Jean-Jacques L'Henaff

We are excited to present this one of a kind immersive experience at ICFF 2025, North America's leading platform for contemporary furniture design.

LIXIL Global Design Leader Jean-Jacques L'Henaff will lead a series of panel discussions with architects and designers centered on thoughtful design, global trends, sustainable innovation, and the intersection of fashion and luxury.

Experience the transformative power of water and get a sneak peak of our new collection. Learn more: https://brnw.ch/21wSIwD

Year:

2024, 2025

Project Team:

Carina Buller, Dave Boer, Jean-Jacques L’Hénaff

The LIXIL Water Experience Center on Fifth Avenue in New York City is more than a showroom—it’s a carefully realized vision of what a modern design hub can be. After two years spent searching for the right location, followed by a year of planning and design and another of construction, the space officially opened on February 5, 2025, bringing American Standard, GROHE, DXV, and INAX together under one roof.

From the outset, the ambition was clear: not just to create a beautiful showroom, but to build a living, breathing hub for the architecture and design community, as well as customers, partners, and investors. That intention shaped every detail—from the spatial layout to the programming strategy—resulting in a dynamic environment designed for constant interaction and evolution.

The ground floor embodies this philosophy with an open, flexible layout. A lounge and bar anchor the space, while modular displays can be reconfigured for product launches or events. A dramatic 20-foot ceiling features a water-inspired metal “river,” and a massive 15-by-13-foot screen transforms the room from presentation venue to movie night setting. Movable gallery-style light boxes and a central collaborative table further reinforce the idea of adaptability and shared creativity.

Downstairs, the experience becomes more immersive. Products are organized in a “brand alley,” where each brand is brought to life through curated vignettes. Two live demonstration zones—one for showers and one for kitchens—allow visitors to engage directly with the products, bridging the gap between concept and real-world use.

Like many ambitious projects in New York, construction came with its share of challenges—particularly within a landmark building—but the team navigated them successfully, delivering the space just in time for its debut event.

And what followed validated the original vision. In its first year, the center hosted a wide range of programming: from opening night celebrations and NYCxDesign to industry gatherings like IDSA and ICFF, the Bronze Apple Awards, a fashion show with Christian Siriano, quarterly Ciné Nights with ADFF, Dwell events, DMI and IFDA talks, Metropolis sustainability discussions, executive dinners, and ongoing trainings and client meetings. The space didn’t just function—it thrived.

Ultimately, the LIXIL Water Experience Center stands as proof that a showroom can be something more: a platform for ideas, collaboration, and community. The concept held strong, the execution delivered, and the results speak for themselves—setting the stage for an even more dynamic year ahead.

Year:

2022-2025

Project Team:

Joseph Magee, Malherbe (Paris), Big Red Rooster (NYC), Rodolfo Agrella/RADS, Carina Bhulert, Daphné Haelfiger, Jean-Jacques L’Hénaff

As the workplace shift begins to take on a new tangible identity, the exploration into finding ways to work in a post-Covid environment have become more visible through changing aesthetics, revised ethics, and varying initiatives across many companies. At the newly designed LIXIL headquarters located in Piscataway, New Jersey, those thematics have presented themselves in very evident ways by contributing to a more mindful understanding of the way employees interact with, and are both influenced and guided by their physical work environment.

The redesign of the headquarters space in 2021-22 has been a tremendous opportunity to refamiliarize and engage with the company’s fundamental ideal to create a better “home” for everyone. The translation of this into the workplace looks like creating spaces that intersect in both a formal and informal way with employees. Thus, creating a balance between independent and collective spaces with areas dedicated to amenities within the larger office area.

To curate this connectivity within the 65,000 square feet that LIXIL occupies, new primary design features include workstations on the outer perimeter of the office area facing the windows to promote creative stimulation, informal lounge and work areas for individual and group work, variously sized meeting rooms for structured gatherings, a central zone with amenities including, two large kitchens, and a contactless restroom to accompany the heightened priority for hand washing upon arrival into the space — made possible in part through partnership with Dormakaba. Additionally the office features the inclusion of socially conscious artwork to reflect on the impact we have on the world around us, plus several exhibit spaces showcasing a multitude of products and brands on display in common areas to reflect the vision of hard work in a dimensional format. These efforts have collectively contributed to a more flexible work environment that facilitates ad hoc collaboration while still maintaining a respectful understanding of the need for individual work.

Coming from the comfort of home after two years of remote work, there is an evident sensitivity to elements of the different spaces we occupy that were perhaps not as prioritized before. For one, sustainability, which has become one of the largest initiatives that LIXIL has incorporated into its brand identity over the past decade. This has been reflected in the new workplace by using LED only lighting, sensor-to-adjust lighting throughout the day, LEED-certified materials, neutral colors, and different textures to construct a less corporate ambiance and instead assist in creating both an inclusive and welcoming feel upon stepping foot off of the elevator.

By continuing the progression towards a more inclusive future through the creation of different environments, the conversation shifts to social equity and the way in which LIXIL can further the development of its core company ideals: respect, responsibility, and innovation. Within the larger workplace which accommodates various physical and non-physical perspectives, this new layout can foster equal opportunity amongst all employees to yield the most effective end results both inside and outside of the office.

Year:

2021

Project Team:

GENSLER, Joseph Magee, Kibok Song, Julia Arieno, Jean-Jacques L’Hénaff

Meaningful design

Our daily challenge at American Standard is to imagine the needs of the home. Through design awareness, we improve life and reinforce our presence in the home as a constant, reliable, warm, and purposeful environment drawn from an aesthetic that stimulates the emotions reflected in our brand language.

Ethnographic research helps guide our insight as we solve real-life human challenges observed in our most private environments. This user-centric approach, coupled with world-leading technology, generates products that please, and improve comfort and human wellbeing. Our brand language determines how we reason the design of our products, but the promise of a user-centric approach guarantees that the user is fundamentally at the core of what we do.

To represent the purest expression of our brand values, to maintain consistency and homogeneity in our design approach, and to provide an unfailing sanctuary for our users, we created a collection of products that the design team will use to imagine and align all future products in years to come.

This synthesis is proudly called, The Reference Line.

Year:

2020-2021

Design Team:

Jacob Nitz, Greg Reinecker, Alison Lyons, Kibok Song, Jean-Jacques L’Hénaff

Social Center and Work Zone

The kitchen is the informal setting for friends and family gatherings. But at its core, it remains a highly functional, task-oriented space that belies the need for efficiency and precision. The sinks and kitchen faucets found in The Reference Line reflect many of these qualities, and they further incorporate features based on user insights observed in the home over many years of field research. What makes the American Standard kitchen product stand out is the level of attention given to the needs of the user. It all matters. 

Year:

2020-2021

Design Team:

Jacob Nitz, Alison Lyons, Kibok Song, Jean-Jacques L’Hénaff

The American Standard brand has had, for quite some time, different expressions in various parts of the world. In 2021, the LIXIL Global Design team has embarked in an ambitious and exciting project to unify the brand and bring consistency across regions. To initiate that change, we started from the inside, from the product, for it is the product that our consumer buy and interact with on a daily basis.

We created the Reference Line to use as our Northern Star, as a guide for us to refer to as we create the products that will define the new beginning of American Standard. This collection of products is the purest expression of our Signature Elements. It also demonstrates our approach to insight-driven feature innovation, incorporating and highlighting many news ideas generated from what we heard from our consumers over the years.

To communicate this new direction both internally and externally, we published a book that explains how we translated our brand message into shapes and forms. It explains how we took our brand values and expressed them through a unique collection of semantic – Dependable, Inviting and Pioneering – and ultimately through three specific shapes called Signature Elements that makes our products more recognizable and build brand equity right into them.

We also created a long-term exhibit in our new headquarter to bring all Lixil employees close to the products, and executed a communication strategy that leveraged Social Media, TV programing and trade show exhibits.

Year:

2021

Design Team:

Andrew Jager, Jacob Nitz, Kibok Song, Jean-Jacques L’Hénaff

We are embarking on an ambitious journey to unify the American Standard brand, and to bring global consistency to our brand expression.

For almost 150 years, American Standard has been in the heart of people’s homes, helping them create functional and aesthetically pleasing kitchens and bathrooms along the way. While the brand has sharpened its focus on performance, it needed to deepen its emotional connections to the people it served. The branding evolution presented in this guide is a continuation of this renewed focus on the American Standard consumers, initiated in 2018 with the “Love, American Standard” campaign. It’s a reflection of a transformation, as well as, the reflections of the changes in the marketplace and in consumer behavior.

Historically the American Standard brand has been expressed differently in various parts of the world which can be confusing, and a lost opportunity to capture and drive brand equity.

Therefore, this guide is the critical starting point in elevating the American Standard brand consistently across the digital and physical, enhancing the consumer experiences, and driving the brand forward in a meaningful and valuable way.

Year:

2022

Design Team:

Andrew Jäger, Kibok Song, Jean-Jacques L’Hénaff

In 2016, American Standard was barely playing in the $800m us market for showering products. There was very little differentiation between products, and no significant innovation had entered the category in over ten years.

The spectra line of showers was created around the idea of making life easier and more enjoyable for the user. Each product has specific features that set it apart from the competition, the result of two years of in-depth user research.

The spectra line now accounts for 35% of our shower category sales two years after introduction, significantly contributing to the 22% category yearly growth.

SPECTRA DUO™

-Meaningful, curated sprays include soft spray for baby/child and blade-spray for cleaning/rinsing the shower walls;

-Ease-of-use (ambidextrous spray toggle; easy diverter, touch or click control);

-Gratifying upgrade with simple installation.

SPECTRA eTOUCH™

A large number of users can’t reach the shower head to change spray pattern. SPECTRA etouchBring control within reach, by the touch of a finger on the ring fothe showerhead, or a simple switch placed anywhere convenient around the shower.

SPECTRA LOOP™

The American Standard spectra loop brings hot water to the user without the usual structural and behavioral waste of traditional shower valve/systems. It reduces water consumption while ensuring a fully satisfying user experience.

Year:

2017 - 2018

Design Team:

Greg Reinecker, Gabriela Ravassa, Brian Calember, Alison Lyons, Gabriela Ravassa, Kibok Song, Jean-Jacques L’Hénaff

As the leader in the sanitary ware category, American Standard was well positioned to hear the voice of consumers. 

“I want my toilet to always look and smell fresh.

Nobody wants to spend time cleaning their toilet, it is a chore!”

In 2016 acticleanwas the first self-cleaning toilet to market, followed in 2018 by vormaxplus. Both products clean themselves so consumers would not have to clean them as often.

ACTICLEAN™

The acticleanprovides two on demand cleaning cycles: quick clean is a short one minute cleaning cycle that keeps the toilet fresh on a daily basis, while deep clean provides a ten minutes soaking time to maintain a cleaner bowl.

The cleaning system is located at the top of the tank and is served by an intuitive interface.

VORMAX+™

Vormaxplus is designed to clean the toilet with every flush. The “freshinfuser” dispenses a lysolcleaning chemical at every flush for 30 days directly through the rim channel for maximum efficiency. 

The freshinfuseris discretely nested at the back of the seat providing a clean design, protected by a simple and discrete forward-opening door.

ACTICLEAN™ Gen 2

The acticleangen 2 lets you know ahead of time when you are running out of cleaning agent, adapts the quanityof water used in each flush in order to be more eficientand save water, and and senses clogs before they become flood.

The acticleangen 2 is made of one single continuous utter skin in order to make cleaning easier.

Year:

2013 - 2017

Design Team:

Christophe Bucher, Kibok Song, Alison Lyons, Gabriela Ravassa, Jean-Jacques L’Hénaff

Ten years after the introduction of the original electronic kitchen faucet, consumers are still skeptical about this new technology and perceived it as frustrating and unreliable.

We spent hours in people”skitchen watching them prepare meals and go about their daily tasks, and, based on real user insights, we developed more approachable, intuitive and accurate ways of controlling water delivery in the kitchen.

BEALE SELECTRONIC™

Previous technologies could not be easily switched off, or could be triggered unintentionally. The original bealefaucet brings the technology forward where it is visible and easy to interact with, and the sensor can be quickly turned off with a simple slide of its cover, turning the faucet back into a conventional kitchen faucet

BEALE MEASUREFILL™

Expanding on the simplicity of the original beale’suser experience, the bealemeasurefillwas the first of its kindto deliver accurate amounts of water on demand. The volume control dial is an extension of the conventional handle, and its turn-click operation keeps the design clean, simple and intuitive.

Year:

2015 - 2018

Design Team:

Emilie Williams, Greg Reinecker, Gabriela Ravassa, Jean-Jacques L’Hénaff

Immerse yourself in simplicity and balance, in a personal sanctuary where the mantra "form follows function” is infused into every detail, corner and into every intention and quiet convenience. Where nothing is superfluous, where every line is honed and purposeful.

The DXV Modulus Collection is an achievement of functional elegance and breathless style that serves without sacrificing. Restraint was a constant device, informing when to replace overt complexity with hidden functionality. It offers infinite possibilities and endless configurations, in a range of materials and finishes, all from one modular and flexible system to enable you to design a space as unique as the people who use it.

Year:

2017

Design Team:

Christophe Bucher, Gabriela Ravassa, Jacob Nitz, Greg Reinecker, Margaret Monteleone, Jean-Jacques L’Hénaff

The Oak Hill Collection from DXV is a vintage-inspired bathroom suite that preserves the authenticity of the traditional farmhouse aesthetic by balancing the simple beauty of yesterday with the modern utility of today. Curated with care and attention to detail, every faucet, sink, toilet and tub is an exquisite example of design excellence. From the rounded curves that suggest strength and confidence to the finer points of meticulous craftsmanship, Oak Hill continues the legacy in absolute luxury.

Year:

2015

Design Team:

Christophe Bucher, Emilie Williams, Margaret Monteleone, Robert Leonetti, Emilie Williams, Jean-Jacques L’Hénaff

New technology can’t always change human behavior, and when it comes to something as personal as toileting, the bar is set even higher.

The design of the Veil line was guided by the idea that the technology needed to disappear, and the form be elegant and inviting to increase the acceptance of this new paradigm.

Significant efforts were spent on fitting the electronic package as low as possible to ensure minimum height behind the seat, and therefore maximum comfort.

The design was translated from a free-standing toilet to a wall-mounted piece, a bidet seat and ultimately to a manual bidet seat.

Year:

2010 - 2012

Design Team:

Mimi Jiang, Joey Yuang, Jean-Jacques L’Hénaff

Kitchen Cabinets

Kitchen Sinks (SMC, SST) and Accessories

Year:

2010 - 2012

Design Team:

Thibault Poyer, Tony Cheng, Jean-Jacques L’Hénaff

The Kohler Aleutian Collection was designed to address the needs of multi-generation household in China’s Tier-1 cities. In such high-cost, fast pace environment, it is common to see grand parents raise their grand-children while both parents work.

After extensive ethnographic research and user testing, we developed a family of products - from bathtub to vanity to faucet - with unique features answering each generation’s needs.

Year:

2011

Design Team:

Sophie Su, Chia Ying Lee, Jason Khiang, Jean-Jacques L’Hénaff

“A whole new era of fixtures is here…” DesignMilk

“…meticulously modeled and crafted, techno-futurist infrastructure terminals” Metropolis Magazine

DXV Oculus

DXV Shadowbrook

DXV Vibrato

DXV Trope

Year:

2014

Design Team:

Christophe Bucher, Kye Kang, Gabriela Ravassa, Greg Reinecker, Margaret Monteleone, Priority Design, Jean-Jacques L’Hénaff

High End Audio Component: Digital Radio receiver/amplifier

Year:

2007

Design Team:

Bill Cowles, Jean-Jacques L’Hénaff

The T2 line of products was designed to capture a niche in the high end consumer electronics accessories market. These connecting devices manage the TV signals from various sources and distribute them to television displays throughout the house.

Several brainstorming sessions with technology consultants, our R&D department and a outside design team, followed by targeted user interviews in three different states, lead to the original concept.

With a core team of 10, working between New York and California, and a manufacturer with facilities in Taiwan and China, we developed a line of twelve high performance products and launched a new brand in eight months.

The design team spent time with professional installers of high end residential systems and connected dozens of coax cables to experience the challenges associated with the task.

The overall  process resulted in a highly innovative line of connecting devices and amplifiers that are extremely quick to install in either a retrofit project or a new construction, ultimately providing the installers with a time-saving, quality tool to be proud of.

Extensive travel to the manufacturer’s facilities ensured that the construction and finishes of the products match their performances.

The T2 identity was consistently carried through all touch points between the brand and the user -- products, packaging, owner’s manual & advertising -- establishing T2 as a premium brand in the custom installation market.

Year:

2004

Design Team:

Bill Cowles, Stuart Reinhardt, Steve Patti, Bob Pandorf, Donald May, Jean-Jacques L’Hénaff

Industrial Design, Mechanical Engineering, Packaging Design, Corporate Identity, Trade Show Exhibit Design, Marketing Communication

Year:

1999 - 2005

Design Team:

Neil Terk, Bill Cowles, Stuart Reinhardt, Donald May, Jean-Jacques L’Hénaff

(8 to 12 private/corporate aircraft)

Worked directly with the manufacturer (IAI - Galaxy Aerospace) on both the demonstrator and standard production interiors, as well as on a number of clients’ custom interiors.

Year:

1994-1997

Design Team (Henry Dreyfuss Associates):

Jim Ryan, Carl Thompson, Nick Nichols, Joseph Toro, Jean-Jacques L’Hénaff

ACYS - 50’ Sailing Yacht (Concept)

Advisors: Yiannins Mavrikios & Andrew Winch

Jeanneau Merry Fisher 900 (Production)

Jeanneau Merry Fisher 800 (Production)

Jeanneau Merry Fisher 800 Walk-around (Project)

50’ Sailing Yacht (Concept)

Year:

1991-1993

Design Team:

Jean-Jacques L’Hénaff