Surge For Water: ‘Tubo’ by Maja Kozel and Hernan Hoentsch

The 2017 Surge for Water Competition was the fourth edition of what is formally known as Annual Sustainable Design Competition. Hosted by Surge, the installment of 2017 featured an impressive lineup and Maja Kozel teamed up with product designer Hernan Hoentsch to come up with a lighting element that would be expressive but more importantly, sustainable. Surge for Water operates based on an initiative to impoverished societies with clean and safe water.

Artistic Portrayal of Mundane Importance

This year, Maja Kozel implemented the concept of drainage into her design. She felt it was well-suited because the mechanism makes life much more convenient and what’s more is that it occurs underground or behind walls so many people don’t have to think about it either. A proper drainage system is also an important factor in improving the lives of people through safe water and Maja wanted to highlight this fact with a design that would speak for itself.

Maja Kozel and Hernan Hoentsch collaborated with Geberit, a well-renowned company that is leading the industry when it comes to drainage systems. Geberit, as the material sponsor, provided a drainage pipe for the making of the design. The reason behind this is to promote Maja’s viewpoint of creating effective solutions through the use of recycled or repurposed products. ‘Tubo’ as it was named, was a result of Maja’s creativity that came up with the design and Hernan’s ingenuity that was able to execute it perfectly.

Purposeful and Unique Design

The design of ‘Tubo’ featured a Geberit drainage pipe that was used to create different components of a single fixture. When stacked on top of each other, ‘Tubo’ served as a vertical floor lamp. Its design made it fully capable of allowing you to make it as tall as you prefer or taking it apart and placing it separately. It would be obvious to say that the design was unique but it was functional as well because it distributed light at different levels.

Maja and Hernan’s ‘Tubo’ was showcased at the ‘Dine, Design and Make a Difference Awards Ceremony’ that took place on December 7th. They were crowned as winners of the competition for ‘Tubo’ which captivated the judging panel because of how it incorporated all aspects of Maja’s admirable philosophy; that a design should be expressive, sustainable and highlight the use of recycled materials.

About The Winners

Maja Kozel is chief designer at Maja Kozel Design, a studio that specializes in spatial design. She has graduated from Willem Kooning Academy in the Netherlands with a degree in spatial design. She has worked around the world in Europe, Asia and is now based in the Middle East. You may have come across many of her projects in the UAE such as the HQ offices for Booking.com in Dubai, Heart of Sharjah and Shurooq Sharjah Investment and Development Authorities.

Hernan Hoentsch is the co-founder of Gravina, a product design studio that’s based in Barcelona. After relocating to the middle east, he set up OE-O, a fashion and product design studio in Dubai. After noticing the scarcity of prototyping resources, Hernan began to build In5 Design which is a now a prototyping lab. In5 Design is based in the Dubai Design District and Hernan manages operations and conducts several workshops.

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