Sanni
Floating Pool Sanitizer
2017
Making Pools Better
Besides traditional large pool filtration systems, there are cleaning robots that do similar jobs, but not quite.
Sanni is a water sanitizer for swimming pools, in disguise as a floating table. It helps enhance the cleaning efficiency and lifespan of traditional water filtration systems, reducing the overall cost of swimming pool maintenance. Sanni cleans water both visually and physically effortless, and it syncs with the overall environment. It looks and acts like a piece of quiet furniture or sculpture in the pool, not an invasive being.
Sanni cleans the surface water which contains floating bacteria, viruses, bug eggs, and greases. The robots we have now can only clean the side and the floor of the pool, and the surface is usually manually cleaned by using the web.
Defining Form
As a faithful believer of Bauhaus’ “Form Follows Function” design philosophy, I carefully defined the form of Sanni, made sure that no extra piece of element exists alone for no convincing reason.
Finalizing Details
The is zero straight angle on Sanni's outer body.
Every line is rounded, smoothed, and continuous, in order to create a physically and emotionally gentle feel, considering massive potential physical contact with the user.
The curvy surface of the body provides a large contact surface with water, which produces massive buoyancy force that supports Sanni even when it's pushed down by people around.
Water flows in from the side of Sanni, and goes down through the gaps, and the middle platform gets to stay dry and leveled. This contrast of continuous flow of water and clean, quiet, circular surface create a sense of zen.
The blue ring on the top is ceramic coated material which gives this most-touched surface a warm, rich, yet gentle feel. The color of blue is selected for maintenance reason, which is difficult to look aged in a swimming pool, while forming a beautiful color contrast with the white body.
A Table on Water
Sanni protects swimmers from consuming polluted water. Meanwhile, Sanni provides a rest for the users, and its circular design allows for a more direct social communication when surrounded.
Sanni’s middle platform that acts like a table unlocks more possibilities. It automatically stays leveled so it can steadily hold glasses of wine, cell phones, or even host a board game, which makes Sanni into an interactive installation.
Cruise Mode
Sanni automatically cruises when not pressured for 5 minutes in order to clean more water.
Sanni actively changes cruising direction when its gyroscope and accelerator sense an impact.
Cruise Mode will pause when Sanni senses an instant downforce from the top.
Sanni’s Extra Mission
Imagine the days after COVID-19Society is upgrading its sense of health and security. Ensuring a public space's overall safety is an urgent need. People needs to know that what they touch, breathe, eat, and drink will do no harm to their well-being. Swimming pools now are highly risky places for health concerns. Bringing back public's confidence in staying in pools and effectively increasing water's safety level will be an ongoing task for the post-COVID era. Sanni is set to do all of those things while maintaining a quiet presence.
Contributions
Industrial Design: Ke Zheng
Year: 2017