Philippe Starck (right) and Axor brand manager Philippe Grohe presented at the Milan Furniture Fair a small, perfect square
“Haute Couture for the Shower”The real star at the world premiere of the Axor Starck ShowerCollection today, Wednesday, at Milan’s Museum Minguzzi were neither the grand master of design Philippe Starck nor Axor brand manager Philippe Grohe. Attention of all media representatives from 25 countries was chiefly focused on a small, perfect square measuring 12 x 12 centimeters: the basic element of the new shower collection developed by Philippe Starck and Axor, the designer brand of Hansgrohe AG (www.axor-design.com). “The Axor Starck ShowerCollection,” said Philippe Starck, “is a complete program, a genuine system consisting of a whole lot of small, square objects that can be combined to form an infinite range of totally flexible solutions. This is what we call Haute Couture for the shower.” Shower, thermostat, lighting and speaker modules as well as shelf units conform to the same square shape and the same austere design, as are the control elements such as faucets and mixers. All the modules can be combined freely in any arrangement, and in any number. Used as a free-standing individual solution or combined in a group, whether in a horizontal or vertical arrangement, centered in space or distributed in an asymmetrical design – the result will always be new and highly individual living environments in the bathroom. “In the Axor Starck ShowerCollection, we succeeded in developing not so much individual products, but an entire concept for the bathroom as a living space that provides the ultimate in creative freedom,” Philippe Grohe sums up. “It meets people’s growing need for individual well-being and, based on esthetics of wellness, turns taking a shower into a satisfying experience – esthetically, functionally, technologically, and especially emotionally.” The designer brand Axor and Philippe Starck can together look back on 16 years’ highly successful collaboration. Their first joint collection, the Axor Starck Classic released in 1994, represented a revolutionary milestone in bathroom design, and it remains a bestseller to this day.
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