Patricia Urquiola – like Philippe Starck, Antonio Citterio and Jean-Marie Massaud – is one of the world’s 25 best designers – and one of the creative development partners of Hansgrohe AG; on behalf of Axor.
The creative heads behind the products and collections of Hansgrohe AG are among the world’s 25 best designers – five additional iF Product Design Awards in 2009
Schiltach, March 2009. Whether in the category of seating furniture, automobiles or hand showers, shape and design are key contributory factors in determining the success of a product. A high-caliber jury has seleced the world’s best 25 designers: Philippe Starck, Jean-Marie Massaud, Patricia Urquiola and Antonio Citterio already represent four of the Top 25 in the service of Hansgrohe AG. On behalf of Axor, the designer brand of the bathroom and plumbing specialists operating with a global reach and with headquarters in Schiltach in the Black Forest, the world’s best creative heads develop exceptional bathroom collections and completely new design ideas for bathrooms as a living space – as accomplished most recently by Patricia Urquiola with her latest project, “Axor Urquiola”. After all, apart from purely functional or hygiene-related aspects, design plays an essential role in creating an atmosphere of relaxation and wellbeing in bathrooms – more so than in any other room.
Grown design culture
On behalf of the magazine “Euro”, a jury of renowned design experts, including Wolfgang Egger, Head of Design at Audi, Peter Zec, Managing Director of the Design Zentrum NRW in Essen, Florian Hufnagel, Director of Collections at the Munich Museum „Die Neue Sammlung“ (“New Collection”) and Eva Schaeffer, Editor-in-chief of the lifestyle magazine Elle Decoration, determined the ranking of the world’s foremost 25 designers. Apart from functionality and market potential, above all the members of the jury considered the innovation potential, the international significance and the future relevance of the designers. As many as four representatives of the newly selected world elite collaborate with Hansgrohe AG. The bathroom fixtures and shower manufacturer from the Black Forest, one of the first companies in this industry to take up the challenge of producing outstanding design, has been setting new benchmarks in terms of product design since the late 1960s. “Thanks to a design culture that has grown in the course of decades, which keeps receiving robust and fresh impetus from our design partners who operate successfully in a great many different industry segments,” explains Philippe Grohe, Head of the Axor designer brand, “we succeed time and again in developing genuine design innovations and, accordingly, in setting trends in the market. Good design – combined with innovative technologies – represent one of the main success factors to Axor and Hansgrohe.” This is documented by more than 280 international design and innovation awards that products from Hansgrohe AG have received to date. “These awards”, says Philippe Grohe, “are the result of our both productive and highly ambitious cooperative ventures with such international design greats as Philippe Starck, Antonio Citterio, Patricia Urquiola, Jean-Marie Massaud and Phoenix Design, of whom we are extremely proud.”
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