Gulf Construction Online - Icon 3D wins Best Product Design award

Bathrooms

The award-winning Icon 3D design from Grohe.

Icon 3D wins Best Product Design award

01 December 2019

Grohe's Icon 3D collection, comprising the first 3D metal-printed taps by a leading European sanitary ware brand, emerged as the winner of the Best Product Design at the Blueprint Awards 2019, which recognises companies that are at the forefront of innovation in design and architecture.

“To have been named the winner of such a prestigious award with 14 strong contenders, all trailblazers in their respective fields, is a special achievement,” says Raj Mistry, marketing director for Grohe UK.

In the competitive category, Grohe says it was up against fellow industry heavyweights such as Gensler, Minarc and Zaha Hadid Design. The winners were announced in a ceremony at Fabric, London, on October 17.

“Our global design team continually strives to set the bar for what is achievable in product design and to be recognised by Blueprint in this category is a clear demonstration that we are leading the way. Grohe has made considerable R&D (research and development) investment in 3D printing to really push the industry forward. We are humbled to be recognised by such a respected editorial voice of the industry,” Mistry remarks.

Blueprint Awards 2019 judge Sir Nicholas Grimshaw called Icon 3D “simple but beautiful and finely detailed products achieved by 3D metal printing”.

With ultra-thin structures and hollow interiors being key features of the Icon 3D, Grohe explores how visual illusion and spectacle could influence the changing landscape of sanitary ware design in the future. “Icon 3D has been created to start new conversations and ways of thinking when it comes to bathroom product design. The company’s vision to refine the design to its bare minimum also helps cut back as much as 50 per cent of precious material resources whilst providing a new, unprecedented experience with water and tap design,” Mistry explains.

Icon 3D combines state-of-the-art digital technology with hand-crafted Grohe quality. The components for the Icon 3D are produced by printing metal, using a powder bed laser melting process, a material unique to Grohe, developed by its R&D team. Consisting of more than 4,000 applied layers of superfine stainless steel powder that are only a few micrometres thick each, the form of each tap is formidably strong. Following the printing, each component is mechanically treated on a CNC (computerised numerical controlled) milling machine, followed by a manual grinding and fine brushing procedure.

Grohe is a leading global brand for full bathroom solutions and kitchen fittings and has a total of over 6,000 employees, 2,400 of whom are based in Germany. The company, which has been part of the Japan-based Lixil Group Corporation since 2014, has been developing new product categories since its inception. This includes the Grohe Blue and Red water systems and the recently-introduced Grohe Sense water security system, which is an innovative component in the growth market of smart home technology.

In the past 10 years alone, more than 300 design and innovation awards as well as several top rankings at the German Sustainability Award have confirmed Grohe’s success. Grohe was the first in its industry to win the German government’s CSR prize and was also featured in the Fortune magazine’s ranking of Top 50 that are “Changing the World”.

Lixil makes pioneering water and housing products that solve everyday, real-life challenges, creating world-leading technology and innovating to make high-quality products that transform homes.