Design Stories Faucets

DESIGN STORIES FAUCETS

design stories

Table of Contents

MARGAUX™ 4

PINSTRIPE™ 8

ARTIFACTS™ 12

AVID™ 16

COMPOSED™ 20

PURIST™ 26

STILLNESS™ 30

LOURE™ 34

STANCE™ 38

BEITOU™ 42

SYMBOL™ 46

ALEO™ 50

KUMIN™ 54 KOHLER DESIGN STUDIOS 58

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MARGAUX™ Whereas many faucets possess a muted aesthetic in order to complement interiors, Margaux simultaneously demands attention and harmonizes with classically inspired surroundings.

Kohler’s American studio created additional reference to personal Margaux when the designers noted objects found in the bathroom, the rising popularity of eclectic such as quilted linens and perfume decorating. Margaux bridges bottles. Digital manufacturing traditionalism and modernism in ensures that these details have a similar way, by combining curves the precise sculpting required and edges with a thoroughly to convey their luxurious intent. modern stance. In finishing these shapes, the designers made

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For a house to be successful, the objects in it must communicate with one another... ANDRÉE PUTMAN

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PINSTRIPE™ Our motivation was one of representing tradition with a scale and proportion that gives strength of character.

Pinstripe is anything but diminutive. valet box. We thought it essential With an open-eyed optimism and to include cross as well as lever confidence reflected in the engraved handles in the collection as a pinstripes that accentuate the more formal nod to tradition. spout and handles, Pinstripe becomes a well-tailored element The Kohler design team loves fundamental to the personality of teasing this kind of visual story the environment where it resides. out of the research we do when The faucet’s refined geometry developing the persona of a line and polished elegance are as of faucets. What began as a study retrospective to the architectural in balance became the shape of elements of a great library as they structured exuberance. are to the contents of a man’s

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Riches have never fascinated me, unless combined with the greatest charm or distinction. F. SCOTT FITZGERALD

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ARTIFACTS™ Wishing to create a collection that allows people to piece together a unique design solution within a system of forms, the Kohler U.S. design studio turned to the past for inspiration.

Artifacts reimagines Edwardian a culture that embraces highly design for today’s bathroom personalized design. We wanted spaces. We drew on the overall each piece of the collection to aesthetic of turn-of-the-century be distinct in form and ornamental designs reflecting the ingenuity details, yet to feel part of a whole. of practical-minded craftsmen Artifacts, with multiple spout and who made do with the resources handle options featuring detailed at hand. turnings and finials, allows people to compose a space one piece Artifacts revives this pragmatic at a time, each piece chosen for approach within the context of its particular character.

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Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will. GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

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Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will. GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

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AVID™

Contemporary interior design has an infinite variety A global design team, using cultural spout. As it turns forward, Avid splits, of expressions. To discover the potential for new and conversations as a springboard, set projecting a graceful fingertip-control inspiring faucet designs, we continuously converse with about encapsulating contemporary lever far forward. The lever connection mood in metal, seeking sensitivity is pushed as far back as possible designers and consumers worldwide, probing for insight and emotional connection without to maintain a continuous flowing and meaning that we can connect to with new design. sliding into embellishment or cliché. surface through the 90-degree turn. This work caused us to debate emotion in modern design and consider how to craft minimalism, to prevent it Avid’s elegant, modern and somewhat By pairing painstaking simplicity with from becoming impersonal without resorting to known feminine form was created by the visual comfort, versatile Avid creates U.S. team following an extensive an inviting emotional response and visual characteristics – a non-referential modernity, collaborative concept period. Fluid coordinates with most contemporary without a backward glance. metal flows from deck through bathroom interiors.

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Original 25mm NEW 35mm

Avid™ and Composed™ mark a new era of global collaboration at Kohler. When research revealed consumers’ desires for diverse self-expression and contemporary design within bathroom interiors, Kohler called upon all five of its design studios to create a response. International colleagues supported development, critique and completion of two concepts that emerged from the initial request. Submissions from the U.S. studio eventually won. However, the interaction of designers, immersed in their local cultures and of diverse cultural backgrounds and experiences, catalyzed the creation of a tantalizing spectrum of designs. Creativity is endless – with an open mind there are so many ways to create delightful meaning!

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Design dissolving into behavior. SUSAN SONTAG

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Bauhaus, designed by Walter Gropius

COMPOSED™ Diversity within interior design delights and inspires designers at Kohler. Communications and social media streams now fuel experimentation, the leading edge dancing forward constantly. Against this fluid backdrop, creating new product demands clarity of purpose and a refusal to compromise.

Resonant within our observations was Inspiration for Composed finally and reduced, seeking to achieve the repeated role of the best of the came from Rowena Reed Kostellow, poise and purpose from the most best, those seemingly timeless pieces a professor at Brooklyn’s famed Pratt compact circular and rectilinear that find purpose in many interiors. They Institute between 1939 and 1988. forms. A side-mounted control was are frequently simple, always highly Kostellow showed generations of introduced to strictly maintain the resolved and truthful to their intent. artists and designers how to transform visual balance, whilst providing precisely defined basic shapes into sensitive fingertip adjustment. Joystick This mindset led us to explore the visual poems that elicit an emotional and widespread models carry more meaning of a minimalist masterpiece response. The single-handle faucet conventional handles but have the in modern times with the intent that led our exploration. Often the most same disciplined attention to detail. when honestly formed, it could play difficult piece to design, with our a wide variety of roles within the self-imposed goal, it would set the Composed is obsessively so. The flux of interior expression in modern standard for the Composed range. intent is to delight in detail whatever bathroom architecture. Its elements were repeatedly refined its role within the interior.

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Art is the elimination of the unnecessary. PABLO PICASSO

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Design exploration only, not part of final Composed collection.

Sub-dominant

Subordinate

Dominant

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single-handle faucets The handle designs favor a minimalist aesthetic for a timeless beauty. The pure handle offers pure simplicity with a touch of whimsy and surprise, while the joystick provides elegance for a distinctive visual statement.

pure handle lever handle joystick

deck-mount

wall-mount

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widespread faucets

cross handles lever handles

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PURIST™

In our conversations with designers and consumers The U.S. design team led the the bathroom application but about the bathrooms they were wanting to create, design and reduced the product staying true to the functional intent. personalized minimalism was a frequent topic. The to its basic elements as a starting In our research, we also found the point. Delving into the industrial source of the faucet’s subtle calming allure of perfect proportion, order and refined origins of water supply, they were character. To anchor the product, detail has an enduring and broad appeal – a counterpoint inspired by the cast, forged and we designed a turned escutcheon to a 24/7 lifestyle. For some, this disciplined architecture wrought components where form inspired by industrial-revolution-era is all that’s needed, but for many it forms a background clearly followed function. mouldings and industrial couplings. against which individuality can then be expressed Handles start and finish with precise A simple hand pump led to the unique external and internal radii to give through objects, art or carefully chosen design. This body, handle and spout architecture a quietly decorative strength. is how we approached the design of Purist; we wanted which defines the Purist bathroom to achieve simplicity with soul to provide a choice for sink faucet and is the essence of Purist is minimalism with a twist: a discerning eye. the range. We stripped this iconic contemporary, versatile and form back, making adjustments for confidently original.

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In history, a great volume is unrolled for our instruction… EDMUND BURKE

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STILLNESS™

The pursuit of less in order to mean more has been And so water became the start. laminar flow and how, through a defining architectural trend in modern times. As By reducing what defines a faucet precise design, we could extend science and technology continue to redefine what is to its most elemental nature, you the Stillness experience through return to the purity of a stream of the water to you. possible, we continue to refine, reduce and perfect water that must flow from its origin our definitions of minimalism. The attraction is simplicity. to your use. Draw this path, clad the Innovation in manufacturing process Whether in architecture or product, the eye sees and water in the least metal and you was required to achieve previously comprehends efficiently, making time for all else. This define Stillness. This became our impossible bend radii and the defined the brief. A product that could harmonize design principle. Tubular forms precise intersection of thin handles reduced to their smallest allowable to valves. To achieve a simple within, or by itself add a sense of quiet perfection. sizes. Handles defined in length single-hole faucet required total and height by a hand’s dimensions. deconstruction. The components The thickness is only that required, were redistributed, placing the valve nothing more. We also observed how below the deck and finding a new the beauty of a pure stream of water way to restore control within the was destroyed by conventional slimmest diameter spout. aerators. Water is the ultimate experience and so we explored ways Stillness is evidence of the to preserve this. We discovered disciplined pursuit of less.

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The essence of genius is to know what to overlook. WILLIAM JAMES

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LOURE™ Geometric composition in interior architecture lies behind the design intent of Loure. We saw the need for a faucet that was able to enhance luxury bathrooms typically described by linearity and surface.

This idea of surface came to define of the spout itself. Every piece in the product. We saw the potential the range refers back to this, to to build upon some of the principles provide regimented coordination

we had established within Stillness™ across the entire bathroom. Handles and its approach to reduction of are blocks floating above the complexity in order to achieve purity. counter surface, the valves hidden By folding a sheet of water to take below in order to preserve the it from source to destination, we simple purity of the aesthetic. established our language. Its form is linear, planar and almost two- In its precision, Loure gains a subtly dimensional. Water clad in metal, decorative tone. Highlights formed seemingly laser-cut and formed from at its crisp edges create a distinctive a single sheet. Its width is defined silhouette. Yet it remains resolute in by the intended function; the water its straight, linear intent. stream it provides is an extension

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Stegastein viewpoint along the Aurlandsfjellet National Tourist Route, Norway Photographer: Vegar Moen Architects: Todd Saunders and Tommie Wilhelmsen

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The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. MARCEL PROUST

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Salk Institute, designed by Louis Kahn

STANCE™ Bathroom design is adapting to the pampering and grooming rituals that are part of modern lifestyle, demanding enlarged areas for us to lay out our select beauty and care products, with storage to conceal them when not in use. Thus cubes and surfaces, geometrically defined, frequently describe a modern bathroom.

This observation led us to the intention Hence, from the user’s perspective, flow that it contains and delivers. to create a primarily cubic faucet range Stance is just this: a presentation of The duality of mass and a cantilevered that could stand confidently within the water at a convenient height set on slim surface pushed boundaries in bathroom environment. As our concept a strong upright pillar, reduced and body-casting processes, requiring exploration began, our thoughts set back so as not to interrupt. innovative cooling systems and revolved around the presentation Joystick lever control allows leading to final design detail only of a simple plain surface that would interaction to be totally bounded made possible by intimate interplay completely contain both control by the top surface, while close between designer and manufacturer. and water delivery. Any other form inspection reveals an underside would recede to a supporting role. seemingly formed by the water Stance is surface made solid.

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Simultaneous contrast is not just a curious optical phenomenon—it is the very heart of painting. JOSEF ALBERS

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BEITOU™ There is no experience so central to our nature as that involving water. Little wonder that so many of our rituals celebrate and revere it. It defines our well-being. Whatever term is used to describe it, the modern spa is simply our version of an ancient custom, using water to rejuvenate, relax and help reinvigorate us.

Experience of water is deeply created the strongest emotional presented up on a stage for our resonant, none more so than in connection – its movement, indulgence and experience. Water its natural environment. If we could reflections, the feel upon fingers rises spring-like and flows smooth create a product that captured the suspended in its flow, its gentle and true in a channel seemingly essence of this, we knew that this sound when allowed to run free. worn by water, cascading gently could embody luxury. We looked back at rivers, their into outstretched hands. meanders and passage around Asia is rich in cultural heritage with and over stone. To capture this There is intentionally nothing more. the pursuit of peace, tranquility and within the confines of a bathroom It is bound by the most basic wisdom through ritual and natural environment presents numerous geometry. A cantilevered spout reflection at its center. Our Shanghai challenges. Not forgetting that supported on a honed cubic pillar design team thus led our exploration, the experience must also deliver that is designed to recede, seeking to place natural experience excellent bathing functionality, creates a simple contemporary first. Concepts which allowed the in Beitou we created a form to form that readily complements simple beauty of water to dominate celebrate water, placing water first, many settings. 43

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Though it seems simple, the spout’s surface required extensive development to deliver uniform sight, sound and feel at all flow levels. The body details are engineered to diminish, to disappear to allow water to stand alone.

Well-being through water. Celebrated. Presented.

By Beitou™.

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If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water. LOREN EISELEY

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SYMBOL™ We sometimes need to simply walk, to be surrounded by nature and soak it in. To reset, reframe, take a breath, listen and just feel.

Symbol was designed to provide a The finished design is characterized distinct, naturally expressive choice by its sinuous surface, shapely body using the symbolism of water, flow and scalloped lever handle, which and organic design. Wanting the reflects a leaf curl oriented to fall product to be affordable and perfectly to hand. Within the Symbol demanding that functional fitness collection, each body has a uniquely remain, we imposed constraints on crafted shape to achieve its own installation, water valve selection and balance and proportion in keeping control, and water outlet position. with its particular purpose while The Kohler design team sculpted remaining true to the overall meaning. a form that not only feels intuitive as an enveloping path for water, but as the shape that affords and invites connection.

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There is a willow grows aslant a brook that shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream... WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

XXL 450mm

XL 300mm

L 205mm

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Walt Disney Concert Hall, designed by Frank Gehry

ALEO™ The design of Aleo and Aleo+ resulted from our research into the evolving and complex nature of modern urban lifestyle. There is a conflict in priorities emerging between work and home and efforts to find a new balance. The role of the bathroom is evolving constantly as a result. No longer is it just a place to bathe, but an extension of living space, with multi-mode, multi-person needs demanding the highest standards of design, hygiene, performance and intuitive functionality.

The Paris studio led the design balance that solves and does not an engineered-polymer core that and began by exploring compact, create problems. provides unparalleled hygiene democratic forms that could and ease of maintenance. simultaneously convey robust Its flat-topped handle and spout quality and precision within a friendly with a clean, symmetrical edge Aleo’s design reflects modern intuitive form. The concepts resulting announce precise construction. efficiency, invigorated by very few were exacting compositions of The sinuous underside of the spout gestures, while enhancing the masculine and feminine meanings and the blending of body to sink ease with which users can handle seeking to create a relevant and deck is softened and approachable. and clean the faucet. original solution with a modesty and All are seamlessly integrated with

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The chief function of the city is to convert power into form, energy into culture... LEWIS MUMFORD

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Detail of Sydney Opera House, designed by Jørn Utzon

KUMIN™ Kumin represents a company-wide belief that all people deserve great design and embodies modern

design at an entry-level price in the KOHLER® family of faucets.

Created by Kohler’s London studio, product with market-leading design and body is elevated above spout Kumin is based on conversations and quality at the entry level. level to integrate these usually with consumers worldwide that Innovation in process was identified disparate forms. An additional identified potential for relevant that allowed seamless body and benefit to this is ease of cleaning originality in a relatable kind of spout forms to be cast with great at what is usually a difficult junction. minimalism. In response, Kumin’s precision, giving the designers clarity designer sought to find a balance and an opportunity to explore. Simultaneously restrained and between a tall, upright stance with personable, Kumin is at once a perpendicular spout (embodying Thus, Kumin was able to be created intuitive, memorable and versatile. functional needs) and a versatile with pure geometry – its lozenge- form that is at once modern and shaped perimeter precisely defining warm. Once a conceptual design its waist. From this, the body, spout language had been established and handle are formed in a tense that could achieve this, every domed form that implies its purpose: part of the process was considered to deliver pressurized water to hand. in order to enable the creation of a The intersection between handle

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Eero Saarinen’s Womb Chair

The only ideals allowed are healthy ones—those everyone may aspire to... SUSAN SONTAG

Some of the greatest innovators in history are borrowers, applying existing technology to another market in an unexpected, groundbreaking way. After observing an assembly line at a meat-packing plant, Henry Ford imported the method to car manufacturing. Nature may also be a source of inspiration. Consider George de Mestral, who created Velcro by replicating the attachment formed by burrs hooking into his clothing.

Kumin came to life in a similar way. By casting the faucet’s whole shape in one step, Kohler could unlock significant cost savings. Yet the design team also needed that process to yield a precise exterior and avoid costly machining of the surface. Study across industries turned up an intriguing opportunity proven in sports equipment and engine manufacture. Kumin utilizes a hybrid single-casting process, in which precise steel tools mold the exterior while lost cores shape the volume inside the faucet.

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KOHLER DESIGN STUDIOS

LONDON, ENGLAND

PARIS, KOHLER, FRANCE USA

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SHANGHAI, CHINA NEW DELHI, INDIA

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DESIGN STORIES FAUCETS