Each year during Milan Design Week, German manufacturer Axor invites some of the world’s top designers and architects to rethink the bathroom faucet using alternative materials and forms. The results are always amazing.
The project, called Axor WaterDream, uses a new technology called the U-base that allows for a variety of shapes, forms and materials to be attached. The universal fixture base provides a simple connection that enables the spout portion to be swapped out without addition sanitary installation. Here’s how five designers – including Jean-Marie Massaud, Werner Aisslinger and Front – reinterpreted the faucet spout, from one that provides a place for planting a mini-garden to a stack of marble disks. (Last year, students at ECAL created some very cool concepts for the same program.)
In British architect David Adjaye’s Ritual, water appears from under a granite inlay that is cradled by a wedge-shaped, precious metal spout made of bronze. The water, always in view, is ritualized: from source to flow and, finally, to descent.
German designer Werner Aisslinger’s The Sea and the Shore is a hybrid consisting of a fountain and a shelf for planting a bit of greenery near the sink. Crafted from clay, an ancient material, it emphasizes the longevity and the value of water.
Water flows like a fountain from platform to platform in Water Steps, a sculptural metal spout by the Swedish duo Front. Focusing on the playful exchange between form and water, it aesthetically and acoustically underlines the emotional potential of the natural element as it flows over PVD-finished, metallic surfaces.
Zen, designed by the Danish-Italian duo GamFratesi, reinterprets the classic Japanese wood fountain. With its minimalistic form and water flow, it achieves a tranquil and meditative spirit, which depicts the holistic connection between nature and water.
Jean-Marie Massaud’s Mimicry suggests a water-releasing object in harmony with the architectural landscape. Material (marble) and form (simple, geometric shapes) suggest an inherent connection to water and achieve an emotional enhancement of both object and resource.
