By Simon Keane-Cowell.
We connect with Patrick Speck and Carina Buhlert, design experts at GROHE – one of the leading global bathroom-solutions and kitchen-fixtures brands – to discuss product innovation and the launch of its new digital-experience platform, GROHE X.
For all the innovative technology and hard 'Formgebung' – as the Germans sometimes refer to design – that global bathroom-solutions and kitchen-fittings player GROHE is involved in, it’s the soft stuff that really counts. Bodies, minds, desires, pleasures.
‘At GROHE,’ explains Patrick Speck, who, in his capacity as Leader LIXIL Global Design EMENA, is responsible for the GROHE brand, ‘all design activities begin with the question “What do people need?” We invest a substantial amount of time tracking, identifying and exploring trends, observing and analysing cultural references and their sources, all of which allows us to spot future trends in consumer behaviour.’ With such an emphatic user-centred approach to product development, it’s no wonder the brand marches under the banner of ‘Pure Freude an Wasser’ (Pure joy of water).
At GROHE, all design activities begin with the question ‘What do people need?’
But sensory celebration is backed up with a serious commitment to sustainability, hygiene and sanitation, as my wide-ranging interview with Speck and fellow LIXIL expert Carina Buhlert reveals. Equally serious is the brand’s commitment to professional specifiers, as evidenced by the launch of GROHE X, a new digital-experience platform that allows architects and planners, among others, to experience total, virtual living environments, access detailed product information, and watch how-to-install video content. As Buhlert, Leader Global Design and Brand Environments & Experiences for EMENA, puts it, ‘Visitors can move through spaces and experience product solutions first-hand.’
GROHE X clearly marks the spot for future-forward bathroom and kitchen specification.
