What should a bathroom look like? The standard array of shower or tub, toilet and basin, a mirror above it and maybe a little cupboard over there... all in a nice straight line up against the wall? That’s all in the past. But the bathroom’s shift in meaning, away from pure practicality and towards more ambience and cosiness, still has to find suitable forms of expression.
Obviously not everybody has a castle at their disposal where the various generations of the family can get together; but that isn’t actually that important anyway. The main thing is that both young and old feel at ease in the room which, for a growing number of people, is becoming the basic prerequisite for a self-determined life – the bathroom.
On the occasion of the ISH in Frankfurt, the world’s leading fair for the entire sanitation, heating and air-conditioning sector, Jens J. Wischmann, managing director of the VDS, explains the revolutionary ideas behind the pictures and headings of the new “Pop up my Bathroom” campaign.
When it comes to form, there are many ways to interpret water: it can flow in a purist surge from a fitting that has been reduced to nothing but a surface, gush thickly or vivaciously out of arching taps into water troughs, filigree bowls or flat, minimalist basins. Design trends in the bathroom will be the focal point of interest at the ISH. Perhaps more than any other room, the bathroom is proving to be a place that reflects an abundance of external influences from society, design and ecology.
Life in the city, right in the thick of it. Different people and cultures live side by side, with different daily rhythms, different music, different family structures. Even the architecture itself is a reflection of this diversity: closely spaced rows of houses and obstructed views alternate with open squares and expansive vistas, stone rubs shoulders with greenery, little terraced houses stand shoulder to shoulder with tower buildings. A place for individualists.
In the first Part of the interview, Andreas Dornbracht, president of the German Sanitary Industry Association (Vereinigung Deutsche Sanitärwirtschaft e.V., VDS), has talked about demographic issues of the bathroom. The second part is devoted to architectural solutions and room concepts.
The ISH 2011 is coming up trumps with innovations that are sparking consumer demand for the sex appeal of electronic fittings which permit touch-free operation or convenient adjustment of showers and other equipment features at the push of a button. Rarely has the sanitary sector seen the kind of innovation wave that is now helping electronic products conquer the private sector.
Listening to Thilo Dreyer, you soon realise what constitutes a good bathroom designer and sanitary expert: a passion for the bathroom as living space that has been precisely geared towards the customer’s needs.
The disappearance of spatial boundaries and walls, the new sense of snugness and the desire for more nature in the bathroom are resulting in a host of new possibilities for bathroom design. Today, anybody who wants a contemporary and future-viable bathroom needs more than a floor plan – he needs a concept. A professional bathroom designer can help ask the right questions and pave the way to personal bathroom bliss.
Andreas Dornbracht is regarded as one of the most progressive thinkers in his industry. For a fittings and accessories manufacturer, the family company of the same name that he co-runs has provided an unusual amount of impetus for an integral approach to bathroom design. He also seems to want to help the industry progress towards a more holistic approach in his capacity as president of the German Sanitary Industry Association (Vereinigung Deutsche Sanitärwirtschaft e.V., VDS), the umbrella organisation of the bathroom and sanitary sectors with member associations from industry, specialist wholesale and specialist trades. In the first part of this interview Dornbracht talks about demographic issues.