Barcelona, 28 January 2013. Roca Barcelona Gallery was the setting for A Conversation with Harri Koskinen. The Finnish Design, the second chat-colloquium held at the 5th Roca International Design Competition, Jump the Gap 2012-2013. Harri Koskinen, renowned Finnish designer whose collection is exhibited at the MoMa of New York, and Josep Congost, Roca Design Manager, were both jury members for the 5th edition of the international Jump the Gap design competition and expressed their viewpoints.

The session took a fresh look at design as a factor that interacts with the user’s experience and another look at innovation, both essential elements for the bathroom space. The main issues considered in the debate were design materials, features and differences between Nordic and Mediterranean design, and resource savings. The public was also invited to participate through questions and comments.

Harri Koskinen affirmed that, “there is not much difference between Nordic design and design considered to be Mediterranean, as it is a global discipline. Therefore, the functionality is the same.” Nevertheless, he noted that Nordic design is characterized by seriousness and simplicity in lines and colors, an opinion upheld by Josep Congost, who also added that “Mediterranean simplicity is similar to the concept seen in northern European countries.”

Several concepts were mentioned at the meeting as aspects involved in the process of developing a design, among them, water, light, materials, socialization, emotion and technology. “Emotion is more important than innovation and technology, although the latter two are tools needed to develop and attain the desired design and to achieve an outcome that stirs the user’s emotions,” pointed out Koskinen.

Josep Congost brought up the concept of timelessness as a factor that influences bathroom design. “It should be remembered that the articles we are developing now might easily be in the bathroom for 20 years,” he explained. “Something quite unlike the criteria used in fashion design, for instance.”

A conversation with Harri Koskinen. The Finnish Design was the second chat-colloquium organized by Roca as part of the 5th Roca International Design Competition, Jump the Gap. The competition is presented as an “opportunity for young designers to provide new solutions and differentiate themselves in some way from those already in the marketplace,” according to both Congost and Koskinen.

The competition is a Roca effort undertaken in conjunction with BCD (Barcelona Design Centre). Its jury included prestigious architects and designers who had been presidents for the event on previous occasions, namely, Ron Arad, John Pawson, Benedetta Tagliabue and Rafael Moneo. In this year’s competition, the jury was headed by the Japanese architect Kazuyo Sejima (2010 Pritzker Architecture Prize).

More pictures of the event