The soft curves of the Zencha series have wowed the jury at the German Design Award 2023. Zencha has been created by Sebastain Herkner and inspired by traditional Japanese rituals and craftsmanship.
“The bathroom is a place where the user takes centre stage and can focus on the inner self allowing for a moment of deceleration and concentration – in the same way as a tea ceremony. These were useful metaphors for my studio as we approached this design,” said Sebastian Herkner. This idea is most clearly expressed by the extraordinary above-counter basin and the freestanding bathtubs: slightly bulbous at the base, the refined curve.
Sebastian Herkner, on describing the origination process of Zencha. “We spent a good three years working on Zencha. This involved an ongoing process of constant interaction. Taking your time is important when it comes to a complex product line like Zencha. Our main concern was to elaborate every detail to perfection. The delicate design of the storage furniture, for example, took a lot of development effort by Duravit.”
“I’ve always wanted to develop a bathroom series for Duravit,” said the designer from Offenbach. And he hit the jackpot with his very first complete bathroom range: Gold in the German Design Award. “It is naturally extremely gratifying,” said Herkner. He won over the jury with his sense of shape, colour, material and texture. “With Zencha we succeeded in designing something new for Duravit – which was what we aspired to.”
