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Murray used Psalm 1: 2–3 as inspiration for his Evergreen design: The basin represents a river bank, the tap a tree and the motif the bearing of fruit. -
Murray Sharp, who has a BTech in industrial design from the University of Johannesburg, took top honours in the category with the brief “Design a basin and tap/mixer combination” in the Cobra Product Design Competition 2015. He calls it Evergreen. -
Andrew Mboyi’s Delve was a runner-up in the category “Design your ideal bathroom”. -
Andrew’s concept bathroom features concrete and glass, a mini waterfall and a fire pit for heating the water as it is channeled to the bath. -
Andrew is doing a master’s degree in architecture at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth. He is a two-time winner of this competition.
WORDS Maciek Dubla
The Cobra Product Design Competition gives us a glimpse of the bathroom of the future.
Open spaces, natural light and elements such as greenery, plants and timber are beginning to feature in bathrooms, and raw materials like concrete are becoming increasingly popular, says Murray Sharp, the winner of the 2015 Cobra Product Design Competition.
According to finalist Andrew Mboyi, people are starting to expect more from bathroom experiences, leading to a need for personalised spaces.
This shift in thinking has led to bathrooms becoming central to interior trends forecasts. And industrial designers have come to realise the true impact of their designs, from the broader aesthetics right down to the choice of taps. Andrew says he has noticed a shift towards the use of non-traditional bathroom materials. “Richer metals, natural wood and stone are starting to shadow out the obvious white polished tile and utilitarian silver faucet.”
Technology is also set to play a more meaningful role in the bathroom, stream-lining the experience and impacting on sustainability. “We’ll see trends where the focus will be as much on awareness as on function,” says Murray. “People like to know what difference they are making, including how much water they are saving. Having that information displayed in real time is a trend we’ll start seeing sooner rather than later.”
