Axor, the designer brand of the mixer and shower manufacturer Hansgrohe SE, has won one of the most coveted media awards – the Wallpaper* Design Award 2014 – for the best shower. A high-caliber panel of judges, including fashion designer Victoria Beckham and US music producer / film director Spike Jonze, distinguished the Axor WaterDream by Front. It is the second Wallpaper* Design Award for Axor: in 2011 the brand received the the award for its Axor Bouroullec collection.

“Receiving the Wallpaper* Design Award is a great honour for us, and it confirms our successful design process from the concept right through to the finished product. This comes on the heels of the ‘Interior Innovation Awards – Best of Best’, which we received earlier this month for the new Axor ShowerProducts. Both awards show, that we are able to take well-conceived concepts and turn them into successful products that not only appeal to the trade, but also to a design-oriented public. We are delighted with this expression of appreciation for our work, which goes far beyond the development of the product itself,” says Philippe Grohe, the Head of the Axor.

Axor WaterDream by Front: a visual appreciation of water pathways

With a simplicity that is characteristic of Scandinavian design, Front focuses on the technical aspects of showers, presenting their Axor WaterDream as an homage to the plumbing trade and to the aesthetics inherent in technology. “Front shows us how something that is normally hidden from view can become a visually appealing and valued spatial construct,” says Philippe Grohe. Charlotte von der Lancken from Front adds: “We want to use our personal perception of the shower to draw attention to the technology behind the wall, which is often concealed. It is important for us to foster an awareness for the most archetypal aspect of the bathroom – the installation itself. For this reason, we played around with the most elementary components used to bring water to us – couplings, pipes, valves, funnels.”

Axor WaterDream: visions for the bathroom as a living space

For over 20 years now Axor has been working with architects, interior designers and product designers of international standing to create conceptual visions for the bathroom. “When we start planning for a new collection, we are less concerned with the marketable product itself. Instead, we focus on providing scope for creating something new, on breaking down long-established patterns of thinking, and on engaging in an open, interdisciplinary dialog with our design partners. This has made it possible for us to continuously break new ground and set new industry standards,” says Philippe Grohe.

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