The China Academy of Art (CAA) is set to reveal a stunning new concept car featuring our ampliTex™ natural fibre composites. This exciting project links the next generation of emerging Chinese automotive designers with the world’s foremost high-performance, sustainable composite technology, and opens a new, replicable pathway for industry-academia collaboration.
Fribourg, 16.05.2026 — Swiss sustainable materials company Bcomp has collaborated with the China Academy of Art (CAA) and the CAA Institute of Transportation Design in the creation of a revolutionary new concept car, Revelation. It is China’s first-ever drivable “art-science integration” concept car — a true from-zero-to-one undertaking — and will be publicly revealed on 16 May 2026.
Gabriele Grezzana, Business Development Manager — APAC at Bcomp, commented: “We are immensely proud to have worked closely with the CAA Institute of Transportation Design and Shanghai Tianjian Industrial Design Co., Ltd. on this project. Our technologies are now a well-established sustainable alternative to many automotive materials, favoured for both performance and aesthetic design. Alisson Liu’s (Liu Diannan/刘殿南) striking new concept signals a bright future for Chinese automotive design and lower-carbon materials.”
Prof. James Hope, Director of the CAA Institute of Transportation Design, commented: “I would like to thank Bcomp for their wonderful support and passion; Shanghai Tianjian Industrial Design Co., Ltd. (Tianjian) — who led engineering realisation and fabrication — for their indispensable contribution; Zhou Yize for project-managing the intensive development process; CAA master’s student Alisson Liu (Liu Diannan/刘殿南), whose talent is evident in every line of the vehicle; and all at CAA who supported and contributed to realising this ambitious project.
“By providing the opportunity to use these materials in a real-world, ‘from-zero-to-one’ project, we have gained the experience and expertise to specify their use with confidence, opening direct pathways to OEM design teams and partner institutes in the future. Now, the next generation of Chinese design can take sustainability even further, utilising lower-carbon materials and understanding how they can be used at scale in automotive production.”
CAA Institute of Transportation Design and Tianjian: from concept to reality
The winning concept was penned by master’s student Alisson Liu (Liu Diannan/刘殿南), whose design centres on sleek lines, state-of-the-art technology, and carbon neutrality. It was subsequently developed into a full-size, drivable concept show car — entirely conceived, engineered, and manufactured in China in partnership with Shanghai Tianjian Industrial Design Co., Ltd.
Alisson Liu (Liu Diannan/刘殿南), CAA master’s student and designer, commented: “It has been an honour to see my concept, Revelation, comes to life. My intention was to build upon fundamental principles of automotive design while embracing the electrified future and harnessing more sustainable materials. Bcomp is a pioneer and innovator in this area, taking sustainable composites from a niche technology to mainstream automotive production. We used ampliTex™ for many of the surfaces on Revelation, and the result is very impressive.”
In this collaboration, design leadership came from CAA, with Tianjian providing critical technical and manufacturing execution. Tianjian’s core role was production fabrication and engineering realisation. Leveraging their proprietary digital-twin review system and full-size adjustable review fixture, Tianjian enabled thorough vehicle-level validation throughout the design phase, an invaluable capability for a from-zero-to-one project of this complexity.
This demonstrates an innovative, replicable, and scalable model for university-industry collaboration, one that Chinese art and design institutions can adapt to their own contexts. By combining CAA’s creative vision with Tianjian’s manufacturing expertise, the project has delivered a genuine on-wheel validation platform that paves the way for future educational and industry partnerships.
Talented, emerging Chinese automotive designers understand the importance of environmentally conscious manufacturing and have an open mind to reduced-carbon materials. The lab in which Professor Hope and Alisson Liu developed this design highlights Bcomp as a composite materials partner, linking Swiss sustainable materials to emerging automotive designers bound for rapidly growing Chinese OEMs.
Bcomp’s biocomposites: where sustainability meets aesthetic excellence
The design balances futuristic aesthetics with technical precision. Recognising the performance and sustainability advantages of ampliTex™, the CAA Institute of Transportation Design applied the material extensively throughout Revelation, including the front bumper, rear bumper, body side skirts, seats, and wheel-cover hubs. This included “exposed” fibre parts, with the weave visible beneath the clear coat.
For the exterior, the team selected ampliTex™ in grey; for the wheel hubs, ampliTex™ in charcoal was used and the parts were overpainted in black. A high-gloss clear coat further accentuated the composite’s weave and tone, delivering a refined and modern automotive finish.
Automotive OEMs are increasingly adopting Bcomp’s technologies for interior and exterior applications, including current production vehicles for global brands. This is thanks to the performance, unique aesthetic properties, customisability, and sustainability of ampliTex™. The material has also proven itself extensively in motorsport, including Formula 1, GT racing, and motorcycle racing, thanks to its excellent vibration damping, stiffness, and low weight.
Unlike many conventional automotive composites and plastics, ampliTex™, designed and engineered in Switzerland, is woven from flax fibres, a renewable material that does not compete with food crops. Compared to other high-performance composites, such as carbon fibre, it reduces cradle-to-gate CO2 emissions by up to 85%. Additionally, once parts have reached the end of their service life, they can be used for thermal energy recovery, rather than being landfilled.
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Learn more about the China Academy of Art
About the China Academy of Art
The China Academy of Art (CAA, 中国美术学院) was founded in Hangzhou in 1928 by the educator Cai Yuanpei, as the first comprehensive national art institution of higher education in China. It is part of China’s national “Double First-Class” construction programme and holds an A+ rating in the national discipline assessments for Fine Arts and Design. CAA operates five campuses across Hangzhou and Shanghai and has around 10,000 students. It is widely regarded as one of China’s two leading art and design institutions.
About the CAA Institute of Transportation Design
The CAA Institute of Transportation Design was established in December 2022 within the School of Design. It is directed by Prof. James Hope — a graduate of College for Creative Studies (Detroit, 1992) and former Chief Designer at Ford Mustang, with senior design roles at Ford, DaimlerChrysler, General Motors, and former Executive Director of Design International at Chery Automobile. The Institute covers both undergraduate and postgraduate transportation design, and has run sponsored projects with Alfa Romeo, Zeekr and Xiaomi. The annual transportation design graduation show at the Xiangshan Campus in Hangzhou is a regular reference point in international automotive design media, including Car Design News and DVN.
