【J】What do you think will be the bathroom design trend in the near future?

　　【J】您認為衛浴產品未來的設計趨勢會是怎樣的呢?

　　【TN】I don’t know if I have the answer but every time I have to design something, the main question is why should we do this, not only because we have to put some new products in the market but-there are so many chairs in the market, you don’t need a new chair. You don’t need a new sofa. Nobody needs really new products in many fields, not maybe even in ceramic. But sometimes there is a guideline which helps us to understand that it makes sense. So the SaphirKeramik it was first of all a material. And until you use this material to create products you have only a concept, it’s only a patent. So in this case it really make sense, for other products maybe it doesn't have sense, but every time I try to do something which make sense not only in terms of the market, for economic reason but also in terms of product. That’s why for me, functionality is always to have in mind the final user, and not only the people who are the buyer of the product.

　　【TN】我不知道答案。但是每次我要設計一個東西，我的核心問題是為什么我們要做這件事。原因不該是因為我們需要給市場帶來新產品—市面上有太多椅子了，你根本不需要新椅子，你根本不需要新沙發，在很多領域我們都已經不需要新產品了，也許在陶瓷領域里也是這樣。但是藍鉆陶瓷不同，這是一個革新材料，在人們用這個材料來創造出產品之前，你只有一個概念，一個材料專利。所以在這個情況下，設計新產品是合理的。每次我在設計時都希望不僅對市場有用，能夠獲得經濟利益，而且這個產品能有其合理性。所以對我來說，產品的功能性就是心存終端用戶，而不是只心存產品的買賣方。

　　【J】In this year’s KBC we see a lot of smart bathroom products, what do you think about this trend and how will Laufen react to it?

　　【J】在今年的廚衛展上我們看到了很多智能衛浴產品，您怎么看待這個趨勢，勞芬會如何應對?

　　【MV】Smart bathroom is still a far way to go, but it’s an important part of life, an intimate space where you have also the possibilities to be close with your body and your health, there’s an aspect of hygiene, in the future maybe medical analysis, whatever can be carry out in the bathroom. There’s a long way ahead of us from being just a place to wash, to crossing the bridge of being a place of wellbeing. But it’s a long way because the bathroom is first of all a place that’s part of the architecture, products are heavily installed, almost connected to the building, not like product that could be changed easily with technology or electronics.

　　【MV】智能衛浴還有很長的路要走，衛浴對人們的生活來說很重要，這是一個很私密的空間，讓你能和你的身體及健康對話的空間。未來也許會融入醫療方面的分析，或者其他適用于在衛浴空間里完成的功能。但要從一個洗浴空間變成一個健康空間還有很長的路。因為衛浴空間是依附于建筑的，產品都是需要安裝的，幾乎和建筑連為一體，不像其他產品可以很容易的更換技術或者是電路。

　　【J】The SaphirKeramik project has been a worldwide success. How does the market-especially the China market react to it? Last year we have Kartell by Laufen, a few years back we have the Living Square and this year we have the exciting collection of INO and VAL.

　　【J】藍鉆陶瓷項目在全世界范圍內都很成功，那市場反響，尤其是中國市場反響如何?去年我們有Kartell by Laufen系列，再之前我們有Living Square系列，今年我們又增添了令人興奮的新產品INO和VAL.

　　【AM】SaphirKeramik is a material completely developed from scratch by Laufen engineers together with various universities. It took us more than five years to come up with this material, and has very special properties, that comes with very thin walls, very sharp radius. Because the material is much superior than the original ceramic. The normal reaction of people when they touch our SaphirKeramik pieces they said “This is steel, no? It cannot be ceramic, it’s impossible.” But it’s 100% ceramic and the most hygienic, the most durable, the best material for the bathroom. So we launched this project in fact eight years ago, it took us five years to develop, it was a very complex project. Then, three years ago we launched the material commercially together with the product. And this is a good lesson because sometimes we talk a lot about innovation but innovation is something that is only real through innovation when it is possible to get translated into a product. And this product can be acquired by the market. That was the case three years ago, when we launched the SaphirKeramik material with Living Square and Kartell by Laufen production. Today we have the opportunity, the fantastic pleasure to have Toan with us, to present his latest baby, the INO collection made in this material. You will see that it changed completely the traditional aspect of ceramic, much more modern and fresh, in line with the modern trends of design. And the reaction has been enormous in all the markets. Everybody agrees that this is the future. Once again Laufen came up with a fantastic innovation and we were able to transform this innovation that was born in a lab, into a regular mass productions to be able to deliver to the customers. We were able to serve the society. Because this is also a most environment-friendly material. Why? Because we were able to meet the functionality consuming much less natural resources because you know the ceramic material is made of natural resources. This material consumes much less resources, because it’s much lighter, also in the industrial process we consume less gas and less CO2 emission. So it’s not only the most modern looking but also has a big effect in ecology [24:34] It’s really a big success.

　　【AM】藍鉆陶瓷是一個勞芬工程師和各個高校一起合作，完全從無到有創造出來的一個新型材料。我們花了5年的時間做研發，使它擁有了非常特殊的特性，它能實現非常輕薄的外壁，以及非常銳利的倒角。這一切都是因為我們這個材料比傳統陶瓷要優越太多太多。人們在碰觸我們的藍鉆陶瓷產品時經常性的反應一般是“這是鋼鐵做的吧?這不可能是陶瓷，絕對不可能。” 但是這百分之百是陶瓷而且是最衛生、最耐用、最好的衛浴材料。所以我們在8年前開始了這個項目，用了5年研發，這實在是一個非常復雜的項目。然后，在三年前我們發布了這個材料的商用版本以及使用該材料制造的產品。這對我們來說是一個非常不得了的事情。因為很多時候我們在談創新，但只有轉化為可被市場接受的產品，創新才能真正被實現。于是我們在三年前發布了藍鉆陶瓷的Living Square系列以及Kartell by Laufen系列。今天我們也有幸邀請了Toan來為我們發布他的最新作品，藍鉆陶瓷的INO系列。你將會看到這完全革新了人們對陶瓷的印象，該產品更加現代化更加新潮，更符合目前的設計趨勢。而且市場對它的接受度非常高，大家都認為這就是衛浴產品的未來。于是勞芬又一次創造了一個了不起的創新，而我們將這個實驗室里出生的創新，成功的轉化為了可以進行大規模生產并且能讓終端用戶使用的產品。我們更好的服務了社會，因為這個材料也是一個非常環保的材料。為什么?因為我們在滿足產品功能性的前提下，能夠使用更少的自然資源-你也知道陶瓷必須使用自然資源來制造-而我們的材料使用更少的資源，因為它更輕更薄，而且在生產過程中使用了更少的煤炭，有更小的碳排放量。所以這不僅是一個擁有現代感外觀的產品而且還是一個更有益于大自然的產品。這的確是一個很大的成功。

（左圖藍鉆陶瓷和右圖普通陶瓷對比）

（左圖勞芬Living Square系列和右圖VAL系列新品）