STEAM CLOSET — NICHOLAS YUAN

STEAM CLOSET 400 SERIES

2020
Brief: To design an iron for Gaggenau in the year 2025
The Steam Closet 400 Series re-defines garment care for the modern luxury home.

IRONING NOW

I started this project by researching irons. I did online research to understand more about the different types of irons, the functions of irons, and the existing market. I also collaborated with others to do a teardown of a common steam iron to understand the functional parts of it, and how it was manufactured.

After analysis of the product itself, I moved on to research on the market as a whole. I started by doing online research using online marketplaces, forums, consumer reviews, and articles to gain an understanding of the various places of existing brands. I also visited Target, Best Buy, Bed Bath & Beyond to investigate how irons are displayed and stocked in person. Out of all the stores, Black and Decker, Rowenta and Shark stood out as the main options in-store. Consistent with this, Rowenta came out on top as a leading brand for irons. After this, I made a 2x2 to visualize the market, with one axis being domestic to industrial, and one being price. I chose to analyse products on a scale of domestic vs industrial because garment care is something that is outsourced by people sometimes, and does not always live in the home.

GAGGENAU IN FOCUS

Essential to this project was a thorough understanding of Gaggenau’s brand identity. In order to achieve this, I browsed their collection of appliances online, as well as looking at previous models of their products to understand their evolution as a brand. I also researched their brand history and looked through promotional materials such as their magazines, articles, and website to get an understanding of their brand. After this, I was able to visit their physical showroom in New York where I was able to have a hands-on experience of their products, interview chefs using their test kitchen, and the manager of the showroom. From there, I tried to synthesize their identity into a series of moodboards to greater understand it.

REFOCUS

Upon a better understanding of the brand, I realised that there was a need for an alternative approach to the brief. It was clear to me that Gaggenau’s primary demographic did not match with that of a regular steam iron, no matter how complex or luxurious. Therefore, I instead re-focused on how in 2025 Gaggenau would reimagine the experience of clothing care. Gaggenau’s focus on excellent kitchen appliance stems from their understanding of cooking as an art and as a form of self expression. They view the kitchen appliances as tools for artists (chefs) to create their art. In this sense, I was able to draw a parallel to fashion as a form of self expression. People who are interested in fashion care about their clothes and view fashion as a means of visually manifesting their identity, so taking care of their clothes would still be a priority regardless of wealth. Therefore, for me, the brief was thus re-defined as “To re-define the ironing experience for Gaggenau”.

IDEATION TO DEVELOPMENT

I started ideating thinking less about the technological side of things, but all within the confines of the spaces that the product would live in. This came as a bit of a struggle at first because the idea of a walk in wardrobe was difficult to work around for me. Through this ideation phase I was able to land on two fairly simple concepts to present at a midphase presentation.

MIDPHASE CONCEPTS

For the midphase concepts, I decided to go with the primary idea of a steam closet but separated them into whether they would be installed into an island or the wall. I made some low fidelity renders to flesh out the dimensions, scale, features, and in use scenarios.

CONCEPT A: DISPLAY

A small steam cabinet built into the island of the walk-in wardrobe of the user that rises from inside the island to show itself. The form allows it to either retract neatly when in use or to show the steaming process fully.

CONCEPT B: TRANSFORM