Knee
Ceadesign - 2016
Shape the flow.
Knee is a kitchen faucet whose water flow can be oriented through the joint. Like a bone joint, the tap has an internal hydraulic structure in stainless steel that acts like a skeleton, and a "body" in sterile plastic material, cleanable and with a soft touch. The spout remains constant in temperature, absorbs the noise of the flow inside the tap, and can be handled very easily even with wet or soapy hands.
The kitchen instrument.
One of the recurring design challenges when working on an industrial product is to give the object an identity so it can be perceived as detached from the context, and, thanks to this independent identity, be adaptable to an infinite variety of contexts. Knee has a clearly strong identity. Although a tap is simply the functional appendix of the hydraulic system, and therefore must respect the position constraints imposed by standardization, Knee appears to us as a kitchen accessory that could be elsewhere. This effect is given by two factors: the visual weight of the steel cylinder, which looks like a thermos, and the black POM disc with detaches it visually from the kitchen top, giving the sign of a limit, of a boundary between the object and the surface it is attached to.
The semisphere and the knee.
At the base of the three-dimensional movement of the Knee regulator there is a ball joint, designed to imitate the natural functioning of the knee. As it happens in movement feedback there is a slight resistance, which becomes more sensitive at the ends of the working range. The connection between dispenser and stem, which has the shape of a meniscus, offers the possibility of light twisting, rotation on three axes. The desired position is maintained thanks to a clutch system in the semisphere.
That’s why I’m easy.
Although Knee gives taps a new form, we understand all its functional components at a glance, without the slightest cognitive effort. This is due to the strong material and chromatic contrast of the elements: the black base, the satin steel barrel, the mixer lever, the black polyurethane dispenser.
WANDERLUST
