On 7 July 2026, the EDPLIT team travelled to Essen, Germany, for the Red Dot Award: Product Design ceremony — where two of our tile-integrated solutions, the Hidden Frameless Flush Button EDPLIT M4 and the Hidden Towel Holder Set, were honoured among the 2026 winners.
The Red Dot Gala at the Aalto Theater
The ceremony took place at the Aalto Theater, with winners from 39 countries in attendance. Professor Dr. Peter Zec, founder and CEO of Red Dot, opened the evening: “It’s wonderful to see that our winners from all over the world have made their way to Essen for the Red Dot Gala.” Thomas Kufen, Lord Mayor of Essen, welcomed guests to the city and spoke about design as a universal force for connection.
Our Red Dot Winner 2026 certificate for the Hidden Towel Holder Set came back to Irpin with us.
Both products are now in the Red Dot Design Museum
Ahead of the gala, winners and press previewed the new exhibitions at the Red Dot Design Museum, housed in the former boiler house of the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The building is worth the trip on its own. The colliery’s original machinery was left where it stood — pressure gauges, gantries, steel walkways — and the exhibits are arranged through and around it. Contemporary products sit in the middle of industrial equipment that has not moved in decades.
Both products are shown as large-format panels. The M4 sits in a marble-effect porcelain slab where the flush plate reads only as a faint outline in the stone. The towel holders are displayed extended from their panel — the one state in which they are visible at all.
Each carries its own label: Toilet Flush Button, M4 Edplit and Towel Rail, Hidden Towel Holder Set Edplit. Underneath both, the same three lines — Manufacturer: LLC “EDPLIT GROUP”, Irpin, Ukraine. In-house design. For a company developing tile-integrated systems from Ukraine, seeing that on a museum wall in Essen mattered as much as the award itself.
There is also something fitting about it. These are products designed to go unnoticed on a wall — and here they sit in a place people visit specifically to look.
What the recognition confirms
Both products were built around one principle: functional elements should work with the surface, not interrupt it. The EDPLIT M4 keeps the tile layout continuous while preserving tactile interaction through tile, and the Hidden Towel Holder Set integrates directly into tiled walls so large-format patterns stay uninterrupted.
Essen made clear this is not a niche preference. Across categories, the same shift is underway — fewer visible controls, more functionality absorbed into the surface itself. Our thanks to the Red Dot team and jury for the recognition.
