JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #103 - March 2016 - 69

furniture

Flax fiber and biosourced resins for all

interview

Alexandre Guichard is embarking on a new adventure to revisit the
bistro chair. On the occasion of his last visit to Paris, we asked him
a few questions about this new Revology project - the concept, the
materials and process used, and in general, the philosophy behind
the whole project.

alexanDre GuicHarD
FounDer,
reVoloGy

JEC Composites Magazine: You'd no sooner
finished the RocTool adventure than you
started with Revology. You must have a real
need to create!

Alexandre Guichard: With Roc-

Tool, I experienced incredible things, going
through most of the stages of a start-up from
my "garage" beginnings in 2000 and the first
difficult years to rapid development, and
then going public in 2013. And I didn't do
it alone - I was lucky enough to have funds
to invest, and to meet and recruit some very
talented people. Together, we were able to
gain traction and create value.
Now I'm 44, and Revology is my third startup. I have the feeling that it is the ultimate
challenge. I'm starting out from zero on the
other side of the world in New Zealand, in
a sector that is new for me - design chairs
- developing new materials, new processes
and a new business model. I need this type of
adrenalin, I find it exciting.

JCM: Can you explain the ideas behind your
new company?

A. G.: The idea of Revology is to give the
legendary bistro chair a makeover using
natural-fibre-reinforced composite materials.
We get our inspiration from products from
the past. More than 150 years after it was
introduced, the bistro chair is still, in my

opinion, the most beautiful chair in the
world. I feel we have an obligation to respect
these elegant lines, and so we were inspired
in part by Thonet, Baumann, Fischel, and
Kohn, who created some exceptional bistro
chairs from 1860 to 1950. The most beautiful
ones were no doubt those from the Art Deco
period around 1910.
But the Revology chair will be the bistro
chair of the present and future, created from
high-tech materials and methods, and it is
crafting its own identity: our hope in the
end is that you will recognize the Revology
chair out of hundreds of others. Our Design
Studio's creators were also inspired by words
like desire, emotion, and natural beauty.
Some well-known VIP's have posed in
front of or on bistro chairs, like Lisa Minelli,
Einstein, Le Corbusier and many others
from different periods and backgrounds. The
Crazy Horse dancers use the bistro chair as
an accessory of desire. It is an iconic objet
that fascinates and catches the eye. There are
many similarities between this object and a
woman's body - this may make you laugh,
but we took that into account a lot. Revology
plays with contrasts between transparency
and composite materials to highlight the
chair's silhouette.
We also studied other mythical objects that
have been revisited. For example, BMW and
Fiat did remarkable design work when they
revamped their Mini and their 500 - but they
were conservative with respect to the materi-

als and technologies, using the materials and
processes used on other vehicles of their
makes. The Revology chair will integrate
materials and technologies that have never
been used in the furniture industry. That is
the advantage of being a newcomer in a mature industry; we can be bold and break the
mould, so to speak. All we have to defend is
being true to our values, so we will be on the
offensive - that is even our obligation!
JCM: What motivated you to work with biobased composites, given that it is considerably more difficult?

A. G.: To be unique and to make the
Revology chair iconic and inimitable requires
placing technological barriers, so we can
transform the difficulty into an opportunity.
It is effectively complicated to mould certain
biocomposites without degrading them,
especially with short cycle times and great
surface quality. However, we've acquired
technologies and have the know-how and
background to take care of that.
Also, we aren't going to use just biocomposites that exist. We are working with the
best biocomposite and bioplastic players to
develop innovative solutions dedicated to
Revology. Our startup's tagline is "Inspired
by nature". Our brand is loyal to our country,
New Zealand. We will be consistent with our
own values and look to Nature for inspiration. There will be no artificial colours on
Revology chairs - no paint, no imitation,

No103 March 2016 / jec

composites magazine 69

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #103 - March 2016