With Salone Bagno just around the corner we bring news of an iF Design Award for Tubes Radiatori’s Rift radiator, designed by Ludovica + Roberto Palomba with Matteo Fiorini. The iF Design Award is an annual award conferred by the iF International Design GmbH.
Here’s what Roberto Palomba had to say about the product and the award:
The Rift radiator by Tubes has won the iF Design Award, one of the most prestigious awards world-wide. In your opinion, what particular distinguishing feature struck a chord with the jury?
Roberto Palomba: Rift is the first radiator to feature major evolution in the way of thinking and designing this type of product within the home. Rift is far from the traditional idea of radiators, thanks to its elements that can be placed without any rule of order, either horizontally or vertically, revolutionising the concept of the radiator as a single, well-defined object.
This significant research conducted by Tubes into the world of radiators therefore continues. Rift is a project that moves completely away from the technical approach to this sector and sees the architect involved both as main player and designer.
Functionality and elegance are two key words: how do they come together in the design of Rift?
Roberto Palomba: Aesthetics and functionality are often thought as two competing facets, but we believe that the balance between these two elements generates what we commonly refer to as good design.
Is Rift the result of your experience as architects? In your opinion, was the market lacking this type of radiator, one that is modular, component-based and customisable?
Roberto Palomba: The whole Tubes project stems from our need, as architects, for radiator elements that give back some iconic value to the idea of warmth. It was fundamental to take the idea of warmth into the home through a new idea of contemporary iconicity, which
used to be provided by a fire in the fireplace or a stove, which represented semantically the centre of the home and hearth. In fact, the path taken by Tubes with Elements intends to rebuild a relationship between these themes and their symbolic and primary role on the domestic scene, changing and evolving, as art has changed from figurative to abstract and conceptual.
The iF Design Award has rewarded the best brands and products in the design world since the 1950s and it is considered to be one of the major world-wide competitions, drawing in more than 5,000 applicants from 70 different countries each year. Rift will be on display from 6th October 2016 until 19th February 2017 at the iF Design Exhibition Hamburg, the permanent exhibition in the centre of Hafencity in Hamburg.
For more information visit tubesradiatori.com
