Grohe, a leading global brand for complete bathroom solutions and kitchen fittings, says it is committed to helping create healthier urban landscape beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.
In line with the objective, the company which is the founder of the programme, which started in 2008, sponsored the 2021 World Architecture Festival (WAF).
The 2021WAF held digitally was on the theme “Resetting the city”.
Grohe sponsored the 2021 Water Research Prize, which went to Techlab Laboratory, whose facade solution tackles water scarcity around the globe with a unique design project inspired by nature and aims at finding creative solutions for water in the built environment.
“GROHE is proud to have been the main sponsor of the WAF 2021, a role taken on by the brand upon the inception of the festival in 2008. As a founding partner, GROHE, recognises the unique role water plays for the design discipline, and helps shape innovative architectural visions and solutions around the element of water, hence sponsoring the Water Research Prize,” said a statement issued by Grohe and copied to the Ghanaian Times in Accra yesterday.
It said the festival’s theme which focused on greener, cleaner cities, and ecological concerns regarding city planning, biodiversity and sustainability now “meet the overall need to create healthier, safer surroundings more than ever.”
The statement said a total of 320 hours of inspiring keynotes, sessions and panel discussions were presented to the WAF community, adding that “as a highlight of this year’s festival, architects from all over the world came together to compete with one another to win “The World Building of the Year”, an award which was unveiled by GROHE on December 3 as the grand finale.
Paul Finch, Programme Director of the World Architecture Festival, said “All the judges appreciated the inspiration and application of this nano–technology that could help solve the lack of water in stressed areas of the planet.”
He said the jury was delighted by this unique solution which tackles water scarcity around the globe.
“Designed with peaks and troughs on their surface the modules help retain water molecules from the air. The collected water will be stored in vertical tanks embedded in the façade on every storey. By adjusting the modules according to the optimal rainfall angle of every region, collecting water from both humidity and rainfall conditions will be possible in all climates around the world,” he said.
“This innovative project tackles water scarcity and I particularly loved the inspiration directly taken from nature,” said Stefan Schmied, Leader, Business Unit Projects, LIXIL EMENA, said.
The statement said the Water Research Prize had been part of World Architecture Festival since 2017, when the WAF X Manifesto was first published.
It said the manifesto identified the most important challenges for architects within the next 10 years, including water in relation to the built environment.
“With this year’s festival focusing on the improvement of the quality of life in urban areas through greener, healthier infrastructures, the close connection to water is particularly striking,” the statement said, adding that “GROHE has been supporting research in the field of unique architectural challenges around water for the past four years and is proud to continue doing so at this year’s festival.”
BY TIMES REPORTER
