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Re-thinking design and the shower
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| 19 Nov 2013 |
Axor, the designer brand of Hansgrohe SE, has launched its latest ShowerProducts in partnership with two leading young design studios, Nendo Design, Japan, and Front Design, Sweden. Nendo’s shower lamp indulges in artful shifts and transformations of concepts and meanings, while Front’s design draws its appeal from the reminiscence of impressionist public bathing culture, creating a totally new archetype for the shower’s handle.
Despite operating within different cultural contexts, the designs developed by the design studios Nendo and Front have one thing in common; both present new icons in a charming and captivating manner. Through innovative designs, water pathways are re-interpreted in surprising and unconventional ways, and long established functional and spacial separations between the living and bathroom spheres are challenged.
Giving the designers the creative freedom to question boundaries and move showering to the next level, the two studios came up with striking design ideas that couldn’t be more different from each other. Nendo draws inspiration from an emotional living space outside the bathroom, while Front explores the technical origins of the water installation. Deriving from the Axor “WaterDream”, a conceptual project initiated by Axor that seeks out alternative visions for the bathroom space, the new products pave the way for alternative visions of the bathroom as a living space.
Phillipe Grohe, Axor brand manager said: “Our focus is not primarily on the products, but on providing additional scope for creative development, for breaking down established behavior patterns, and for conducting an open, interdisciplinary dialogue. We focused specifically on the shower this time, using the competence Hansgrohe has gained over more than 111 years to reinterpret showering with Front and Nendo.”
Following in the footsteps of Patricia Urquiola, the Bouroullec brothers, and Jean-Marie Massaud, Nendo and Front created their WaterDreams, turning the essence of their shower dreams into a reality. Axor WaterDreams are conceptual installations that have repeatedly formed the basis for new Axor collections. This creative approach to product development works in a similar way as in the automotive industry which initiates new vehicle designs through the creation of concept cars.
Nendo: back to the origins
Led by its creative mind, Oki Sato, Nendo’s product brings together traditional separation; the light of the living room with the water of the shower. Commenting on his creation, Oki Sato said: “My aim was to combine what is most archetypal about the living space, the lighting with water, so as to give the shower an enhanced sensuous dimension in a way we have not yet seen before. The result is not just a shower, nor just a lamp, but a hybrid – a magic trick with light and water that is available day after day.”
Front: a visual appreciation of water pathways
Front’s product, created by Swedish trio, Sofia Lagerkvist, Charlotte von der Lancken, and Anna Lindgren, looks at the elementary components that bring water to the shower; pipes, valves, couplings and funnels. “We used our personal perception of the shower and showering to draw attention to the technology behind the wall, which is often concealed. It was important for us to foster an awareness of what is the most archetypal aspect of the bathroom – the installation itself.” explains Charlotte von der Lancken.
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