International, 15.3.2011: Laufen wins several awards for sustainability in design and architecture

Design awards acknowledge a company’s innovative power and conceptual skills. The Swiss bathroom specialist Laufen is now the delighted holder of nine coveted awards in all, paying tribute to the good design, sustainability and user-friendliness of its products.

The award winners include Mimo (Good Design Award 2010), the water-saving WC from ILBAGNOALESSI One and the Laufen Forum (both Green Good Design Award 2010), Florakids (iF Product Design Award 2011), the large Palace washbasin (Red Dot Design Award 2011) and the Cityprime Lumitouch faucet (Red Dot Design Award 2010), and Laufen pro liberty and Lb3 comfort WC (both Universal Design Award 2011 and Universal Design Consumer Favorite 2011 respectively).

That the Mimo bathroom collection has more to offer than its imaginative design concept deeply impressed the prestigious jury of the Good Design Award 2010. It particularly appreciated the combination of fresh design language (Design: Phoenix Design, Stuttgart) and high functionality, for Mimo is not only a bathroom for the younger generation but also an excellent solution for compact bathroom layouts.

Another award winner was the water-saving WC from the ILBAGNOALESSI One series (Design: Stefano Giovannoni/ALESSI), which flushes reliably and in compliance with standards with just 4.5 litres of water. In this case, it was primarily the combination of elegance and ecological responsibility which in the jury’s view merited a Green Good Design Award – a special award within the Good Design Awards – in the Product Design category. The jury found it remarkable that the WC has been on the market for around 10 years and has been constantly updated to state-of-the-art standard by Laufen. The design was also regarded as timelessly modern. As Marc Viardot, Marketing and Product Director at Laufen commented on the award: “sustainability and timelessness in terms of technology and design are two of the fundamental criteria when we develop new products. “

Laufen received its second Green Good Design Award for its innovative and sustainable exhibition and visitor centre. The Laufen Forum, a three-storey building made of fair-faced concrete, is both an architectural statement by Laufen and a hub dedicated to the bathroom (Design: Nissen & Wentzlaff Architekten, Basel). Covering 21,325 square metres, the building which is suitable for disabled access, houses the product showroom, as well as rooms for exhibitions, presentations, training and trying out baths. The well-insulated building is heated via thermo-active ceilings (thermo-active building system TABS) while controlled ambient ventilation of the windowless building ensures a resource-saving and reliable basic form of air conditioning, when required.

It’s not just children who love Florakids, the child-friendly bathroom from Laufen: the judges for the iF award also discovered their love of this colourful bathroom with its ingenious functions – and awarded Florakids the iF Product Design Award. When designing the bathroom for children, the designer Andreas Dimitriadis (platinumdesign) and Laufen attached particular importance to two things: the consistent adoption of a child’s perspective in the design, whilst at the same time attuning all functions precisely to the needs of small children.

In recognition of its high design quality the new large cut-to-size washbasin from the Palace bathroom collection (design: Andreas Dimitriadis) was presented with the Red Dot Design Award 2011. The jury was impressed by the perfect combination of precision, clarity, emotionality and function. Its soft fluid surfaces, lavish bowl which merges seamlessly into ample surfaces, chromed hand towel rail and option of custom cutting the ceramic element sealed Palace’s success in the competition comprising 4,433 products from over 60 countries.

The faucets also demonstrate Laufen’s innovative power. The Red Dot Design Award 2010 was bestowed on the Cityprime Lumitouch faucet with low-contact control. The expert international jury was deeply impressed by the overall faucet concept which combines convenient operation with a clear design language and intelligent functions for saving water and energy (Design: Jürg Heuberger, Basel).

This year’s Universal Design Award and Universal Design Consumer Favorite were bestowed both on the Laufen pro liberty washbasin for wheelchair access (Design: Laufen) and the ergonomically raised Lb3 comfort WC (Design: Ludovica+Roberto Palomba, Milan). Both the expert jury and consumers interviewed praised the two products for so stylishly translating user friendliness into good design and for lending themselves to makeovers.

As Alberto Magrans, Senior Managing Director of Laufen remarked delightedly: “Winning ten design awards for product design, architectural excellence and ecological responsibility is an honour and a dream start to the ISG year 2011. It encourages us to carry on with our chosen course”. Accordingly to Magrans, the Swiss bathroom specialist aims to combine in its products a high standard of craftsmanship and the very best that technology and design has to offer, while at the same time focusing on the environmental friendliness of production processes and products.

Digilinq_Laufen_Design_Awards_2010_&_2011_en.pdf