Geberit Know-How Magazine December 2017

Knowhow Customer Magazine December 2017

20 years

Geberit’s Building ­Technology and Acoustics Laboratory 15,000 years

The cave art of Lascaux

Know-how runs through everything we do.

Publisher Geberit Southern Africa (Pty.) Ltd. 6 Meadowview Lane Meadowview Business Estate Longmeadow, Linbro Park ZA-Johannesburg Phone +27 11 444 50 70 Fax +27 11 656 34 55 sales.za@geberit.com → www.geberit.co.za

Number of copies Issued: quarterly.

The reproduction of individual articles, in part or in full, is subject to approval from the editorial staff.

Photos Ben Huggler (cover picture, page 16, back page) Sergio Grazia (pages 22–23) Michael Suter (pages 10–13) Tribecraft (pages 14–15, 17) On the cover Vibrometric sensors are positioned in order to analyse sound transmissions.

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Contents

A company on the move Ten years Geberit Southern Africa 18 Long-lasting pleasure Products & solutions 14

News/Agenda 5 Building Technology and Acoustics Laboratory

6

Mapress Carbon Steel

10

Online bathroom planner

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Reference object

22

Diese Schwitzwasser-Isolation wirkt sich überall vorteilhaft aus, jedoch besonders in Gegenden mit kaltem Wasser oder mit hoher Luftfeuchtigkeit, bei stark frequentierten Klosettanlagen sowie in innenliegenden WC-Räumen. Zudem trägt sie dazu bei, daß der bekannt leise GEBERIT-Spülkasten noch leiser wurde, genau:

26-28 dB (A)

leise, nach DIN 52218.

GEBERIT*

gebert + cie

Armaturen-und Apparatefabrik

JJJj^j§^omT" am Zürichsee Telex75625

Once upon a time

<-:.:

Diese Schwitzwasser-Isolation wirkt sich überall vorteilhaft aus, jedoch besonders in Gegenden mit kaltem Wasser oder mit hoher Luftfeuchtigkeit, bei stark frequentierten Klosettanlagen sowie in innenliegenden WC-Räumen. Zudem trägt sie dazu bei, daß der bekannt leise GEBERIT-Spülkasten noch leiser wurde, genau:

26-28 dB (A)

leise, nach DIN 52218.

gebert cie Armaturen-und Apparatefabrik Das war unser JJJj^j§^omT" letztes Schwitzjahr. +

GEBERIT*

am Zürichsee

Telex75625

(Jetzt hat jeder GEBERIT-Spülkasten serienmäßig Schwitzwasser-lsolation-ohne Mehrpreis.)

With the slogan “that was our last year sweating bullets”, 293 Geberit announced in this U69 advertisement that from now on, all Geberit cisterns will feature anticondensation insulation as standard – and at no extra charge to the customer.

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Editorial

Dear customers, No two buildings are the same. This statement is particularly true when it comes to their acoustic properties.

After all, even small details sometimes make a big difference here.

Not long after the Building Technology and Acoustics Laboratory in Rappers­wilJona was opened, a big wish came true for our customer advisers: they were able to offer the architects and sanitary engineers involved in major residential and hotel projects professional acoustic analyses of the planned sanitary installations.

To give you an example, this is done as follows. In one of the test rooms at the laboratory, a customised bathroom is constructed according to the practices in a certain market. The building materials used are imported from the respective market. The results and findings from the sound measurements then provide the basis for possible sound-related optimisations.

Our acousticians have since carried out sound analyses on hundreds of individual bathroom structures in this way. They therefore have a broad and sound pool of data at their disposal and can estimate the acoustic properties of construction projects with a high degree of reliability. This knowledge and experience is something that our customers all over the world benefit from.

I wish you an enjoyable read.

Mark Schurr, Managing Director

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Customer Magazineâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; December 2017

News

Geberit, proud sponsors of the 2017 Win a Home Competition at Eye of Africa Geberit is one of the proud sponsors of the 4th season of Win a Home, South Africa’s favourite interior design reality TV competition, hosted by SABC3 TV talk show Afternoon Express. The reality show was flighted every Friday from mid-July through to mid-November between 4–5 pm. This year’s Win a Home Competition was double the fun and double the drama with the introduction of Design Duos! Contestants who were to compete in pairs for the title of the country’s best emerging interior designers.

Three perfect pairings were chosen from dozens of entries and they were partnered with mentors from three well-known design publications to form team House & Leisure, team Visi and team Habitat. Their task was to decorate three newly built homes located at the Eye of Africa luxury golf and residential estate, in Johannesburg. Viewers got to vote for their favourite design team and stood a chance to win one of the beautiful cluster homes, decorated by one of the

contestant Design Duos – in the incredible estate valued at R3 million! The competition was divided up into room challenges where the duo’s were given a brief and time frame in which to complete the makeover of a given space. Episode 6 & 7 was focussed on the Bathroom challenge with the duos having to design not just one, but both bathrooms which was double their usual amount of work. To better inform their choices for the bathrooms, the design duos visited the new Geberit showroom and experience centre where they spent the day to see and experience the technology behind the wall in concealed plumbing first-hand as well as be inspired and excited by design in front of the wall with the new Geberit Bathroom Collection. A place where design meets function. Having seen some great designs and been inspired by the Geberit showroom, all the teams made their selections for their bathrooms. Back on site, the teams were in a flurry to create their perfect bathroom that would impress the judges so that they would win the challenge. On the final day,

Geberit’s technical team were on hand to assist with last-minute installations and adjustments and when the deadline was called, the bathrooms were done and ready to be judged. All the bathrooms were cleverly put together, stylishly functional, maximising the space and were rich with the duos’ individual creative expression. Team Habitat, with the flamboyant and creative duo of Abiah Mahlase and Brad Muttitt, won the bathroom challenge. Who will be the ultimate winners … team Visi, team House & Leisure or team Habitat.

Congratulations to the creative and outlandish Duo of Abiah “Superstar” Mahlase and Brad Muttitt from Team Habitat. They were judged the overall winners of Win a Home 2017. They certainly delivered on their promise of bringing razzle-dazzle to this year’s reality competition and stayed true to their vision and created a home that defies convention.

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Technology & innovation

A unique competence centre 20th anniversary of the Building Technology and Acoustics Laboratory

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Customer Magazine December 2017

← Acoustics specialist Samuel Pasteur prepares the Geberit Setaplano shower surface for a sound measurement procedure at the BTA-Lab. During this procedure, a water jet with a pressure of 3 bar is directed onto the shower surface from a height of one metre.

↑ Oliver Wolff, Head of Building Physics at Geberit, measures the vibrations of a discharge stack with the laser scanner.

↑ Hidden sound sources – for example, in a discharge pipe – can be located precisely with this state-of-the-art acoustic camera.

The BTA-Lab today – acoustics

A laboratory for realistic tests and measurements in the area of statics and acoustics – this is how Geberit described the new Building Technology and Acoustics Laboratory (BTA-Lab) in Rapperswil-Jona at its inauguration in October 1997.

Thanks to its technical equipment and many measuring rooms, the BTA-Lab at the Rapperswil-Jona site was in a class of its own in the sanitary industry when it was opened 20 years ago – and is still very much unparalleled today. “Building this laboratory was a very farsighted investment and played a major role in ensuring that Geberit is today seen as an innovation leader in the field of sanitary technology,” explains Oliver Wolff, Head of Building Physics.

Only during the night or at weekends Back when the BTA-Lab was opened in 1997, Geberit already possessed considerable know-how in the building acoustics and statics fields. The fact that the highly sound-insulating drainage system Silent-db20 was launched on the market that very same year proves this. The many sound measurements required to develop this system were taken in measuring stations located in small, narrow side rooms in the main building in Rapperswil-Jona. The tests could only be carried out during the night or at weekends, when the manufacturing equipment in the plant was not in use. The heating and the charging stations for the forklift trucks also had to be switched off in order to reduce the noise in the building to the required level.

The BTA-Lab has a total of 19 rooms on four floors for acoustic measurements. This allows realistic tests to be carried out that consider the whole of a building and cover vertical, horizontal and diagonal sound propagation. These 19 rooms boast an infrastructure that includes: → A valve test facility with a measuring room in which there is almost complete silence.

A prolonged stay is difficult for people to tolerate – and fortunately not necessary.

The ultrasensitive microphones discreetly transmit their signals out of the room. → A test facility for the standard EN 14366.

Today, discharge stacks have to meet this standard in more and more countries. → A Pluvia roof drainage system for measurement purposes that is operated via a closed water circuit. → The possibility of simulating market-specific construction situations. In 2010, ten bathroom situations were constructed in the BTA-Lab according to country-specific criteria. In 2016, 90 bathroom situations were constructed there. When constructing these situations, the building materials are often imported from the respective countries. → Sound test facilities for shower trays → S tate-of-the-art measuring instruments: acoustic camera, laser scanning, vibrometry, multi-channel systems, artificial head for psychoacoustic sound analyses, and much more.

→

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Technology & innovation

← Acoustics specialist Paul Bürgi fills the water basin in the half-height machinery floor under the roof.

This enables sound measurements on a Pluvia installation to be taken further down in the BTA-Lab.

The BTA-Lab today – statics For statics measurements, the BTA-Lab has several rooms and infrastructures – some of which span more than one floor: → A force framework 5.4 m by 6.7 m in size. The load-bearing capacity of room height walls can be simulated and measured within the extremely rigid and torsionally stiff structure of this frame. → A computer-controlled and totally enclosed pressure test facility for ceramic sanitary appliances. A load of up to 500 kg can be simulated here. → A 3-D robotic measuring arm for statics tests on installation systems

↑ A weight of 400 kg is placed on a Duofix installation element.

The deformations caused by the load are easily measured thanks to the laser light.

→ Mobile cranes for the hydraulically controlled lowering of weights → L aser light sources for statics tests

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Customer Magazine December 2017

Paul Bürgi, acoustics specialist

“I can sometimes tell from a photo that it is too loud.”

Visitors from all over the world The new laboratory building was erected on an open greenfield site several hundred metres from the main building. Most of the four-storey building was acoustically decoupled from the surroundings so that neither noise from traffic nor other noises from outside can interfere with the sound measurements. Furthermore, the building was designed in such a way that virtually any spatial modifications can be made at any time.

More than four million Swiss francs were invested in the new building and initial infrastructures.

No sooner had the BTA-Lab commenced test operation than the first visitors came: customers and experts from all over the world, employees, students and many other interested people. “For a number of years now, we have had around 4,000 visitors a year,” explains Paul Bürgi, who has been working in the BTA-Lab as an acoustics specialist for the past 14 years. “Although we are pleased about the great interest shown in our work, the guided tours actually pose more of a hindrance to the ongoing tests and sound measurements.” The construction activities – which have moved closer and closer to the laboratory building as Rapperswil-Jona has grown over the past 20 years – are also proving problematic. It is therefore expected that certain sound measurements will once again have to be taken in the evening and at night.

20 years without an accident The statics tests and measurements – for which the BTA-Lab is also designed – are unaffected by such environmental factors. The laboratory contains various equipment, including a five-metre-tall and seven-metre-wide force framework weighing around seven tonnes, which can be used to measure the load-bearing capacity of room-height installation walls. Standardised load tests are also carried out in the labs. Indeed, most of the components of Geberit’s tried-and-tested and successful installation systems were put through their paces here.

Working with heavy weights and loads requires a cool head and a great deal of caution. “A dowel can rip from the wall when an installation frame is loaded with a weight of 400 kg,” explains René Gmür, a specialist who has been carrying out the statics tests for the past 18 years. “Safety therefore always comes first, an approach that clearly pays off given that we have not had one single occupational accident in the 20 years that the BTA-Lab has existed.”

↑ Statics specialist René Gmür tests the lateral load capacity of a urinal division at the BTA-Lab.

While the statics tests and measurements focused mainly on Geberit’s installation systems until recently, the load-bearing capacity of washbasin, bidet and WC ceramic appliances are also tested at the BTA-Lab today. The statics specialists built a new test facility for this purpose. Indeed, the BTA-Lab employs the latest measurement technology across the board in both acoustics and statics. “We invest in our measurement technology every year and are state-of-the-art in this regard,” confirms Oliver Wolff. ←

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Products & solutions

Prime quality Connecting heating systems with Geberit Mapress Carbon Steel

When it comes to professionally planning and installing closed heating circuits, the Geberit Mapress Carbon Steel supply system has for decades been a well-proven and corrosionresistant alternative to more expensive products made of copper or stainless steel.

↑ The plastic-jacketed carbon steel pipes are well-suited for surface mounting.

Once installed, a heating circuit has to work without interruption. In this case, “working” means remaining leakproof and corrosion-resistant for several decades. In the recent past, carbon steel has quite often been linked with corrosion. However, Geberit uses high-quality materials with all its products and subjects them to realistic application tests in both internal and external facilities. Correctly installed, Geberit Mapress Carbon Steel enables problem-free, corrosion-free operation.

A proven system With the Mapress Carbon Steel product range, Geberit has a proven supply system for heating technology. Professionally planned and installed, carbon steel is both leakproof and corrosion-resistant and considered a reasonably priced alternative to copper or stainless steel in closed heating systems. Known for its durability, carbon steel also meets the toughest requirements with respect to stability, tempera-

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ture resistance and resistance to pressure.

Depending on the application, plumbers can choose from two Geberit Mapress Carbon Steel pipe types for heating systems: plastic-jacketed or outside zinc-plated.

The fittings are also outside zinc-plated.

The pipes with the cream-coloured plastic jacketing are particularly well suited for the discreet surface mounting of radiator connections. The layer made of polypropylene reliably protects the pipe against corrosion caused by moisture and condensation. For complete corrosion protection, the transitions to the fittings have to be equipped with the self-bonding Geberit sealing tape.

This is not necessary when using pipes that are outside zinc-plated. Fittings and pipes can also be painted with a standard radiator paint.

A wide product range The Mapress Carbon Steel pipes and fittings are marked red so that they are not mistaken for other Mapress products in the

hectic everyday life on building sites. Only the jacketed pipes do not have a coloured marking. The dimension is printed on the pipe and fitting and is clearly visible. Every fitting has a pressing indicator so that unpressed connections can be easily located before the pressure test is carried out. After the pressing operation, the indicator foil can be easily removed.

A black seal ring made of butyl rubber is inserted in the fittings at the factory. The pressing procedure creates a permanent and positive connection between the pipe and fitting. The product range comprises over 400 different fittings in 11 pipe dimensions for pipe diameters of 12 to 108 mm.

Suitable adapters ensure system compatibility with other supply systems such as Geberit Mepla. All pipe ends and fittings are sealed with protective caps so that no water and dirt can enter them on the building site.

Customer Magazine December 2017

Installed in a corrosion-resistant manner Attention should be paid to the following when installing Geberit Mapress Carbon Steel: → Do not store the pipes and fittings on the floor or in damp rooms. → Do not remove the protection plugs from the fittings until immediately before processing on-site. → Where condensate is expected, you should attach protection that forms a barrier against diffusion. → During the initial filling, make sure that the water quality corresponds to the reference values recommended by Geberit (see table below). When using water additives or inhibitors, the specifications of the respective manufacturer have to be observed with respect to suitability and dosage.

The product range comprises 400 different fittings in 11 pipe dimensions.

Corrosion when using carbon steel On the building site, attention should be paid to ensuring that Geberit Mapress Carbon Steel pipes are stored and installed in a dry environment and that the protection plugs on the fittings are not removed until the fittings are being installed. When the heating installation is professionally planned and installed, damage caused by corrosion processes inside is hardly possible. This is because closed heating circuits are virtually oxygen-free after a few weeks or months, meaning that a reaction between the metal and oxygen can no longer take place. If condensation on the pipes and fittings cannot be ruled out, as in the case of cooling pipes, they have to be protected from the outside – i.e. a barrier against diffusion must be formed. The minimum requirements in this case are closedcell insulation material and a corrosion protection coating. ←

→ Inform the operator about corrosion-relevant issues and advise them of the recommended inspection intervals.

Reference values for water quality

Electrical conductivity (at 25 °C) pH value (at 25 °C) Oxygen content Appearance

Low-saline

Saline

100 µS/cm

100 –1500 µS/cm

7,0 – 8,5 (filling) 8,2 – 10,0 (> 3 months of operation)1 0,1 mg/l

0,02 mg/l

Free of sedimenting substances

Suspended solids

90 mg/l2

Iron

15 mg/l2

1 D ue to initial chemical processes, the pH value in a carbon steel installation increases during the first weeks of operation and then remains constant.

2 According to BSRIA guide BG 50

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↑ Specify your bathroom according to your needs with interrelating products.

Geberit Specifier Online bathroom planner Geberit is further simpli­ fying the planning of bathrooms in project busi­ ness. From now on, an online specification tool facilitates the quick and correct choice of products for sanitary facilities.

Using the Geberit Specifier supports you in specifying the sanitary appliances for your project. You will be guided through the product portfolio and depending on the product you choose, you will only get product suggestions that match your initial choice. Costly surprises caused by wrongly planned products are thus avoided.

All the key product data in one file Once your specification is completed, you can download a file containing all the relevant information for your project: article numbers, technical drawings, product specifications and pictures incl. the relevant CAD data. This file can be sent to your nearest Geberit office to get an offer. ←

A comprehensive range of products The new online bathroom planner provides product details on:

Discover the Geberit Specifier now: → www.spec.geberit.com

– Toilets and bidets – Urinals – Cisterns – Washbasins and furniture – Shower drains

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Products & solutions

Twofold quality Design Meets Function

Anita Leitmeyr, Tribecraft, Zürich

“The slim, architectural line on the floor leads to the hidden integrated drain with the removable comb insert, and thus to the core of true design thinking – namely making life more com­ fortable and also tackling an activity such as cleaning in order to do so.”

← The hair trap in the Geberit CleanLine shower channel can be removed in no time.

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Customer Magazine December 2017

Geberit products impress thanks to their successful balance between elegant design and outstanding func­ tionality. They are developed by inter­ disciplinary teams made up of engi­ neers, draughtsmen, industrial designers and product spe­ cialists. This article is all about the designers.

Geberit products set standards in the sanitary industry, not least because they are easy to install and maintain. Building pros thus know that they can rely on solutions from Geberit. The familiar blue square with the words “Know-How Installed” is a mark of quality that vouches for this. In addition, the benefits of the Geberit product range are now explained to end users in a way that is easy to understand under the motto “Design Meets Function” – and this is how it goes.

Long-lasting cleanliness A person’s initial enthusiasm for floor-even showers can quickly dwindle if problems crop up with the drainage. It’s a good thing that the benefits of the Geberit CleanLine shower channel are not limited to their ease of installation on-site, where, for example, the length can be cut in a straightforward manner giving the plumber maximum flexi-

→ Ready for the perfect shower experience: the Geberit Setaplano shower surface has a very pleasant feel.

Tom Stäubli, Tribecraft, Zurich

“Made of a solid surface material that boasts a silkysmooth feel, it is a calm piece of bathroom floor where the inclination is hardly visible.

The only thing that stands out is the metal ring, which dis­ creetly glistens from beneath the drain cover, framing our most important design achievement – an edgeless drain without gaps that is child’s play to clean.”

bility. On top of this, the shower channel has hardly any hidden areas where dirt can settle. Furthermore, hair – the main culprit when it comes to blockages – can be easily removed by the user in no time with the aid of the specially developed hair trap.

Loved from the first touch Floor-even showers are very popular because they substantially expand the scope of design possibilities in the bathroom.

Plumbers love the Geberit shower surface Setaplano because many of the components are delivered already premounted.

This greatly reduces the amount of work and the risk of errors during installation.

With customers, on the other hand, it is mostly the silky-smooth surface and its excellent non-slip properties that leave a lasting impression – very much in line with the motto “Touch it. Love it”.

Inner product values Good design should give you longlasting pleasure. What constitutes good design is not just the workmanship and quality, but also the functionality that a product offers. This includes, for example, easy cleaning and mainte­ nance, a sophisticated design that facilitates an error-free installation, or having shelf surfaces and storage space in the right place. Sanitary specialists mostly recognise these inner product values straight away and can advise their customers accordingly.

→

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Products & solutions

↑ Thanks to sophisticated installation technology, the pitfalls of wall-mounted taps are no more.

Christoph Behling, Christoph Behling Design, London

“With the new Geberit tap system, the wallmounted tap has not only become foolproof, it is also easy to main­ tain – and it is now at a price level where it can be used everywhere.”

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Nightmares a thing of the past While many operators of public and semipublic sanitary facilities dream about elegant touchless wall-mounted taps, they tend to cause plumbers nightmares. The ingenuity of the new solution from Geberit lies in the proven installation technology featuring a mounting frame, which makes planning, installing and maintaining such taps significantly easier.

Flushing without touching Electronic flush actuators are becoming increasingly popular. The Geberit Sigma80, which is equipped with IR sensors, is designed for operating a dual-flush system.

Instead of two buttons, the actuator plate features two light fields of different sizes.

To trigger the flush, all it takes is a brief wave in front of either the large or the small light field. The servo technology integrated in the plate takes care of the rest. ←

Pepped up in a flash The family of Monolith sanitary modules adds a special touch to any bathroom. The module for WCs combines the technology, cistern and dual-flush mechanism in an elegant, slim body. Thanks to a reworked interior, the module can be installed as easily as a conventional Geberit Duofix installation frame and optionally fitted with a wall-hung or floor-standing WC ceramic appliance.

The Geberit Monolith Plus offers customers added value through its inclusion of an effective odour extraction unit and a discreet, sensor-controlled orientation light.

Customer Magazine December 2017

Daniel Irányi, Tribecraft, Zurich

“The original goal was actually just to create a new exposed cistern. We then designed an architectural foil for the toilet that establishes the connection to the room. In this context, the glass surface forms the stage on which the WC ceramic appliance can impress.”

↑ As a reinterpretation of the exposed cistern, the Monolith significantly enhances every bathroom. ↓ This is how touchless is done: two differently sized light fields replace the button function on the Sigma80.

Arno Lenzi, Tribecraft, Zurich

“In order to convey ‘touchlessness’ to users, we are countering today’s touch­ screen reflex with a magical sense of depth: only when the user is present does the Sigma80 awaken, with a three-dimensional cloud of bright spots forming the light fields.”

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Ten years Geberit Southern Africa

A company on the move New facilities, new products With the move to the new premises in Johannesburg beginning of this year, followed by the move to the purpose-built facility in Cape Town later in the year, Geberit started their expansion in the local market.

Reason enough to celebrate these momentous events in style. Durban will be following suit and relocating to larger state-of-the-art premises in 2018.

The new Geberit premises in Johannesburg and Cape Town, with Durban following soon.

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Customer Magazineâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; December 2017

→ The new showroom in Johannesburg was officially opened by the Ambassador of Switzerland, Helene Budliger Artieda (left) who was joined by Ronald van Triest, Member of the Group Executive Board and Erwin Kaelin (right), Head of Developing Markets.

Geberit Johannesburg hosted 300 of their esteemed customers at a gala evening at their new premises in Longmeadow earlier this year, in celebration of the official opening of the new state-of-the-art facility as well as celebrating ten years as Geberit Southern Africa. “Time goes by. Quality remains.” was the campaign for 2017 and perfectly matched Geberit Southern Africa’s events and big reveal celebrations. Guests were welcomed into the new warehouse where they were treated to cocktails and canapes whilst an exciting aerial silk dance routine unfolded high above the racking system, highlighting the sheer volume of the new warehouse. The Goliath Titans and the band Swing City entertained to reinforce the whole theme of “Time goes by.

Quality remains.” All around the welcome area were large easels with historic pictures of Geberit through the ages, clearly showing how time goes by and quality remains. One area had photographs of the very beginning of Geberit, dating back to 1874, when the company was known as Gebert after the founder Caspar Melchior Gebert.

And the journey continues ...

Erwin Kaelin, Head of Developing Markets, gave a moving speech on the history of Geberit, focussing on the journey of Geberit in the South African market. He has been involved in establishing Geberit in Southern Africa from before it all started and he shared with everyone his first experiences and interactions with the various people and businesses who were actively involved in marketing of this unknown Swiss brand – Geberit, back in the early 1980s and 1990s: from the first projects, to agencies and distributors to first the first premises and trainings, leading up to the eventual acquisition of AMS by the Geberit Group in 2007.

Erwin always had a dream to bring a piece of Switzerland to South Africa and this year his dream has finally been realised with the impressive hydraulic drainage tower, a simulation of the facility located at the Geberit head office training centre in Jona, Switzerland. In addition, as Geberit Southern Africa is the launch market for the new Geberit bathroom series which encompasses manufactured and Geberit branded ceramics and bathroom furniture, a purpose built, architecturally designed, state-of-the-art showroom was officially unveiled and opened; designed to enhance the all-inclusive Geberit Bathroom Collection.

↑ Aerial silk dance routine in the warehouse.

→

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Ten years Geberit Southern Africa

← The tower room is located just beyond the showroom.

↑ Erwin Kaelin, Head of Developing Markets, introduced the different lifestyle settings in the new showroom and explained the products on display.

New showroom and experience centre in Johannesburg The Johannesburg facility was officially opened by the Ambassador of Switzerland, Helene Budliger Artieda, who was joined by Ronald van Triest, member of the Group Executive Board, and Erwin Kaelin. Guests were invited to walk through the new showroom which is adorned with a host of new products from the Geberit Bathroom Collection. The walk through took them from the high end Citterio and Xeno² series to the versatile iCon, harmonious Smyle and every day Abalona series. They were introduced to a working display of the Geberit AquaClean Mera toilet and in the same area, could see how well-crafted and seamless the new Setaplano shower floor looked in-

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stalled. Guests were able to see a “before, during and after” renovation process where a 1970s bathroom was easily transformed to a modern bathroom of today, using existing plumbing points, the same space, with minimal downtime, resulting in an impressively functional and elegant bathroom design.

The layout of the showroom is conducive for people to visualise different scenarios as the products are effectively displayed in different lifestyle settings.

A hydraulic drainage tower in South Africa Within the last 20 years, thanks to the hydraulic drainage tower in Switzerland,

Customer Magazine December 2017

↓ Mark Schurr, Managing Director (right) and Ronald van Triest, Member of the Group Executive Board at the opening ceremony in Cape Town.

around 100,000 customers expanded their knowledge about drainage hydraulics and experienced real practical examples. From now on, such experiences can be gained in South Africa, too. The working display provides an insight behind the scenes of a hydraulic drainage system. The clear pipe shows the effective flow of water, giving insight to the technology behind the wall.

Opening ceremony in Cape Town and relocation in Durban On 5 October, the new purpose built premises in Cape Town which boasts an impressive showroom, offices and larger warehouse facility was officially opened by Ronald van Triest, Member of the Group Executive Board. Guests were treated to

excellent entertainment, delicious food and locally produced craft beer and wine. They were invited to walk around and see the new training centre, warehouse space and new Bathroom Collection on display.

2018 will see the Geberit facility in Durban relocate to larger, state-of-the-art premises, which will have a modern office component, fully kitted-out training centre, bigger warehouse facility and a purposefully designed showroom, showcasing the latest products and solutions.

cy in both function and design remaining at the core of all Geberit products, from design to completion. At Geberit, we will continue to innovate, set trends and position ourselves in the market to being a pioneer of design, both in front and behind the wall, for many more decades. ←

We welcome you to the New World of Geberit – where functionality behind the wall meets the design in front of the wall.

With sustainability, innovation and efficien-

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Reference object

A perfect copy The new International Centre for Cave Art In 1940, the village of Montignac in the south-west of France became world-famous from one moment to the next when four young people stumbled upon a cave containing murals painted thousands of years ago. A visitor centre is now providing a whole new perspective on this World Heritage Site.

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Customer Magazineâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; December 2017

← The spatial arrangement of the exhibits is exactly the same as in the original cave.

↑ A visit begins on the roof of the building. → The building gives visitors the impression that they are entering a cave.

International Centre for Cave Art, Montignac (FR) Building owner: Conseil Départemental de la Dordogne Architects: Snøhetta Completed: 12/2016 Geberit products HDPE piping system Allia Diedro bathroom series Allia Fontange bathroom series

The creative minds at the Norwegian/ American architecture firm Snøhetta were faced with a few tricky issues when planning the visitor centre in Montignac (FR).

After all, access to the cave – which features impressive hunting scenes and pictures of animals – has been strictly prohibited for a long time due to the huge risk of irretrievably destroying the pigments, which had been preserved in their original state for some 15,000 years.

stone’s throw from the original site and had to be as accurate in every detail as state-ofthe-art technology would allow. This was not the first time this approach was taken.

As the name of the project – “Lascaux IV” – suggests, such attempts had already been carried out in the past. However, in terms of precision, none of them match up to the synthetic resin imitations created using state-of-the-art 3-D laser technology during attempt number four.

Attempt number four The answer to this dilemma lay in taking the bull by the horns: the interior of the cave was to be reconstructed in a new building a

Narrative architecture The exact reproduction of the cave art does not end with the choice of pigments and the faithful spatial alignment of the ex-

hibits – even the microclimate in the cave and the sounds are simulated in the new visitor centre. In close collaboration with the London-based scenography experts Casson Mann, Snøhetta Architects created a building that could easily fool you into believing you were in the original cave. ←

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Raw materials for Geberit During cold Nordic winters, the coastal areas of the Baltic Sea can occasionally lie under a sheet of ice and be unnavigable for ships.

The fourth (and final) raw material delivery of the year is therefore particularly important for the plant in Ekenäs, Finland. Immediately after the ship docks, the kaolin is transported by truck from the port to the raw materials warehouse.