[ Wash Basin KANERA ] Graft

An innovative wash basin KANERA series by Graft, a design firm located in Los Angeles, Berlin, and Beijing. The design was inspired by the movement of water in relation with the wash basin.

+ Bathing Inspiration
A sink like KANERA 1 E, having just won the renowned red dot award: product design 2008, awarded by The Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen on March, 14th is the pinnacle of industrial design. Firstly it has to “function” and secondly it has to have “form”, -a form that packages the function in a way that awakens desire. This sensual play requires the highest level of qualifications in each phase of the developing process in order to continually evoke new emotions and enduringly supersede expectations. This way the impulsive design of the KANERA 1 E matured in a one year long, inspiring interplay of emotion and efficiency, of creativity and do-ability and last but not least man and material.

+ An Idea takes form

The designers task was to exactly and authentically translate specific data of product substance into a convincing iconography. In the specific case of the KANERA 1E, it meant to sensually stage the poetry of water within the overall concept “bath” in accordance to the wishes of Christian Kaldewei, owner of Kanera. Not much more was necessary in the first almost casual encounter with GRAFT to convince them of embarking on the creative adventure of product design.
remembers one of GRAFTs partners, Wolfram Putz., who with GRAFT has acquired international fame for among other, building spectacular hotels and apartments. “We are generally driven by the question: what creates inspiration, and how does contemporary design express it? Again reason for this new challenge.

The open enthusiasm of Christian Kaldewei accompanied the following jam sessions as GRAFT titles internal workshops. Creativity needs this understanding: exchange of ideas, determining tenor and technical DNA of product. This first design phase peaked in design variants that pretty accurately showed where the direction could go.

+ The Goal is determined

Because water displays a life of its own, sanitary objects are considered as technically complex entity, the architects of GRAFT retrospectively confirm this. Time and time again the interplay between creative language of shapes and flowing content is digitally simulated and transferred into three-dimensional Models. The entire process of realisation is accompanied by design engineers who check and align the creation with the technical prerequisites of serial production.

The entire process endured approximately one year until the KANERA 1 E was ready to grace the first bathroom. The resulting object combines next to formal requirements and highest standards a phenomenological quality which comprises the special appeal of the design.

+ About Kanera

The company, founded by Christian Kaldewei and headquartered in Münster, offers exclusive enamelled steel wash basins for the high-end segment the in professional hotel and apartment construction industry as well as the high-quality end-customer market. The product range has been established with the exclusive wash basin KANERA 1 E. The smaller hand wash basin KANERA 1 H for guests and the innovative double wash basin KANERA 1 D will follow in 2008. All products are developed and manufactured in Germany.
+ About Graft

GRAFT is an architecture studio offering all phases. GRAFT is based in Los Angeles, California, in Berlin, Germany and Beijing, China. The company was founded in 1998 in Los Angeles, California by Lars Krückeberg, Wolfram Putz and Thomas Willemeit. The office in Berlin was opened in 2001 and in 2003 GRAFT opened a further office in Beijing, China, which is headed by Gregor Hoheisel, founding partner for the office in Beijing. GRAFT refuses to accept the exclusive limitations of artificial borders between disciplines and elements and opens new possibilities for the creation of all-embracing products. Unexpected and surprising misunderstandings, global transfer of architectonic beauty, robust crossbreeds - architecture derived out of circumstances, which can only be created through the grafting of different realities.


from  plusmood