Design for all! It is a claim that can be fulfilled with an architecture that adapts to changing needs and allows new possibilities. With its Vital products the Black Forrest based company Duravit wants to enable people with restricted mobility a nearly unrestricted individuality.
Simple lighting units smoothed flush into plasterboard as concealed lighting elements - with this idea Georg Bechter wants to bath the room in light. With Verve light and wall become one.
Guest bathrooms have become an established part of modern life. Nearly half of all German households have such a bathroom, and they are seen as essential when planning new homes. Cubbyholes that used to house the vacuum cleaner, toilet paper and other odds and ends have been transformed into imaginatively individual oases of well-being.
For steel enamel specialists Bette, made-to-measure bathroom items are by no means unfamiliar territory. Nowadays, about half of all the tubs, shower trays and washbasins that leave the factory are individual, made-to-order solutions. For both the bathroom planner and the end customer, this opens up totally new perspectives for bathroom design: a customised bathtub or cut-off corners that allow enough space for the bathroom door to swing open are just as feasible as an upstand that makes a silicone seal along the edge of the tub superfluous.
Michael Lammel, managing director of the Aachen-based design company NOA, and his team have investigated the impact of global social trends on the layout of modern residential buildings. In the interview the designer talks about the results of his research.
As always at the beginning of each new year, January 2014 will once again show future lifestyles, emerging trends and new design styles. This is because no other question is as important and makes as many conclusions for the development of society as those for housing and tomorrow's lifestyle. For the bathroom Paul Flowers is looking for an answer to this question.
Bathroom furniture specialist Burgbad has developed a new kind of bathroom furniture system in collaboration with designer Marc Sadler: Cconceptwall. Unlike conventional bathroom furniture collections, Cconceptwall is a modular “wall in front of the wall” system. The crucial product benefit Cconceptwall offers is however the, so the manufacturer says, almost infinite combinability of its elements. Similarly to a construction set, the washstands can be combined with deck-mounted or wall-mounted fittings, tall cabinets, mirrors and shelves in various sizes and top panels as required.
People are unique - just like their values and principles which are mirrored in their various characters and lifestyles. The individual design of living spaces follows these styles and is an expression of the personality. It is therefore vital that the washplace, being an intimate central point of the daily cleaning rituals, should represent the lifestyle. With the new furniture system A˘system init, Alape is offering a wide selection of solutions for the design of washplaces that emphasise the specific character of their owner. Later this year, there will be a new online configurator available to aid the planning of the individual washplace.
With its 160 metres and 44 floors the Cosmopolitan Tower in Warsaw’s city centre is a building project best described in superlatives. When completed in early 2014 it will be the second highest residential building in Warsaw and the third highest in Poland. The bathrooms of the then offered 252 luxury apartments will be fitted by bath tubs and shower surfaces from Kaldewei.
A trip to the bathroom is part of our everyday morning and evening rituals, for it is where we wash, shave, put on make-up and do our hair – all of which is designed to ensure we feel comfortable in our own skin. For this, aright lighting is an essential element.