Redesigning a classic is a task not to be taken lightly It s a design opportunity that involves walking a tightrope between respecting the past and opening oneself up to future ideas Michael Seum Vice President Design at GROHE was delighted however to step up to exactly this challenge in the shape of redesigning the classic GROHE Atrio faucet It was he says an exciting opportunity to build on the strengths of this GROHE icon while giving it a feeling of timeless ness I felt it was a move we needed to make to make the product more iconic he says To me what makes something iconic is that you could ask someone to draw it from memory I wanted the faucet to be something that doesn t fade into the background but that still gives pleasure to the user ten years from now The striking simplicity and purity of line in the new Atrio faucet achieves exactly that The original Atrio was a warhorse a staple of the brand which people were very attached to Michael says explaining the mix of excitement and responsibility that undertaking such a project entailed The original Atrio has been part of the GROHE family of faucets for over 17 years but it was felt that a move to a more contemporary style segment was necessary for the product to remain competitive and relevant in the current market In the past Atrio was a mixture of style segments sitting somewhere between contemporary and cos mopolitan Michael explains of where Atrio was positioned within the wider GROHE family In this relaunched Atrio series we have firmly rooted the new collection in our contemporary design segments which is one of the most timeless of styles within the GROHE SPA portfolio Updating a design that has been so successful for a brand requires a delicate mix of skills as well as clarity and confidence about the aims of making such a change The challenge was to find the balance between paying respect to the previous line of Atrio Michael says and creating something unique and new while also achieving design permanence And then of course our challenge is to stand out in a highly competitive environment as well Although no ideas or options were off the table the result of research study experimentation and refinement has been to streamline the Atrio making the silhouette cleaner and more precise with every intersection pared back to be sleek and seamless The distinctive three spoke handles on the faucet have also been updated to a logical and visually satisfying four prong cross shape that you can just picture sitting comfortably in the palm of your hand The new Atrio is an obsessive simplification of the previous line confirms Michael The details within the collection are composed of pure symmetrical intersections and a precise attention to proportion and scale The result is an icon of pure elegance and precision I am proud of the team s design work We explored so many different design possibilities and in the end came down to design reduction Paring back a silhouette to the simplest possible iteration simplifying and clarifying each line so that only the essential remains gives the designer as Michael points out nowhere to hide The visual however is not the only concern for a product that is as central to daily life as a faucet however The aesthetics have to embody a deeper ease of use that will make it a pleasure for consumers to operate For this it was not just the purity of the RECRAFTING AN ICON One of GROHE s best loved faucets has been redesigned for the next generation Michael Seum Vice President Design talks about revisiting a classic challenging the engineers and creating an icon in the new Atrio 9

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