Setting new standards in form and function

What is design without solving a problem? Tracing 21 years of Stormtech’s Linear Shower Channel shows that design which tackles both form and function can leave the biggest impact of all.

Up until the launch of Stormtech’s Linear Shower Channel in 1996, shower designs had followed a tried and true formula with a standard floor waste positioned in the middle of a centrally sloping floor, with all the tiles cut to fall inwards. Not only was it labour intensive and as Stormtech’s CEO Troy Creighton says, “limiting from a design perspective”, it also created another problem. This “traditional way of doing things” required a raised edge that limited wheelchair accessibility. Needing an aesthetic and functional drainage solution, two architects approached the then small-scale business, which led to the development of a product that would change the face of bathroom designs.

One of those architects was Sydney’s Ed Lippmann, founding director of Lippmann

Associates. Sharing insights into the Camperdown Terrace project from 1996, Ed says: “The client was young and experimental, and happy to use anything that was out of the ordinary but practical.

The whole project was an innovative interior and that formed part of the language of the space.” Extending the overall design approach to the bathroom design, Ed specified Stormtech’s then newly developed Linear Shower Channel. “It looked so aesthetically superior than having a floor waste. We’ve been using them ever since,” says Ed.

What may seem simple and straightforward, belies the level of knowledge and skill that went into the development of this now iconic product. Originally created by Stormtech’s founder John Creighton, Troy elaborates on the process to get the Linear Shower Channel designed and into the market. “This product was the first of its kind, and it was the product that changed our business.

There was a lot of work that went in to resolving the design to be fit for use as there were no domestic shower channels at the time, which also meant there were no regulatory standards to work within. My father, John Creighton, worked closely with the Sydney water board to ensure that it would meet building standards.”

Ultimately what Stormtech’s Linear Shower Channel has done is hit the nail on the head with solving not just a design problem, but a functional problem. Design wise, it creates a cleaner, more aesthetically pleasing outcome, as Ed expresses: “It is much nicer to have a single grate and make the floor fall in one direction.” From the practical aspect, it creates a seamless transition that enables a wheelchair accessible shower. And more than 20 years later, it was Stormtech that was called upon to advise on the latest standards in disability access in the building codes. What could be more impactful than that?