ISH 2019 — Frankfurt, March 11–15
Where Water, Energy and Design Converge
In recent years, bathrooms have changed. They have moved from purely functional rooms to spaces of health, relaxation and well-being. Nature, modern spa culture and the furniture industry have inspired this shift. The bathroom has become a place to linger and recharge. Even the mainstream market now offers solutions that turn it into a room for self-expression.
The ISH in Frankfurt is the world's leading trade fair for water and energy in buildings. The 2019 edition drew over 190,000 visitors from 153 countries and 2,532 exhibitors (source: Messe Frankfurt). It set the stage for the next wave of sustainable heating, smart building systems and modern interior concepts. At Entwurfreich, we attend fairs across industries. From BAU in Munich to Salone del Mobile in Milan, we track the trends that shape our industrial design work. This ZOOM-IN Trendreport captures the key findings from ISH 2019.
Five Key Trends at ISH 2019
1. How Is the Bathroom Becoming a Living Space?
The line between the bath and the living room keeps dissolving. At ISH 2019, exhibitors showed interior concepts drawn from residential design. Think open shelving, warm wood tones, textile accents and furniture-quality vanity units.
Brands like Duravit and hansgrohe presented collections where the bathtub is a centrepiece, not a utility fixture. Storage systems looked more like living room sideboards than clinical cabinets. Freestanding bathtubs were staged like sculpture, often placed at the centre of open-plan layouts.
The same trend appeared at the Salone del Mobile in Milan. There, furniture makers showed crossover pieces built for wet spaces. The message is clear: the bath is no longer a room you pass through. It is one you spend time in.
2. How Is the HVAC Industry Driving Sustainability?
Sustainability dominated every hall at ISH 2019. We also covered this topic in our article on sustainable design principles.
In the HVAC sector, heat pumps took centre stage. Manufacturers were preparing for the shift away from fossil-fuel heating. Vaillant presented their vision for a CO2-neutral future. We explored this in our interview with Dr. Jens Wichtermann and Tim Richter. Hydrogen-ready boilers and hybrid systems showed that the industry plans a gradual shift, not an abrupt break.
On the water side, saving resources no longer means sacrificing design. Greywater recycling, sensor-controlled faucets and flow-optimised showerheads proved this point. Several exhibitors showed showerheads that deliver a full-body experience at just 6 litres per minute. That is half the standard 12 l/min rate per DIN EN 1112.
3. How Is IoT Transforming the Modern Bathroom?
Digital tools have reached the bathroom. At ISH 2019, smart mirrors, voice-activated showers and app-controlled floor heating showed how the IoT is reshaping personal spaces.
The trend goes beyond gadgets. Connected systems create personalised user profiles. Water temperature, lighting mood, even music can activate when a user enters the room.
Grohe's SmartControl is a good example. Users switch between water outlets and set precise temperatures with one push-and-turn dial. It wraps digital power in a simple physical interface.
For product designers, this raises key questions. How do you balance automation with user control? How do you handle data privacy in personal spaces?
4. Why Is Mass Customisation Reshaping Sanitary Products?
Mass customisation has arrived in the sanitary industry. Manufacturers showed modular systems that let users shape their space to personal taste. Options range from faucet finishes in matte black, brushed gold or copper to mix-and-match tiles and custom shower setups.
Hansgrohe's Axor brand offered over 40 surface finishes for a single faucet line. Villeroy & Boch showed furniture programmes where customers pick dimensions, materials and handle styles on their own.
This shift reflects a broader expectation: products should adapt to the person, not the other way around. It is the same idea behind empathetic product design. The challenge for designers? Build modular systems that still look coherent across thousands of possible setups.
5. What Is Biophilic Bathroom Design and Why Does It Matter?
Biophilic design brings natural elements into built spaces. At ISH 2019, this trend was everywhere. Stone-effect surfaces, organic forms, plant-covered shower walls and rainfall heads that mimic natural water patterns all point to one need: connection with nature.
Research backs this up. Natural materials and forms reduce stress, lift mood and aid recovery. In the bathroom, this means spaces that feel less like clinical wetrooms and more like private retreats.
Terrazzo and concrete-look finishes led the material palettes. Several brands showed shower panels with built-in planters for living greenery in humid spaces. The wellness theme also extended to lighting. Human-centric systems shift colour temperature through the day. Cool and bright in the morning, warm and calm in the evening.
Interviews: Insights from Industry Leaders
Dr. Jens Wichtermann & Tim Richter — Vaillant Group
Vaillant is one of Europe's leading HVAC companies, based in Remscheid, Germany. Dr. Wichtermann (Corporate Communications) and Tim Richter (Head of Design) spoke about the energy transition. How does the industry move from gas boilers to heat pumps? And what role does industrial design play in making green tech desirable?
A key insight: the products that win are not just the most efficient. They are the ones that show their value through intuitive design and build trust through tactile quality.
Cem Guel — COSA
COSA sits at the crossroads of bathroom design and architecture. Cem Guel shared how the bathroom is evolving from a functional need into a design statement. His view: the sanitary industry must learn from furniture, fashion and hospitality to stay relevant.
Bathrooms will be designed as curated experiences, not assembled from catalogues. The brands that grasp this shift will shape the next decade of the industry.
Design Highlights from the Fair
Our ZOOM-IN Trendreport captures the visual essence of ISH 2019. It covers all key halls. Halls 3 and 4 featured bathroom design. Halls 8 through 12 showcased HVAC and energy technology.
Below is a preview. The full report includes trend analyses with over 80 original photos, product highlights from more than 30 exhibitors, and complete interviews with Vaillant and COSA.
Why It Matters for Product Design
The trends from ISH 2019 go beyond the bathroom industry. They reflect how people relate to products and spaces in general. The demand for personalisation, sustainability and sensory quality cuts across every sector. Consumer electronics, medical devices, building technology — the patterns are the same. At Entwurfreich, fairs like the ISH are core input for our design work. Knowing where an industry is heading helps us build products that stay relevant.
Our ZOOM-IN Trendreports turn these observations into clear, useful insights. Each report combines on-site photos, expert interviews and trend analysis in a compact format. It cuts through the noise of a fair with thousands of exhibitors. Whether you are building a new product line or refreshing an existing brand, the macro trends in adjacent industries can give you a real edge.
How These Trends Have Evolved Since 2019
Editor's note (2025): The five trends from ISH 2019 have proven remarkably durable.
Heat pumps moved from a forward-looking vision at the Vaillant booth to the dominant force in European heating policy. Smart home features in wet rooms shifted from novelty to expectation. Most premium sanitary brands now offer connected products as standard.
Biophilic design broke out of its niche into mainstream interior work. The push for personalisation keeps speeding up across all product types.
What started as fair trends in Frankfurt has reshaped the whole industry in just a few years. Entwurfreich keeps tracking these shifts through our ZOOM-IN reports and through project work in areas like medical device design, consumer products and building technology.
Selected Projects
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the ISH trade fair?
The ISH (Internationale Sanitaer- und Heizungsmesse) is the world's leading trade fair for water, energy and air-conditioning technology in buildings. Organised by Messe Frankfurt, it has been held biennially since 1960 and takes place on the Frankfurt Messe fairgrounds — one of the largest exhibition venues in the world. The fair covers the full spectrum of building technology: from sanitary fixtures and bathroom design to heating, cooling, ventilation and renewable energy systems. In 2019, the ISH attracted over 190,000 trade visitors from 153 countries and featured 2,532 exhibitors across more than 260,000 square metres of exhibition space (source: Messe Frankfurt). It is considered the most important industry meeting point for manufacturers, architects, planners, installers and designers working in the water and energy sector.
What were the main trends at ISH 2019?
The five key trends at ISH 2019 were: (1) the transformation of the bath into a living space, with furniture-quality vanity units and freestanding bathtubs as sculptural centrepieces; (2) sustainability and energy efficiency, driven by the rapid adoption of heat pump technology and water-saving fixtures capable of delivering a full experience at just 6 litres per minute; (3) smart home connectivity and IoT integration, including voice-controlled showers, app-managed heating and personalised user profiles; (4) mass customisation in sanitary products, enabling individual configuration of colours, materials and layouts; and (5) biophilic design — the integration of natural materials, organic forms and living greenery into wet environments to promote wellness and reduce stress. Many of these trends, particularly heat pumps and smart connectivity, have since become industry standard.
Who is Entwurfreich?
Entwurfreich is an industrial design agency founded in 2012 and based in Duesseldorf, Germany. Over the past 14 years, the multidisciplinary team has completed more than 350 projects for over 125 clients including ABB, Vodafone, Henkel, Coca-Cola, Fujifilm and Covestro. The agency's work spans product design, UX/UI design, CMF design and design strategy across sectors from consumer electronics to medical devices. Entwurfreich's ZOOM-IN Trendreports capture design trends from leading international trade fairs including ISH, BAU, Salone del Mobile and Dutch Design Week — providing actionable insights for designers, product managers and decision-makers. Recent awards include iF Design Award Gold 2024, Red Dot Best of the Best 2024 and German Design Award Gold 2026. Learn more about our design process.
Written by Matthias Menzel · April 25, 2019