Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 4 November 2019:  GROHE Icon 3D has been announced as winner of the Best Product Design at the Blueprint Awards 2019. The Blueprint Awards are revered for recognising those at the very forefront of innovation in design and architecture. GROHE was in excellent company in the competitive category, up against fellow industry heavyweights such as Gensler, Minarc and Zaha Hadid Design. The winners were announced in a ceremony at Fabric, London on 17th October.

“To have been named the winner of such a prestigious award with 14 strong contenders, all trailblazers in their respective fields, is a special achievement” said Raj Mistry, Marketing Director for GROHE UK.  “Our global design team continually strives to set the bar for what is achievable in product design and to be recognised by Blueprint in this category is a clear demonstration that we are leading the way. GROHE has made considerable R&D investment in 3D printing to really push the industry forwards.  We are humbled to be recognised by such a respected editorial voice of the industry.”

Blueprint Awards 2019 judge Sir Nicholas Grimshaw called Icon 3D “simple but beautiful and finely detailed products achieved by 3D metal printing.”

ICON 3D – Blueprint Best Product Design Winner 2019

With ultra-thin structures and hollow interiors being key features in what is the first 3D metal-printed taps by a leading European sanitaryware brand, GROHE explores how visual illusion and spectacle could influence the changing landscape of sanitaryware design in the future. Icon 3D has been created to start new conversations and ways of thinking when it comes to bathroom product design. GROHE’s vision to refine the design to its bare minimum also helps cut back as much as 50% of precious material resources whilst providing a new, unprecedented experience with water and tap design.

The components for GROHE Icon 3D are produced by printing metal, using a powder bed laser melting process, a material unique to GROHE, developed by its R&D team. Consisting of more than 4,000 applied layers of powder that are each only a few micrometres thick, the form of each tap is formidably strong. Following the printing, each component is mechanically treated on a CNC milling machine, followed by a manual grinding and fine brushing procedure.