Brabantia has won the prestigious GIO Award and the Special Award for Originality with the Bo Touch Bin. The expert jury of the 2019 GIO Awards praised the Brabant interior design brand for ‘turning a waste bin into an elegant interior object'. The Awards were presented on Monday evening during Dutch Design Week. Joost Vanhoof and Joris Smeets of Brabantia were presented with the awards.
The GIO Awards are part of one of the Netherlands’ biggest design competitions. This year, 36 brands received a GIO award – recognition for a good industrial design. Five brands, including Brabantia, also received the Special Award. This Award is given to the most distinctive entries in the domains of respect, functionality, ergonomics, design and originality.
Brabantia & innovation
“The Brabantia brand exemplifies more than 100 years of innovation,” says Liz Zwerver, head of Marketing & Innovation, Brabantia Value Factory. “This prize shows that with beautiful and distinctive product innovations we can increase our positive impact on the world. So we are very proud of these awards.”
Bo Touch Bin
The Bo Touch Bin by Brabantia allows the user to separate waste in a simple fashion. The waste bin is available with one, two or three compartments. Given the Bo Touch Bin’s four slender legs, it does not look like a typical waste bin. The extra height also offers an ergonomic benefit, because you do not have to stoop to replace the special PerfectFit waste bags in the compartments. The jury says: “Brabantia has managed to give a completely new look to a product whose shape has been virtually set in stone. And that's clever with such an apparently simple product. Giving the bin feet creates a larger visual space and facilitates the use of robot vacuums. The Bo Touch Bin is made from 40% high-quality recycled materials and meets the Cradle-to-Cradle Bronze level standard. The objective of Brabantia's Value Factory designers was to make waste beautiful – an aim they have achieved in two ways.”
Note to editors
The Brabantia interior design brand celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2019. It was in 1919 that great-grandfather Van Elderen made his first milk jugs and colanders in his factory in Aalst. He could never have dreamed that he would lay the foundations for one of the world’s best-loved homeware brands. In a century, Brabantia has gained a place in the homes and hearts of millions of people, with products that are so beautiful and convenient they turn daily chores into cherished rituals. Stylish, well-made items that are designed for recycling. So you can enjoy them for as long as you want – but you don't have to feel guilty when you discard them. That’s what you call ‘designed for living’.
