Access all areas: HEWI System 900

Surely the greatest mistake one can make in design is to not place the user at the centre of one’s considerations. The purpose of a product is to help people solve an existing problem in the best way possible. All design thinking should begin with the potential user and extend outward from there.

Good design thus always takes the human being into account. And both the individual and society are changing. With respect to age, for example, the number of over-80-year-olds in Germany will almost triple by 2050, from just under four million to ten million. This calls for a rethinking on the part of architects and product designers. The issue of accessibility is becoming relevant to ever more people. For obvious reasons, sanitary facilities are an area of particular importance.

One undisputed expert in this field is the company HEWI. The mid-sized company based in Bad Arolsen in northern Hesse, Germany, is a system provider that offers comprehensive solutions in the building hardware and sanitary areas. HEWI develops universal solutions and useful accessories, with a particular focus on accessible living.

The firm became known through its door handle 111 from 1969, which is an enduring design icon. The 111 spawned an entire series that implemented the system idea and led to HEWI’s cult status.

HEWI put its first products designed for older people and the physically impaired on the market in 1979. Ever since then, the company has collaborated with architects and users to develop functional and design-oriented products for the area of accessibility, and it has attained market leadership.

The notion of accessibility has shifted over time. In our contemporary understanding, the goal is inclusion: in principle, all people are supposed to have equal access to all spaces and facilities. This approach is therefore called ‘design for all’ or ‘universal design’.

For HEWI, this means developing products that are intuitively usable by all people, regardless of their physical or mental capacities. The explicit objective is for older people and people with disabilities to be able to live their daily lives with as much self-determination as possible and independently of outside assistance, like anybody else. HEWI offers sanitary and hardware solutions to help achieve this aim in the areas of public and care facilities, hotels, the home and children’s needs.

The System 900 product line is perfectly geared to the complex demands in the area of professional care. With it, the requirements of accessible bathrooms can be met without compromises in design, whether this is for patients in hospitals or the residents of nursing or retirement homes.

In existing bathrooms, it is often difficult to achieve a well-suited solution using standard products. The System 900 line offers unique depth. In addition to this, the standard products can be supplemented with custom-made handhold and bar systems that can be precisely fit into the given architectural conditions.

All products in the series are carefully thought through, right down to the smallest detail, and are convincing in their functionality, intuitive operation and enduring quality. In this area of application, theirs is a premium on clever installation technology and special consideration of hygienic matters. System 900 completely fulfils these requirements without design compromises.

It is puristic in character, with a wide range of materials that gives rise to manifold design options. System 900 is available with surfaces in stainless steel or chrome, as well as newly added and very current deep-matt surfaces in white, two different grey shades and black.

Bathrooms without thresholds, showers flush with the floor, mirrors that extend all the way down to the washstand and non-glare lighting: these features are valued in any bathroom, but are standard requirements for accessible bathrooms. Even the shower must be wheelchair-accessible, mirrors must be usable in sitting as well as standing position, and the light must be glare-free from any perspective.

While these elements facilitate life especially for wheelchair users, such features as handholds and shower seats offer anyone greater comfort and convenience in the bathroom. What was once seen as a special topic, is becoming a general design criterion.

The solution approaches for accessible bathrooms are increasingly being adopted in standard bathrooms as well. After all, easy operation, optimal ergonomics and leaving out what is unnecessary are fundamentals of good design.

HEWI supports architects, planners and skilled craftspeople with its deep expert knowledge in the conception of modern, accessible bathrooms and develops forward-looking solutions around the washstand, toilet and shower. Because good design is human.


© Architonic