Zyrclo, back to home
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Based in Villars-sur-Var, Alpes-Maritimes

Keeping what already has value

ZYRCLO designs long-lasting furniture and fittings from the materials and skills of its own area, and extends the life of what already exists through reuse, repair and transformation.

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The partners of the Zyrclo project

ADEME, Agence de la transition ecologiqueAgrement Entreprise Solidaire d'Utilite Sociale
How we work

Before it is a workshop,
Zyrclo is a project for its area

We never start with a piece of furniture. We start by understanding how something will be used, then we look at the materials and skills available around us. From there we work out a solution that is useful, built to last, and able to change over time.

Grumes et planches de bois de réemploi empilées au sol

We start from what already exists

Reclaimed wood, recycled plastic, secondary materials: what already exists is our first material.

Les mains d’un menuisier ajustant une pièce de bois sur un plateau, à l’établi

We draw on local skills

We do the work close to the materials, with the skills and the people of the area.

Assise démontable en plastique recyclé bleuté, montée sur des pièces de bois au bord de la mer

We design for the long run

Everything we make is meant to be taken apart, repaired and adapted. Its next life is planned from the design stage.

Une main posée sur le plateau d’un meuble en bois massif, à l’angle d’un assemblage apparent

We stay involved over time

Delivery is never the end. Maintaining, repairing, adapting, taking back: we keep each piece going as its use evolves.

Deux personnes assemblent à l’atelier un panneau de plastique recyclé et une pièce de bois

We pass on as much as we make

The workshop is also a place for learning and working together. Skills are shared here, tried out, and handed on.

Beyond making things

Designing, making, maintaining, repairing, adapting, taking back: we follow how things are used, over time.

Our purpose

ZYRCLO designs furniture and fittings, and keeps them going, drawing on the materials and the skills of rural areas.

We build equipment made to last, and extend the life of existing furniture through reuse, repair and transformation.

Our ambition: to bring about economic activity that is viable, useful where it stands and impossible to relocate, while keeping materials in use as long as possible, cutting waste, and strengthening cooperation between local players.

A project rooted in Villars-sur-Var
Vue en surplomb du village de Villars-sur-Var et de la vallée du Var, entre montagnes boisées
Materials given new uses
Tabouret en plastique recyclé bleu et bois, posé sur un rocher face à la mer
The workshop
La charpente en bois de l’atelier en construction : poteaux et aisseliers courbes soutiennent le débord de toit le long de la façade encore sous pare-pluie
How we work

A place that embodies how we work

In Villars-sur-Var, a former industrial brownfield site is becoming a place of production, of experiment and of cooperation. The workshop was designed under the Bâtiments Durables Méditerranéens scheme (BDM, Mediterranean Sustainable Buildings) and earned Gold level at the design stage. Here too, we start from what exists to create new uses and lasting value.

See the workshop

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An ecosystem

An ecosystem of skills

ZYRCLO brings together complementary skills around one ambition: to design, to make, and to keep things in use. Cooperation is not a side effect here, it is part of the project.

Contact us
Valérie Klein
President and founder
Valérie Klein
Alexis Breuil
Architect and project manager
Alexis Breuil
Céline Brugioni
Wood reuse and project development
Céline Brugioni
Amandine Lipari
BDM adviser
Amandine Lipari
Laurent Klein
Co-founder
Laurent Klein
Heidi Vincent
Functional and cooperative economy, ImmaTerra
Heidi Vincent
Amélie Bourgeois
Trajectory and cooperation, Mudita Conseil
Amélie Bourgeois
Tessa Godin
Communication & marketing strategy
Tessa Godin
Sophie Radisse
Functional and cooperative economy, ImmaTerra
Sophie Radisse

They work alongside the project

Caisse d'ÉpargneEcoInnTerre Azur, Réseau Initiative

They bring their skills to the project

Alexis Breuil, architecte et accompagnateurImmaTerraBâtiments Durables MéditerranéensFrance Active Provence-Alpes-Côte d'AzurEnvirobat BDM
ZYRCLO at the heart of the ÉcoTéa ecosystem
Logo écotéa

A place that belongs to something wider

ZYRCLO is part of the ÉcoTéa ecosystem, which takes over existing places to create, in rural areas, the conditions for a productive, local and cooperative economy. In Villars-sur-Var, ZYRCLO is its first productive foothold.

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Latest news

The Zyrclo journal

The build is moving forward, ideas are taking shape, partnerships are forming. Follow ZYRCLO as the project unfolds.

Read our journal
THE PROJECT

Why ZYRCLO is a social and solidarity economy company

For a long time, a company's success was measured by its ability to produce more, to win new markets and to grow. Those goals are still legitimate. But another question is becoming hard to avoid.

Read more →
COOPERATION

Why ZYRCLO is committed to the functional and cooperative economy (EFC)

People often picture ZYRCLO as a company that makes furniture out of reclaimed materials. That is not wrong. But almost nobody comes to us to talk about furniture.

Read more →
THE PLACE

Why ZYRCLO joined the Bâtiments Durables Méditerranéens scheme (BDM)

When we imagined the ZYRCLO workshop in Villars-sur-Var, the ambition was not only to put up a building to house a craft activity. We wanted a place that would say what we are.

Read more →
They trust us

Different views 
on Zyrclo

Zyrclo fully embodies the values championed by our network: those of the circular economy, with a commitment to extending the life cycle of products, preventing waste at source, and promoting reuse. Beyond these principles, however, Zyrclo demonstrates that they can be put into practice effectively at a local level, through collective intelligence and by harnessing local resources and expertise.

It was therefore only natural for Zyrclo to become one of our members, and I am delighted by their recent election to the Board of Directors of Éa éco-entreprises, which reflects the recognition and support their approach has earned across our entire network.

Cristina Colonna D'Istria
Executive Director, Éa Éco-entreprises
Every area could do with a Zyrclo! I am delighted to see an organisation of this kind take root in the Alpes-Maritimes, one that ties social, economic and environmental usefulness into its business plan. Hats off, too, to Valérie and her team for the courage to question the project and push usefulness and function further than the usual notion of "recycling".
Florent Favier
Accelerator of transitions
What makes Zyrclo singular is also that rare ability to bring together people and organisations that normally never speak to each other. To federate a whole ecosystem, patiently, so as to build together an answer that goes well beyond the company's industrial role alone.
Céline Brugioni
resources and evolution of the model
I have watched the project grow, taking in several projects within the project: a living thing that adapts to its surroundings, to the people it meets, and to the conditions it develops in. Valérie and Zyrclo have become a model for me, an inspiring path both human and entrepreneurial.
Amélie Bourgeois
trajectory, functional economy and cooperation
Photo Amaury Peyraud

Zyrclo is a fundamentally virtuous company. The BDM scheme gives full recognition to all that effort, which hardly feels like effort to the people behind the project, so deeply are they convinced that our society urgently needs to change paradigm. I am very proud to support this committed, forward-looking project. I hope ZYRCLO will set an example for others.

Amandine Lipari
BDM adviser