LIXIL’s Future in Design with Antoine Besseyre des Horts: Technology, Sustainability, and Well-Being
Published on January 27, 2025 | by DSGN arcHive
How does design connect global innovation to local needs? Antoine shares LIXIL’s vision for the future.
What if the design of your bathroom could change not just the way it looks, but how you experience water every day? At LIXIL, this is exactly what they’re aiming for. With a focus on blending innovation, sustainability, and design, LIXIL is shaping the future of water solutions for the modern home. Antoine Besseyre des Horts, the leader of LIXIL Global Design for Asia Pacific and Greater China, sat down with us to share insights on how the company is responding to today’s challenges while looking ahead to a more sustainable, tech-driven future. Let’s dive into how LIXIL is making waves in design and consumer experience.
A Conversation with Antoine Besseyre des Horts
1. As the Leader of LIXIL Global Design for Asia Pacific and Greater China, how do you translate global design strategies into culturally relevant experiences across such diverse markets?
LIXIL’s purpose is to make better homes a reality for everyone, everywhere. Our global design team is constantly working on products and solutions for both the short-term and long-term goals. To support this, we have purposefully located our eight global in-house design studios in some of the most dynamic, cosmopolitan and culturally diverse cities in the world (Tokyo, Düsseldorf, Shanghai, New York, Singapore, Tokoname, London, and Guangzhou) allowing the designers to monitor global trends and their manifestations in the regions as well as markets’ specific trends, customs, and consumer preferences.
Also, these locations are global centres of architectural and design excellence, offering a dynamic environment for interaction with the A&D community that fuels inspiration and provides valuable insights for our design teams.
Our design strategies must be deeply connected to the strategies of our brands with their distinctive value propositions. The products they offer are the tangible representations of their promises: GROHE is our aspirational brand seeking to offer pure joy of water whereas American Standard is our purposeful brand enabling people to create a home they will love every day and INAX offers innovative products delivering Japan’s rituals of water for people to live well.
For each brand, we have created signature elements used by our design teams as semantic codes to define and apply a unique design identity onto the products. Also, these signature elements reflect the brands’ values allowing the designers to translate them into emotional and practical benefits that echo the brands’ promises. These signature elements are great tools to ensure differentiation within the LIXIL portfolio and versus competition.
Furthermore, our design teams follow a “Glocal” strategy. They ensure our brands have a global appeal by implementing their design identities consistently while addressing the local specific requirements based on identified insights and foresights to ensure the solutions developed are culturally relevant.
2. How does design contribute to addressing today’s challenges, such as water scarcity and overconsumption? Could you share specific examples of how LIXIL brands integrate sustainable practices into product innovation?
Large organizations have a responsibility to tackle sustainability. LIXIL is an industry leader and trend setter in the way it does business. It is increasingly being more responsible in the way it manufactures with its fitting plants being carbon neutral, in the way it develops its products as seen with the first cradle to cradle certified products by GROHE but also in the way it promotes the use of greener packaging.
At LIXIL Global Design we know that consumers have become eco-friendlier and more responsible in their purchasing in recent years. To be and stay relevant in this period of transition, we design our different brands’ products to enable people to be more sustainable in their daily lives without compromising their experiences. A good example of this approach is the GROHE Euphoria SmartControl featuring push and turn valves located at the front providing a very intuitive control of the water outlets, sprays and flow intensity at users’ fingertips. It makes it easy for people to fiddle through the controls and settings while showering so eventually reducing the water consumption. The goal was here to design the product leveraging a technology that shapes a more sustainable usage through intuitive and efficient interaction.
Also, many GROHE products use Ecojoy technology that can reduce water usage by up to 50% by using specially designed water flow restrictors. GROHE Blue kitchen tap system provides filtered and chilled water at the tap in the home, which can help reduce the need for single-use plastic bottles up to 800 single-use plastic water bottles for a family of 4. Regarding American Standard, the toilets’ physical design in combination with special coating provides very efficient flushing and prevents the need for extensive chemical use for cleaning.
Last but not least, GROHE SPA 3D printed faucets are a good illustration of how we are looking into new manufacturing processes. Beyond demonstrating how 3D printing can allow us to craft very unique and customizable designs, these products give us an opportunity to challenge ourselves to design and produce faucets with the least amount of materials possible.
3. What cutting-edge technologies is LIXIL leveraging to stay ahead in delivering innovative water solutions for modern consumers? How do these advancements redefine the way we think about water technology and its role in daily life?
As an industry leader, we are responsible for offering bathroom solutions to end-consumers and industry partners that meet their needs. Technology should not be the “reason to be” of a product or a solution, it is actually a means to achieve a greater purpose. We develop and leverage technologies which are meaningful by providing benefits that truly enhance people’s daily lives. Hence, the importance of constantly monitoring trends and gathering insights across landscapes and industries to ensure the technologies that are developed, and their applications, are relevant.
We noticed that there is growing consumer awareness and demand to regard the bathroom as a place for rejuvenation and relaxation, where one can escape to and recuperate from the daily stress of work. This trend is further amplified as the bathroom is typically the only space at home where one can be isolated, especially in smaller homes. Bathrooms need to include products and solutions that emulate a spa-like experience for improved physical and mental state of well-being.
LIXIL’s brands provide a wide range of showering solutions such as American Standard EasySET and GROHE Smart Control shower systems leveraging advanced and intuitive control technologies. These technologies offer daily convenience and fuss-free experiences while empowering users to personalize their preferred water temperature for comfort and safety as well as the water pressure, and spray patterns to offer physiological benefits. Another example is the GROHE SPA Rainshower AQUA, a flexible system that includes showering modules that can be mixed and matched to create a personalized showering experience. These modules can also be combined with light, sound, and steam modules to further enhance the luxurious spa-like experience.
Also, COVID-19 has made people attach greater importance to hygiene and therefore has led to higher demand for innovative solutions incorporating antibacterial, cleansing and touchless technology. Therefore, we have enlarged significantly our offering in intelligent toilet categories with products such as GROHE Igina Shower toilets which are available in freestanding and wall-hung typologies, American Standard Aero-Lite Wall-hung Shower Toilet, INAX Saras Shower Toilet. These shower toilets feature lids that open when a user walks into the bathroom and closes and flushes itself after usage, and the touchless, and advanced cleansing features also bring convenience to daily routines while providing people with an enhanced and personalized hygiene experience.
Finally, we continuously strive at enabling discerning consumers, architects and designers to create tailored environments and experiences. GROHE SPA Atrio and Allure Brilliant Private Collections are good examples of how we can offer the flexibility to reflect unique preferences and aspirations. Both collections’ products can be personalized through different handle designs, materials using embedded Caesarstone quartz accents, colours and finishes. Moreover, to address the needs for absolute customisation, we can leverage precise 3D printing technology to provide the creative freedom to bring bespoke designs and customisable elements to life as unique statement pieces in the bathroom.
4. The launch of LIXIL Experience Centre in Singapore and the GROHE Pavilion at the World Architecture Festival 2024 have been major highlights. What do these initiatives say about LIXIL’s vision for the future?
At the World Architecture Festival, our GROHE SPA-inspired ‘Aquatecture’ installation was a catalyst for meaningful conversations with the architect and design community. With Aquatecture , we wanted to highlight the fusion of water and architecture, and the health and well-being benefits this infusion brings.
Although the WAF has concluded, we welcome guests to experience GROHE SPA, and more, at our LIXIL Experience Center (LEC) located in Joo Chiat, a vibrant and eclectic neighborhood of Singapore. The LEC is designed to spark inspiration through specially curated spaces, customization options in different finishes and colors, with individualized customer service and attention. Beyond Singapore, we welcome other LECs located in Bangkok, Indonesia, and soon in Hanoi.
All the engagements with consumers, customers and the creative community that these initiatives drive provide extremely valuable insights and foresights for our teams to ensure that our brands’ offerings are culturally relevant and therefore truly enhance people’s lives.
5. As a creative leader, what excites you most about the future of design at LIXIL, and how do you see it shaping the consumer experience in the years to come?
There are several things that genuinely excite me when I think about the impact that design is and will be driving at LIXIL. First, the ability to touch the lives of more than 1 billion people every day. With our different brands’ present in all the regions and offering products and solutions across many categories and price points, we can enhance the lives of so many people all around the world.
Also, by leveraging our unique technologies and know-how, we have the means to effectively address the three macro trends of urbanization, health and well being and sustainability. I am glad that LIXIL has set its Environmental Vision 2050 to underline its commitment to reduce its carbon footprint and preserve natural resources. This is also reflected in our products which we must design to encourage sustainable behaviors without compromising the experiences.
Last but not least, Design is a strategic function whose role is to be the voice of the consumer in the organization. Design has been empowered to be an objective barometer that helps balance decisions between the company lens, the consumer lens and the purpose lens to ensure that our products and solutions add value to our brands while adding value to society. We have a clear mandate to continuously translate trends and insights into new product ideas and experiences to address emerging needs such as personal care, personalization and lower water and energy consumption.
A big thank you to Antoine Besseyre des Horts for sharing such valuable insights with us! Curious to learn more about LIXIL and its latest innovations? Click the link to dive in.
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