DESIGN FOR ALL BATHROOM ACCESSORIES COLLECTION WINS AN’S 2024 BEST OF PRODUCTS AND THE SINGLE MOTION UNLATCHING DOOR PULL RECEIVED AN HONORABLE MENTION

The Architect’s Newspaper announced pba as the winner of the Appliances + Plumbing: Bathroom Category for its Design For All Bathroom Accessories, and the recipient of an honorable mention in the Hardware: Architectural Category for its Single-Motion Unlatching Door Pull, as part of the 2024 Best of Products Awards.

The Architect’s Newspaper’s Best of Products Awards acknowledges the leading manufacturers, designers, engineers, and artisans whose inventions are crucial to the built environment. AN’s awards program celebrates the vast and ever-evolving industry of architectural products, as it’s these that allow architects to build better and bigger projects that can more precisely respond to the world around them.

A consideration for how products operate within a larger ecosystem was a common theme that united many of the winners picks this year. This includes a consideration for the global climate crisis, an issue that prompted designers to devise creative and affordable alternatives and solutions. Beyond sustainability, this year’s winners carefully reflected on how products and building materials influence lifestyle choices, from health and nutrition to hygiene and sanitation habits.


pba
developed the Design for All Bathroom Accessories Collection AN’s Best of Products Winner – to design public spaces that balance practical use and beauty without compromise.

The collection is an expression of materiality and form at its purest. Crafted by hand of AISI 316L stainless steel – the hardest, most resistant, and most elastic of steels – maximum attention was given to creating minimal shapes with refined details, all to reduce visual clutter and to deliver an elevated and user-friendly experience.

From the absence of flanges and exposed hinges to a trademark reveal that imparts a discernible lightness and makes installation on uneven surfaces more forgiving, every item in the range brings an incomparable elegance and sense of modernity to the restroom environment. Conceived to blend into a space rather than to distract the eye, and a step away from the institutional look common to the market, Design for All was developed to support inclusion beautifully.

“Understated and also very utilitarian—but in a more of a minimal, designed way. It wasn’t necessarily bringing so much attention to it, just acknowledging that this is what I am, and this is what I do.” says Brian Messana, Member of the Award Jury and Cofounder Messana O’Rorke.

Related in form and finish, pba‘s new range of Design for All Bathroom Accessories allows designers to source everything they need from one place, ensuring a more unified and seamless integration within spaces. This approach ensures that all users, regardless of physical abilities or limitations, feel included and respected, enjoying the same consideration for their needs and autonomy as everyone else. Designed for all, the collection enhances not only the bathroom experience but also promotes greater inclusivity.

We are honored to receive these 2024 AN’s 2024 Best of Products Awards. From an inclusive design perspective, the challenge lies in creating more inclusive restrooms with solutions that are both unique and accessible to all. Our goal is to design products that, while originating from the same mold (identical for all), can meet diverse needs. Accessibility is the right to access. When a product fails to provide this, it falls short of being a truly good product.” says Francesca Masiero, President of pba.


pba also received an honorable mention in the Hardware: Architectural Category for its Single-Motion Unlatching Door Pull, a life-safety hardware that secures glass, wood, and metal swing doors with ultra-easy installation and simple, intuitive use. Ideal for most any type of security door that does not require panic hardware, a gentle push on the exit side grip is all that is required to release the latch and open the door. Operable with a key or electronic card reader on the entry side, the pull requires no electronic sensor or release button on the egress side.

Single-Motion Unlatching Door Pull unlatches and opens the door with a single movement using the Activation Area, easily operable with one hand, without tight grasping, pinching or twisting of the wrist. The Activation Area includes the Grip in powder coated aluminum or leather wrapped and the Push Coupler in ECONYL® regenerated nylon, from waste such as fishing nets, old carpets destined for landfills, plastic components and fabric scraps from mills. As well as being a solution on waste, ECONYL® is also better when it comes to climate change. It reduces the global warming impact of nylon by up to 90% compared with the material from oil.

pba is committed to manufacturing sustainable and recyclable hardware and bathware. The Design for All Bathroom Accessories and the Single Motion Unlatching Door Pull are designed for easy disassembly, allowing for the recycling the individual components at end of their life cycle. The collections have an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), contribute to LEED requirements and hold a Declare Red List Free label, all contributing to a sustainable future.

All products in these collections meet ADA requirements and are suitable for installations that need to comply with ADA and similar accessibility standards.

pba collaborated with Gensler, serving as product design consultant, in developing these groundbreaking products.

TOCCO COLLECTION WINS 2024 GREEN GOOD DESIGN SUSTAINABILITY AWARD IN THE GREEN PRODUCTS CATEGORY

The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design announced pba TOCCO Collection has won a 2024 Green GOOD DESIGN® Award.

TOCCO was previously honored with the Interior Design Magazine NYCxDESIGN Award in May in the Architectural Products Category.

In June, it received the 2024 Best of NeoCon Gold in the Architectural Products Category, as well as the Innovation Award across all categories.

Today the sensory inclusive and sustainable TOCCO hardware collection received the 2024 Green GOOD DESIGN® Award. The award recognizes the collection’s contribution to sustainable development, highlighting its environmental, social, and economic characteristics within a diverse context of international excellence.

Green GOOD DESIGN 2024 awarded architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning projects, products, packaging, and graphic designs from over 32 nations, representing the world’s most important manufacturers and design firms and leading FORTUNE 500 corporations that are forwarding a new emphasis on a more sustainable design and environment worldwide.

This is the 16th year that the institutions have developed this very specialized edition of the original GOOD DESIGN program, which was founded in Chicago in 1950 by Eero Saarinen and Charles and Ray Eames.

Green GOOD DESIGN identifies and emphasizes the world’s most important examples of sustainable design and to develop a public awareness program to the general public about which global companies are doing the best job ecological and sustainable design for our world environments.

pba’s goal is to provide designers with a collection of inclusive and sustainable door hardware, enabling the design of spaces that are more sensory-inclusive and sustainable. This offering gives designers the ability to create environments where diverse user needs are accommodated through a range of options.

The TOCCO Collection offers nearly infinite color options (visual preferences), as well as two grip textures (tactile preferences), ensuring the design of highly inclusive spaces for all users. The levers and pulls grips in the collection are made of ECONYL® regenerated nylon, which is not only environmentally sustainable but also interchangeable allowing spaces to be adapted to users’ needs and offering a better thermal comfort by maintaining a temperature similar to the environment.

We are honored to be recipients of these Green GOOD DESIGN® Awards,” says Francesca Masiero, President of pba. “We need to take a step back, and give up the idea of filling the whole space to make room for something else: other needs, other cultures, other desires. Because the Earth and its resources are not something we inherited from our fathers, but something we are borrowing from our sons.”

Committed to the goals of sustainable development and environmental and social sustainability – inclusivity; given that sustainability cannot ignore the centrality of the individual, pba is advancing sustainable and inclusive practices within the design industry.

When we design spaces, we must think about the way people perceive and interact with the environment. We must also think about how the things we create can impact the planet, from how materials are sourced, to where they end up at the end of their service life”. Tocco is not a finished collection, is the idea that we should be all committed to push ourselves out of our comfort zone questioning not if, but how we can make a difference in the built environment for our planet today and tomorrow, and for all people looking at diversity as a resource not as a limit, says Erica Anesi, CEO of pba.

TOCCO COLLECTION AWARDED TWICE WITH THE BEST OF NEOCON GOLD AND THE INNOVATION AWARDS

TOCCO made with ECONYL® regenerated nylon has won the Best of NeoCon Gold Award in the Architectural Products category and the Innovation Award.

The thoughtful and beautiful hardware collection was submitted jointly by pba and Aquafil, the makers of ECONYL® regenerated nylon. The TOCCO collection is featured in the Aquafil showroom at The MART.

The Best of NeoCon Awards presented a total of 126 awards for products in 50 categories for Gold, Silver, Sustainability, Innovation, and Business Impact. The winners were selected by a distinguished group of 53 architects, designers, specifiers, enterprise clients, facility managers, and top business media who judged the products on-site at THE MART.
pba goal is to offer designers a collection of inclusive and sustainable door hardware allowing them the option to choose color and texture to design the most inclusive space for all users. TOCCO Collection is a capsule hardware collection of levers and pulls made of ECONYL® regenerated nylon that are sustainable, interchangeable and sensory sensitive.

Committed to environmental preservation and inclusiveness, because sustainability can’t disregard the centrality of the individual, pba is promoting sustainable and inclusive practices within the design industry. The two talks at NeoCon provided an occasion to discuss pba’s TOCCO Collection, showcasing the company’s unwavering dedication to its founding values:

“When we design spaces, we must think about the way people perceive and interact with the environment. We must also think about how the things we create can impact the planet, from how materials are sourced, to where they end up at the end of their service life” says Erica Anesi, CEO of pba.
The grip of the TOCCO Collection is made of ECONYL® nylon, a soft material with a temperature similar to that of the environment, minimizing thermal stimulation. All TOCCO hardware is made with ECONYL® nylon and stainless steel and it is constructed for easy disassembly and recycling at end of life.

“We are very proud to partner with innovative companies like pba to create architectural solutions that make life better for people and the planet,” says Maria Giovanna, Chief Communications Officer for Aquafil. “The design community has truly embraced ECONYL® regenerated nylon to be part of their innovation strategy and it is exciting to see these solutions come to market and be recognized by the industry.”

pba collaborated with RainlightSTUDIO and Kay Sargent, Cognitive and Sensory Wellbeing Design Consultant, to offer designers a complete range of door hardware, levers and pulls, giving them the option to choose color and texture to design the most inclusive space for all users.

Sargent is a recognized expert on neurodiversity and workplace inclusion and an award-winning designer. She is a principal and the director of thought leadership in HOK’s Interiors group, leading project teams to solve clients’ business and organizational challenges related to real estate business process, strategic planning, workplace strategy and change management. Kay’s design expertise were leveraged by pba and RainlightSTUDIO to reimagine a complete range of door hardware, levers and pulls, providing choice of color and texture to design the most inclusive space.

Kay Sargent was also recognized by Interior Design with the 2024 HiP Designer Lifetime Of HiPness Award at the annual NeoCon event. The HiP Awards celebrate the most innovative people and products in the commercial design industry and in particular designers whose work has made a positive contribution to the societal and environmental well-being.

“To allow all employees to thrive, office designs need to remain fluid and adaptable. Employers can improve employee wellness and productivity by offering a wide range of choices, allowing people to continually select the best space for their individual needs. All we know about designing for inclusion should be applied to every element within the build environment… including the hardware. No detail is too small, as they all impact the experience we have and they add to the overall solution.” says Kay Sargent.

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DESIGN FOR ALL TAKES SHAPE – DESIGN TALKS AT NEOCON

At the design talks organized at NeoCon, pba introduced the Research conducted by the University of Venice IUAV, aimed at exploring the perception of inclusion and sustainability regarding TOCCO. On June 10th and 11th at NeoCon, pba and Kay Sargent discussed about products role in Sustainability and Inclusion with Aquafil and experts sparking meaningful conversations on circular economy and inclusive design.

The panel of experts explored the collaborative efforts between producers and designers to create products that champion both inclusivity and sustainability, envisioning a future where innovation aligns seamlessly with positive societal impact.

pba CEO, Erica Anesi, with a focus on our products, shared insights into how TOCCO has redefined inclusivity in product design, paving the way for more accessible and equitable solutions. Erica also introduced research conducted by the University of Venice IUAV, commissioned from pba and Aquafil, and explained how the role of perception becomes crucial when considering objects within a space.

Maria Giovanna Sandrini, Chief Communication Officer, Aquafil Group introduced the concept of sustainable design and why this is important to Aquafil and she shared what Aquafil and pba are doing together to address inclusive and sustainable design.

pba and Aquafil commissioned this research at IUAV University’s Department of Psychology of Architecture with the aim of exploring how inclusivity and sustainability are perceived by both experts and naives, and identifying which perceptual components effectively communicate inclusivity or sustainability to them.

The research investigated varied components of inclusivity and sustainability with the scope to classify them into single measurable variables (e.g. hard/soft – warm/cold), with unique meanings (the diverse concepts that underlie inclusive/sustainable artefacts). These single variables were used to investigate their related tertiary-expressive quality which influence the perception of inclusion and sustainability.
The research scope was to find a correlation between the single components of perceived inclusivity/sustainability and the tertiary-expressive qualities, to verify which categories of inclusivity/sustainability are overlooked and how.

Finally, the perception of inclusive/sustainable artefacts were assessed by collecting empirical data on which components of an artifact express inclusivity and sustainability and the reasons behind these perceptions.

On the first panel discussion “Exploring the Intersection of Sustainable & Inclusive Design”, Kay Sargent, Senior Principal & Director of Thought Leadership, Interiors, HOK, explored how spaces can be designed to support all individuals, fostering inclusivity and accessibility.

The panel speaker Preethi Gopinath, Director, MFA Textiles & Associate Professor at Parsons School of Design – The New School, explored how sustainability and inclusivity are essential components of training for the next generation of designers, along with gathering insights on students’ perspectives regarding these crucial values.

On the second design talk “What Does Responsible Design Mean?”, the amazing lineup of speakers included Julie Gauthier, Practice Leader, Workplace Interiors, Associate Principal of Perkins & Will that recently launched their Neurodiversity Assessment Toolkit focused on workplace environments. Julie explored the role of designers to raise awareness of sustainable and inclusive choices with a focus on products specified on projects that support sustainable and wellbeing goals.

Our experience at NeoCon week were a success. Participants loved browsing our products while pba introduced the research conducted by the University of Venice IUAV, engaging in the interesting panel discussion, networking, and enjoying a drink.

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DESIGNING FOR IMPACT: PRODUCT ROLE IN SUSTAINABILITY AND INCLUSION

pba discussed about products role in sustainability and inclusion in a conversation with experts sparking meaningful conversations on circular economy and inclusive design.

Panelists:
Melissa Dallal, IIDA NCIDQ | Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Candon Murphy, LEED GA | HOK
Xiomara Lento, Ind. IIDA | pba
Raphael Williams, WELL AP | Allsteel

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