Hot Source

Micro-architecture may be hot right now in terms of creative trend, but there’s a different take on the micro-architectural being explored currently inside the home and contract space – and one that’s literally hot.

High-end Italian radiator manufacturer Tubes have expanded further their innovative portfolio of sculptural products with the addition of ‘Rift’ – a game-changing design concept that enables the architect themselves to compose and configure the end product, allowing it either to dovetail with the interior-architectural space around it or getting it to function as a statement-like counterpoint.

Collaborating with respected design duo Ludovica+Roberto Palomba – who’ve previously worked with Tubes Radiatori on their archly graphic ‘t.b.t’ and ‘Square’ radiators – the company has succeeded in launching a supremely customisable product that delivers on all the fronts discerning specifiers have come to expect from the Treviso-based brand – material and technological innovation, energy efficiency, and space-shaping aesthetics. ‘Products developed for architecture,’ is how Tubes – which, for over twenty years, has sought to transform the utilitarian radiator into an aspirational, added-value design object – describes what it does.

If Tubes’s products are situated at the interface between product design and architecture, ‘Rift’ could be viewed as a metaphor for this. Literally consisting of two elongated forms made of extruded aluminium, its aesthetic strength lies in the way in which the architect or planner decides the extent to which the forms touch when having them installed. And how they touch. Like a Henry Moore sculpture, it’s a case of two elements in dialogue with each other, which together become greater than the sum of their parts. And which, in doing so, form a dialogue with their wider interior-architectural context.

Available in lengths up to 240 centimetres and widths from 100 to 190 centimetres, ‘Rift’ allows for a myriad configurations for a truly bespoke solution. It can be positioned horizontally or vertically, with the elements either parallel to each other or unaligned, permitting endless symmetrical and asymmetrical permutations. The result: a modest, compact radiator or something altogether more emphatic, idiosyncratic and monumental. What’s more, ‘Rift’ is available in Tubes’s full colour range and comes in electric and hydraulic versions.

‘“Rift” enables architects to ‘design’ the composition which fits their needs best,’ explain the Palombas and designer Matteo Fiorini. It’s about extending the creative process beyond the product’s authoring and production, turning its handling at the planning and installation stages into a designerly act too, and in doing so allowing the architect and planner to deliver their creative vision without compromise. In short, Tubes acknowledges the creative vision that professionals have and is demonstrably committed to supporting their creative as well as practical needs.

But the flexibility that ‘Rift’ brings with it applies not only to how it’s installed, but also where. Supported by a line of accessories that include shelving and heated towel rails, the radiator is ideal for specification in both living rooms and bedrooms, and bathrooms and other wet areas. And there’s more. While the product itself is completely new, the spaces it’s installed in don’t have to be. Tubes have patented a special technical innovation when it comes to fitting the radiator; a single collector with flexible centring dispenses with the need for precise positioning when connecting to the plumbing system, making it highly suitable for renovation projects and the, at times, irksome constraints that come with them.

‘We’ve managed to create something once unthinkable,’ explains Tubes CEO Cristiano Crosetta. ‘To manufacture a modular radiator whose technology allows its elements to be installed freely. “Rift” is a product that clearly meets the growing market need for customisation. It’s ultimately a radiator that’s at both the architect’s and the project’s service.’ Beyond the top-notch design talent that Tubes draws on (Crosetta describes, for example, the Palombas as having a ‘unique ability to be interpreters, and at the same time innovators, of our vision, experts in giving the radiator a new identity’), it’s precisely the brand’s dedication to problem-solving that makes its products stand out from those of its competitors. ‘We’ve always been dedicated to quality aesthetics and technological innovation, but ultimately it’s about finding solutions that are actually needed. And then producing them to the highest quality standards at our headquarters in Italy.’

While its latest radiator may be called ‘Rift’, there’s certainly no break in the consistency of the Tubes vision.