These days, it doesn’t take too much looking around to realize we’ve entered a brave, new, and fully automated world. Recent posts on KI’s eCoupled Wireless Technology and UM Projects’ Lodge Chair give just a hint of the manifold ways in which the need to be plugged in (and the hundreds of possible manifestations of this “plugged-in-ness”) is crossing paths with design. When it comes to the functionality of kitchen and bathroom faucets, we’ve already seen products like Ski Shower, Digitecture, and Vado’s V-Touch–each of which wrap-up an automated ablutional experience in an alluring aesthetic package.

Y-Con Touch. Designed by Newform.

The latest of these contributions to precision water control is the Y-Con Touch Kitchen Faucet by Newform. This particular piece couldn’t be simpler, and I say kudos for that, since in the world of automation it’s easy to get carried away with bells and whistles while losing sight of the particular objective: precision stream and temperature control. Newform tackles the difficulty head on. Y-Con boasts a slim silhouette (perhaps taking inspiration from Dornbracht’s Classic Tara). The faucet features twin pedestal cylinders–one at the base and one at the head–joined by an exceptionally thin shaft. The look is all minimalist modernism and the function is too. No digital displays or fancy stream shapes here. Automation is self-explanatory, eminently operable, and handsomely integrated: a simple, pencil-thin blue ellipse containing “plus” and “minus” and “hot” and “cold” symbols lets you control flow level and temperature with the barest glance of a fingertip. And the intervals of change are just right–small enough to get you where you want to be and large enough to get you there quickly.

Y-Con Touch also features a pull-out nozzle with customizable spray, though you’d never guess this to look at it. As with every aspect of this intelligent and functional new kitchen faucet, the detail is seamlessly integrated. In sum, Y-Con Touch is nearly perfect–never before has high functionality been so subtle.

Via Trendir