan we are making a link between the Onyx
Concept Supercar, a combination of efficiency plus audacious, natural
materials, and the Onyx sofa. By using a sharp straight cut in the rock, this
contrast in materials is powerful, voluntary and assumed in the way we look at
the materials and how they are used. The carbon fibre with its very structured
and technical texture has had its shape sculpted precisely to the volcanic
stone with its texture and fault lines. While it’s been perfectly adjusted in
dimensions and proportions it still follows the natural form and has an
acceptance of not being in control of such a powerful natural material as shown
by the stone mason’s random chisel marks.”
Head
of Peugeot Design Lab Cathal Loughnane noted, “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 that are made to measure to suit the choice, origin and personality
of the customer. However, they must always follow a common theme: the union,
via a pronounced, clear cut, between hyper-technological materials such as
carbon fibre, glass fibre, aluminium and raw and natural materials like rock,
wood and stone.