A sauna control system from sentiotec wins the iF product design award 2014
During a three-day meeting, the 49 members of the expert jury evaluated the designs from a total of 55 countries in a total of 17 categories. Behind closed doors, each of the entries was viewed, handled, tried out, analysed and above all, discussed extensively. Each entry in the competition was then assessed according to a set of clearly-defined criteria. The Chairman of the Jury, Professor Fritz Frenkler was impressed by the consistently high quality of the entries, the love of innovation they displayed and the courage of some manufacturers to adopt radical new designs of their own.
What is more, the experts also noted that design now plays an increasingly important role, even in sectors that have not received a great deal of attention from consumers until now. According to the expert jury, product optimisation and the courage to make a difference through design form the factors that will continue to be important during the years to come.
And it was those very factors that the award-winning "just sauna" from sentiotec set out to address. sentiotec took a conscious decision to reduce the user-controllable functions to the most essential ones, namely temperature, light and ventilation. The LED-control circuit on the smooth, touch-screen made from capacitive glass responds immediately to the adjustments made by the user and these are also visible at a glance. The ultra-slim glass touch-screen contains no dust or dirt-traps and its flat construction means that it can be fitted almost flush with the wall. Inside the device, high-quality electronics from abatec group AG are used, to maximise energy efficiency.
For sentiotec, which is based in the region of Upper Austria, this is actually the second prominent design award the company has received within the course of a single year. It was only last July that the company's "concept R" sauna heater received the RedDot award. Both of these designs were produced by Peter Groiss of dbgp - design büro groiss peter, who has been collaborating with abatec group AG for many years now.
