What exactly is it that constitutes a modern bathroom? Is it the look or the sanitaryware, the choice of materials or, ultimately, the technology? The truth is: in future, it will be almost impossible to distinguish between the various factors – they are merging into a homogeneous offering with different quality levels. Owners and bathroom designers can set themselves apart from the crowd by opting for professional planning with intelligent zoning, a lifestyle-oriented design, a convenience and comfort bonus or an overall concept geared towards above-average eco-friendliness. More and more, it’s becoming standard practice to equip the bathroom with sustainable and innovative products and technology enhanced with digital features. And over the next few years, it’s precisely concepts like this, which deliver added value via their technical equipment, that will reveal which features can convince customers when implemented on a needs basis.

“When it comes to setting a new quality standard, the new challenges aren’t so much associated with the individual products as with how to connect all the different products intelligently. For the future, we need a new understanding of integration, we need to adopt a holistic approach by trying out cross-system concepts,” explains Jens J. Wischmann, managing director of the VDS, summing up the motive behind the new Pop up my Bathroom motto Inside | Outside. As usual, the motto for the VDS trend platform's presentation of the latest trends has been chosen wirth the intention of highlighting developments that affect all areas of the sector.

If market researchers are to be believed, the property market is facing a long wave of refurbishments over the next few years. The results of a survey conducted on behalf of the VDS suggest that renewing the bathroom tops the list of planned refurbishments in Germany. According to the findings, 16.7 million Germans are planning to invest in their bathrooms in the near future, and 6.2 million are even planning a complete overhaul. Given this background, the sector’s leading international trade fair, the ISH digital 2021 in Frankfurt, takes on special significance. Product concepts that are specifically intended for refurbishment and modernisation projects could help the sector take full advantage of the dynamism to be found in this market and make more efficient use of it, even when staffing levels are low. “With our Inside | Outside motto, we want to draw attention to the heroes of professional bathroom planning: the invisible products and technologies behind the wall that make holistic bathroom design possible in the first place and are making installation increasingly simple for the tradespeople involved. A modern bathroom is the sum of the innovative products in front of the wall and the intelligent systems and technology behind the wall – and at the ISH digital 2021, we’ll be seeing an abundance of innovative solutions for the booming bathroom refurbishment market,” anticipates Jens J. Wischmann, managing director of the VDS.

The more technical and bigger the product, the greater the role specialist trades and wholesale play in the bathroom refurbishment. The various installation systems available from the bathroom industry aim to make refurbishment as simple as possible. Several manufacturers offer pre-wall installations that make new water-carrying products considerably easier to fit, including elements for wall-mounted toilets and shower toilets with optional odour extraction. In addition, pre-wall elements are also available for wall-mounted mixers and showers with a wall drain. There are also elements for washbasins, urinals and bidets, and the industry even offers mounting plates for grab rails and supports for (re-)designing an accessible bathroom. For the ISH digital 2021, Pop up my Bathroom aims to shine a spotlight on the complexity of building projects that aim to create a lifestyle bathroom – projects that will only result in a harmonious whole when the various trades involved work hand in hand. This interdependency between sanitaryware on the one hand and installation systems for fitting and retrofitting them on the other is also the theme of the communication campaign’s new key visual: no trades, no private spa. Over the next few months, three Pop up my Bathroom trends will be visualised like the inner workings of a transparent clock.