Enhancing design with water experiences

The Keynote speaker of the day was James Murray, Director Sales Global Projects, Hansgrohe. 'Enhancing Water Experience’ was moderated by Jimmy Mistry, Founder Chairman & MD, Della Group. Other panellists included: James Murray, Director Sales Global Projects, Hansgrohe; Michael Wang, Senior Continent Leader, Global Design Asia Pacific, Marriott International; Susan Isaac, Design Director, Principal, Wilson Associates, Singapore; Gaurav Malhotra, MD India and Regional Key Accounts Asia, Hansgrohe and Bhuvanesh Khanna, CEO BW Communities, BW Businessworld. 

The discussion touched upon topics like: ‘Enhancing guests experiences through well designed bathrooms’, ‘Future of Bathroom designs’, ‘Designers creating values for hotels’ and evolving technology and revolution in shower experiences.

Towards constant innovation

Taking a cue from the theme, Mistry queried Murray on how Hansgrohe is dealing with the post Covid scenario and what is going to change in design and development of products with Hansgrohe. James Murray reverted by saying that the good news is that even in these unprecedented times, Hansgrohe has not stopped. Going forward he added, “We are working out of factories and constantly working towards innovation and new experiences. Post Covid, touchless and electronic is becoming more popular now.  Touchless faucet may be the need in hotel public spaces, but the rooms may not see much change. Post Raininfinity and PowderRain, we are looking at developing newer technologies. Touch less shower experiences which have voice activated shower controls may become popular in guest rooms.” 

Murray believes that the company stands out due to its unique designs, pioneering innovation, responsible products, processes, and facilities, dedicated global network, service excellence, German engineering and trusted workmanship quality. “We raise the value by saving time and money and offer peace of mind over the product life cycle of the product,” he said.

New precedent for design

Mistry then asked Wang as to how he sees bottom lines of hotels doing in the post Covid scenario. Wang stated, “Covid 19 has had an unprecedented impact on hospitality and travel and for us in the hospitality industry cleanliness becomes a vey important word. It is going to set a new precedent with focus on design, bathroom, shower experience, and everything needs to be experiential across the brand. We have a huge task on our hands to make everybody happy and achieve necessary experience of guest satisfaction.” 

“Shower is, definitely, one of the key takeaway for all of us. You always hear the biggest issues from the customer whenever they don’t have a good bathroom, especially shower experience,” he added. 

Elaborating on his viewpoint on design, Jimmy Mistry said, “Responsible and sustainable design has always been the mantra. Post COVID-19, design takes precedence over everything and anything else.”

Talking about the operator’s expectation from an architect and designer to satisfy guests, Wang mentioned that with a wide range of properties, the demand changes according to needs. He stated, “The luxury tier is where you need to satisfy more than just shower, it is the design, materiality of everything that the designer uses and all of the water saving features is behind the scene for guests.” “The premium and select brand have a different challenge because you don’t have as much room to play with. You don’t know if the customer expects an open bathroom or closed and all of it majorly depends on the culture,” he said. 

Designers bridge the gap b/w owners and operators

Sharing her viewpoint, Susan Isaac said, “The fundamentals are not going to change, and every designer should keep that in mind, It’s not only about the beauty of something but it is mainly about the experience and operations of the product.”  She added, “There is a responsibility behind any project and the designer really needs to take operations and aesthetics hand- in-hand to walk that through.”

The projects at different geographies can be difficult and demanding on different levels. Agreeing to it Isaac added that, “It is basically a fine balance between operator’s requirement and owner’s expectations, and we as designers have to bridge that gap. The norm will come back in a different way. The human spirit stands up to this. Collaboration and understanding will be there to achieve the next levels. It will get many people working together for the better.” 

Consumers procure trend towards product value

Meanwhile Gaurav Malhotra went on to say that it has been a phenomenal year for Hansgrohe in India. He said, “There is a great response to products related to hygiene in various forms. We have seen strongest order entries of some of our products in the month of September. Though people took their time, things related to hygiene got a bump up. And I think there is consolidation happening with leading brands. There is a trust factor that needs to be there but at the same time people are spending on products that they are convinced on.”

Talking about the milestones achieved by the company, he added, “Related to hygiene, we are seeing a higher spend on the showering side vis-à-vis let’s say basin mixers although there is a lot of shift happening towards touchless products. Just the fact that the numbers are spiking from a showering perspective. Either people are renovating their homes or making sure the shower is actually functioning. A lot of times, people neglect the beauty of the ‘water flow’ part of the shower. But I think people are spending on aspects such as flow of water, I hope this catches on to other industries as well. We definitely need the business to get back on track.”

Sharing the good news that hospitality is now an ‘industry’ in Maharashtra, Mistry said, “Our new Tourism Minister, Aditya Thackeray has actually passed the gazette and recognised hospitality as an ‘industry’ within Maharashtra. I hope it gets passed across India and hospitality industry gets recognised and gets a status that it deserves. A lot of positivity can come out of it.”  

Sharing the key take-aways from the panel discussion, Khanna summarised and said, “Hansgrohe is constantly working towards innovating. Future trend may bend towards voice activated shower controls in the guest rooms. There is going to be a paradigm shift in products related to hygiene. At Hansgrohe, they try to have a consistent approach, to ensure that fundamental principles are not compromised. A responsible designer takes operations and aesthetics hand- in- hand. Fundamentals of design will not change post Covid, and finally as Jimmy Mistry stated, Responsible Luxury begins by educating the designers. Brand trust is not about transactions but about relationships.”

Concluding words by Wang were most apt, he stated, “Having hope in humanity that we will manage and move on is really important. Make sure you have fun in what you are doing otherwise leave it. Don’t make yourself miserable.”