The regular Translation Armchair is fully recyclable, since it’s made from rotational molded low-density polyethylene. It’s also UV-resistant, making it a truly indoor/outdoor piece of furniture, able to resist temperatures from – 60°C to +50°C and provided with a water drainage hole.

Translation Armchair. Designed by Alain Gilles. Manufactured by Qui est Paul?.

Designed by Alain Gilles, who reincarnated into a designer after working in the financial world, the Translation Armchair pays close attention to ergonomics, the shape cradling the user most assuredly-perhaps too many days at the office in uncomfortable chairs (and restrictive suits) inspired Gilles.

Qui est Paul? (and who is he, really?), the design company that carries the chair, describes it as nothing less than an experience: “A comfortable armchair suggesting an appeasing experience either on the terrace or inside your home or office.” They are French and may be using English oddly, but that makes the Translation Armchair that much more perfect, since a quirky translation serves to describe it. The Translation Chair is concerned with curvature, making use of sinuous arcs, instead of hard lines, that refuse to abruptly break the top and bottom of the chair. Instead, its design and material enable it to be one seamless entity.

In an interesting twist on the original, Qui est Paul? has partnered with Les Bouchons D’Amour (the corks of love), an organization that collects plastic corks and resells them to recyclers, with profits benefiting the disabled, to create a limited-edition Translation Armchair (100 only, though you can enter to win one through their website). The numbered Translations are made of 70% recycled bottle caps. It is fitting too that this edition is made from round objects, making the Limited Translation Armchair round all around, from its initial material to the final product. Not to mention that the process of using recycled materials is in itself a cycle, again emphasizing the Translation Armchair’s circularity.

With either Translation Armchair, you have an interesting (and responsible) use of materials to create an appealing product that can be used inside or out-a product whose form eschews the hard edges too often relied upon for modern design.