Unity Hydration | Exploring the Future of Health & Home
Reimagining our relationship with water
and technology in our homes
Water is fundamental to human existence. It supports our basic needs and necessities; we not only use it as an essential fuel source, we use it as a functional tool in our daily lives. We have an undeniably primitive connection to it, and it resonates with us on a psychological level.
In our homes, water is often limited by plumbing infrastructure and hidden away in tangles of pipes and valves. Truly flexible solutions that allow water to fulfil its range of roles are lacking. The full depth of our primitive and spiritual connections with water are not celebrated enough.
Our domestic water systems and infrastructures were designed by a generation living in a slower, non-connected world with a very different outlook and understanding of consumer needs. Life, and our domestic habitats adapted to the technological advancements of the time. Our homes took a form that were a snapshot of that era, and apart from a few cost driven tweaks, have not drastically altered or evolved since. What if we were to reimagine our relationship with the water in our homes beyond the legacy left behind by previous generations and create a more versatile experience that celebrated such a fundamental resource?
This is not a scenario where we can simply revolutionise the home and expect users to just adapt. To radically change entrenched or create new behaviours takes time. To help understand how consumers may or may not react to the possible infrastructure change the unity concept could bring, we have identified key areas which stretch the meaning of water. These areas will help us define the cultural rules the Unity Water Concepts have to abide by to maximise its potential to unite us.
Unity is an intelligent hydration system, seamlessly integrated into our future homes and workspaces. The vision is to optimise the outdated water infrastructure of a bygone age and create a more fit for purpose hydration experience by installing additional hydration points in shared communal spaces.
This will not only bring water to the forefront as a vital commodity, but it will also create additional opportunistic, shared moments in the home and at work.
No longer would we be limited to a single go to source of water sitting quietly on the peripheral. With new hydration fountains and wells fully plumbed in and integrated into key pieces of furniture or architectural fittings throughout the home, we can not only start to conserve our water consumption but we can start to elevate waters role in our health and home.
Meaning space: Water as nutrition
Homes of today feel increasingly fragmented, with people and family members all operating with different schedules and requirements. Within this changing dynamic, a parent’s duty to nourish their children’s needs is paramount, particularly in a time of pandemics.
We are now becoming more and more mindful of staying healthy through informed nutrition and daily exercise and the outdated view of drinking eight glasses a day is no longer enough to a consumer that tracks and monitors their own and family’s wellbeing.
The first Unity concept offers a smart, automated hydration solution for the entire family by utilising the data captured from our existing health devices and currently unavailable hydration monitors. These data insights are translated by the Unity system to inform each member of the family as to whether they are hydrated enough and advises and automatically administers any potential electrolyte imbalances they may have.
Meaning space: Emotionally intelligent water
A lot of habits and rituals exist around water. We boil kettles, take showers, washthe dishes and flush toilets at generally predictable and repeatable times of the day, so a sudden change or variance in a family members water consumption might signal something that needs attention, especially when it comes to the physical and mental health of those who are more vulnerable and do not live with us.
It is not always possible or realistic to monitor loved ones from afar, so multiple, connected Unity devices enable you to monitor the specific water consumption of those family members in most need and issue friendly, unalarming reminders and in some cases automatically dispense a drink as a direct visible reminder. This is achieved either directly through the Unity interface or supporting smart phone application.
Meaning space: Emotionally intelligent water
The provision and preservation of clean drinking water is of the upmost importance. Increasingly, as personal hygiene and pathogen control take on a new significance in our society, water access points that offer confident anti-microbial properties and do not allow water to stand still will be more desirable.
Traditional water dispensers rely on water chambers which can contain and hold static water for days. By utilising a home’s riser main, the Unity system has a constant source of moving and treated water. Whether the preference is hot, cold or even sparkling, each automatic water selection moves through a number of purifications, UV and filtration processes to eliminate any unwanted water-borne micro-organisms. Not only does Unity carefully monitor the quality of the water it dispenses, it also manages usage with precision to minimise waste which can occur between temperature changes.
Meaning Space: Connecting to nature through water
Distance from the natural world and disruption to our biorhythms is having a negative impact on our health. Re-establishing this connection by bringing water and light into the home in considered ways can help to support healthier routines. Additional natural materials can facilitate the clean and efficient management of water (sterilisation and purification through: algae, stones, UV light).
At the heart of each Unity fountain is a replaceable and personalised canister which offers a selection of additional health actives, ranging from light purification natural filtration solutions right through to carefully curated vitamin options. Each long lasting canister or pod can be customised to your family’s nutritional requirements and hydration profiles to rebalance our biorhythms.
The future
The current concept is very much focused on the family within a domestic environment, but the principals set out in the meaning spaces can easily be translated across a number of scenarios to create a new and unique water experience.
The dispensing system is elegantly suspended in a hard wearing outer casing to create an iconic focal point to the system and the range.
The Unity fountain concept blends a contemporary furniture approach with architectural sculpture to create an intriguing, but familiar design solution.
The 360 degree dispensing head enables up to four users to activate the unit at any one time. Each nozzle is easily maintained and replaceable when the time comes.
The recessed tray and advanced interface helps the user with correct placement. It also captures any spillages and disperses it back into the water waste system.
Specialised UV lighting is used as part of the integrated filtration and purification system. The visible display helps create confidence and reassures the user that their water has been purified
With an in-built proximity sensor, the unity device is only active when it needs to be. It can not only sense a user approaching, it can also distinguish each different user from either their smart device or hydration monitor.
The system gives the user a simple visual guide of the amount of water consumed that day and whether their electrolyte requirements are balanced.
Each replaceable Unity cannister is based on a families usage and is curated online based on your individual hydration profiles.
Each long life actives cannister creates a truly customised and amplified water experience through precise micro dosing.
As the system automatically monitors each drink selection, bespoke health actives are dispensed when needed the most.
The unity fountain is always at the heart of the system. The system can be adapted to suit your individual needs or your available space.
The unity system is not just limited to the dining room or kitchen. Taller, stand alone units can be strategically placed around the home or workplace to encourage drinking on the go.
Related
Kohler
What bold can be in the bathroom
Creating structure and language for global design expression