peugeot design lab crafts ONYX sofa with volcanic lava and carbon fiber

peugeot design lab handcrafts ONYX sofa with volcanic lava and carbon fiber
all images © peugeot design lab

in 2012, peugeot unveiled its 600 horsepower ONYX supercar with innovative bodywork made of carbon fiber and copper, and a cabin entirely made out of felt and newspaper wood. presented for the first time at the 2014 milan design week, the ONYX sofa, a three-meter long seat made of carbon fiber and volvic volcanic lava stone, demonstrates a ‘made to measure’ furniture concept developed by peugeot design lab in collaboration with designer pierre gimbergues.

material for the hybrid furniture piece was sourced from ‘the auvergne’, a landmark that dates back to almost eleven thousand years ago, when the volcanoes were still active with eruptions and lava flow. spending thousands of years filtering water at the site; it is this specific volvic stone – resistant to freezing and chemical products – that has been chosen for the ONYX sofa, a symbol of robustness of the french car brand’s history.

taking a total of 70 day to produce, the sofa features a hybrid mix of lacquered black carbon fiber; the vernacular and technological design exercise results in a four hundred kilogram monolith. the final production is sealed by an oblique cut, a highly pronounced slash that references the copper and carbon fiber bodywork of the ONYX supercar.

 the carbon fiber precisely adjusts to the volcanic stone with its texture & fault line

the ONYX is a distillation of the natural processes from earth, intersecting technology