Type: FORM INTRODUCTION - A SEMANTIC MIXER TAP (Umea Institute of Design)

Date: 2008 September

Description:

When we design a product, form is one of the parameters that occupies us the most. Form is the physical expression of product’s substance. Through form we can describe a product’s function, our intentions with it and not in the least, product’s identity and it’s market position.
A mixer tap is a classic problem which is constantly being subjected to functional and form innovation. In general design, not many mixer taps clearly express how they function or that water is flowing through them. The semantics of the function are rarely evident in the form...

Water - most common object on earth. It accompanies every moment of our lives, but do we really know the secret that this exceptional element preserves in it? Where did it come from? Who and why presented it to our planet? Maybe those answers are only known to water itself…

Everything is in a state of flux. Water as a substance has a natural characteristic - flow. It can be slow or fast, a river or a waterfall, but it has to move.

There is nothing more delicate or fluent than water in the whole world; on the other hand, water can also be solid and strong. “no one can overtake it though anyone can beat it.”, (laozi, ancient china philosopher).

The idea of waters structural memory is that everything has an effect on water, all that comes into contact with it, whether it‘s physical or emotional. The fenomenon of structural memory lets water record everything that is going around it.

If pebbles could talk, they might tell us tales of journeys as they were transformed from jagged rock shards to smooth stones.

The overall form of a pebble, that has been lying in the river for a long time, has a role of expressing water as a powerful, but still, subtle force. Control of the tap involves grazing the whole form, that way a connection is formed and the process becomes personal and more sensual.