Axor is internationally renowned as a company which pushes the boundaries of design and challenges our understanding of functionality and aesthetics. Working with various design partners, of equal renown, Axor has released a new product which examines our interaction with water, with a special focus on showers. Two new products were released and today we will look at one from Japanese design studio Nendo.
In presenting its own WaterDream Oki Sato, the creative brain behind Nendo, says “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 something that 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”.
So, is it a lamp or is it a shower? And, how can it be both?
Philippe Grohe, grandson of the company’s founder Hans Grohe and an internationally-acclaimed designer himself, explains: “The natural coming together of light and water is freed from spatial constraints: what traditionally took place in separate rooms – reading under a lamp in the living room, taking a shower in the bathroom – can now be experienced free from spatial allocations or confinements,” he says.
Oki Sato is a Canadian-born product and interior designer and was recently named Wallpaper’s and Elle Decor’s “Designer of the Year 2012”. In 2006, at only 29 years old, he was named by Newsweek as one of the “100 Most Respected Japanese”. His list of clients is impressive and includes Cappellini, Kartell, Foscarini, Baccarat, Louis Vuitton, Hermès, Tod’s, Starbucks and Coca-Cola.
For more information visit www.hansgrohe.com or www.axor-design.com
To finish – I must ask: is it just me or is anyone else having Flashdance flashbacks when looking at this product?
