Duravit

About the Duravit brand

The Duravit brand ranks among the world’s largest manufacturers of sanitary ceramics. Its history began in Hornberg, Germany, in 1817, when its founder Georg Friedrich Horn built a small factory producing pottery goods.

However, Duravit rose to prominence somewhat later – in 1956, when the company began manufacturing sanitary ceramics. From a small pottery business, it gradually grew into an international company employing more than 5,000 people in over 130 countries worldwide.

Duravit products are known for their first-class design, ensured through cooperation with leading world-renowned designers such as Philippe Starck, Sieger Design, Kurt Merki Jr., Christian Werner, Matteo Thun and Cecilie Manz.

Duravit sanitary ceramics are characterised by modern timeless design, high quality, and maximum product functionality. They also feature innovative technologies that make maintenance easier while increasing the durability and shine of the ceramics.

Duravit’s portfolio includes washbasins, double washbasins, bathtubs, toilets, bathroom furniture, shower trays, wellness systems, shower toilets, faucets and accessories.

Duravit brand values

100% Quality

Duravit places very high demands on premium quality and impressive design, so it is no surprise that it entrusts its products to people rather than machines. The high quality of Duravit sanitary ceramics is ensured by the “handmade” work of the company’s skilled employees.

100% Design

Duravit sanitary ceramics can boast not only outstanding quality, but also unique design. Duravit has a precisely defined design language focused on the modern and timeless appearance of its products. Thanks to the cooperation between the Duravit team and globally recognised designers and architects, the company has received 220 international design awards.

100% Tradition

Duravit sanitary ceramics are highly timeless and truly high-quality. For this reason, some products have been manufactured using the same handcrafted method for several decades. One example is the Duravit Starck 1 series, whose production method has remained unchanged since its market launch in 1994.

100% Technology

Although Duravit focuses on traditional handcraft production, it certainly does not forget innovative technologies that increase comfort. Duravit offers a number of pioneering innovations, such as DuraCeram, HygieneGlaze, and c-bonded technology.

Duravit designers

Duravit collaborates with many world-renowned designers. All of them have received prestigious international awards for their contribution to Duravit.

• Cecilie Manz – an acclaimed designer of furniture, tableware, lighting, and electronics. For Duravit, she created the distinctive Luv series, which combines Scandinavian minimalism with the timeless elegance of ceramics. For her contribution to the field of design, Cecilie Manz has received many prestigious awards and grants.
   
• Christian Werner – a German designer who studied industrial design in Berlin and Hamburg, where he has lived since 1984. In 1992, he founded his own agency for product design and interior architecture. He designs furniture for leading global manufacturers, including Duravit, where you can find his industrial-style series Duravit L-Cube and Duravit Ketho. 
   
• Frank Huster – was born in 1939. He studied architecture and interior design in Stuttgart. Together with Peter Hübner, between 1970 and 1978 he developed, among other things, cardboard toys, folding structures, and cardboard screens for the Munich Olympics. In 1993, Frank Huster designed the still successful and continuously expanding ceramic Architec range for the public and semi-public sector for Duravit. In 2009, he designed the Duraplan flat shower trays.
   
• Kurt Merki Jr. – was born in 1978 in Accra, Ghana, as the eldest son of the Swiss carpenter Kurt Merki Sr. and his Ghanaian wife, a fashion designer who studied in London in the 1960s. He trained as a carpenter in his father’s furniture factory. In 1997, he moved to Switzerland, where in Lucerne he passed his examination and became a master carpenter in 1999. Between 2001 and 2008, he worked as an interior designer for various architectural firms in Zurich, then moved to Milan to expand his design knowledge at the Scuola Politecnica di Design. After earning a master’s degree in interior and product design, he worked in 2009 at Antonio Citterio’s studio in Milan, before soon returning to Zurich, where he opened his own design studio in 2010. For Duravit, he designed the Vero, C.1 and XSquare series, for which he received the iF Design Award 2019.
   
• Matteo Thun – was born in 1952 in Bolzano as Matthäus Antonius Maria Thun. He is a descendant of a South Tyrolean noble family famous for ceramic production. He studied under Oskar Kokoschka at the academy in Salzburg and graduated from the University of Florence. After a stay in the USA, in 1981 he co-founded, together with South Tyrolean designer Ettore Sottsass, the legendary Memphis Group, which caused a sensation with its furniture. In 1984, he founded Studio Matteo Thun in Milan, and between 1990 and 1993 he was creative director of Swatch. He has received the Italian design award "Compasso d´Oro" three times.
   
• Philippe Starck – the French designer and innovator lives and works in Paris, New York, London, and on the Italian island of Burano. He studied artistic design at the École Nissim de Camondo in Paris and soon afterwards founded his own company, Starck Products. His design is revolutionary, both in its concepts and, for example, in its emphasis on ecological thinking. He became especially famous for his unconventional solutions, his use of new materials enabling new shapes and revolutionary concepts. The beauty of his work lies in its simplicity. In cooperation with Duravit, you can find the ME by Starck, Starck 1, Starck 2 and Starck 3 series.