In progressive interior design, sofas and armchairs, pouffes and tables, sideboards, lamps and rugs are increasingly merging – despite their different materials – to form spacious, gently curving landscapes. Understatement as a stylistic approach is now found, if at all, only in the colour scheme, which is generally subtle and dominated by earthy tones. So whilst in living rooms and bedrooms, alongside minimalism, an alternative stylistic approach has long been shaping the new, sometimes glamorous looks – in which a rounded design language transcends hybrid styles such as Scandy Style and Japandi and features voluminous, soft furnishings – bathroom design is still dominated by straight lines and boxy forms, the aim of which seems to be to blend with modern Bauhaus architecture. Exceptions such as large round mirrors, trendy embossed fronts and 3D tiles, as well as deliberately rounded bathroom furniture, seem to confirm rather than break this rule. Or are these, after all, the first signs of a small design revolution in the bathroom? And thus a trend that is emerging just in time to counteract the threat of monotony?

A touch of digital optimism is returning

This aesthetic is new, yet familiar. Shiny surfaces, crystal-clear water, air bubbles, lush green foliage against a brilliant blue sky: anyone who switched on a computer between 2004 and 2013 will be familiar with this visual world. It characterised operating systems such as Windows Vista and Windows 7, advertising campaigns, packaging and the user interfaces of a technological generation that still firmly believed that digitalisation and nature would form a harmonious future. This aesthetic only acquired its somewhat exotic-sounding name in hindsight: Frutiger Aero – a combination of the airy, humanist Frutiger typeface and Microsoft’s transparent ‘Aero’ design language.

Is this just another retro trend, or the beginning of something new? The fact is that Frutiger Aero has been enjoying a remarkable revival for the past few years. On TikTok, YouTube and Reddit, Generation Z in particular is collecting the visual worlds of yesteryear and creating an alternative to the pared-back minimalism of the present. It thus serves as a vision of a future that was once promised: a utopia in which efficiency and the environment coexist. It is precisely this blend of nostalgia and confidence in the future that is now making the trend interesting for interior design as well. Bubble design à la Joe Colombo and Colani blends with the art of Yayoi Kusama, bionics, LED and OLED to create futuristic designs that are currently driving the trend, particularly in semi-public spaces and the hospitality sector. And no room is better suited to this than the bathroom.

Why the bathroom is the natural habitat of Frutiger Aero

For Frutiger Aero is, at its core, an aesthetic inspired by water. Drops, waves, aquamarine hues, crystalline transparency – everything that defines this visual language is already at home in the bathroom. When applied to the space, a futuristic scenario emerges almost of its own accord: the bathroom becomes a walk-in utopia, a capsule of light, water and soft forms. As a sort of continuation of the trend towards the seamless bathroom – which is also evident in the market – walls and floors merge here into a homogeneous, glossy shell, into which organically shaped islands comprising the washbasin, bath and shower are set. Backlit panels in aqua and leaf green can replace the classic bathroom window; lines of light trace the contours of the furniture; and individual plants add vibrant accents to an unusually technoid environment.

The scenario as an aesthetic experiment

The result resembles a space station that draws inspiration from nature. And in doing so, it strikes a chord. For behind the glossy surface lies a serious question: to what extent is technology a solution to the crises of our generation, shaped by pandemics and climate change? How much technology can the most intimate space in the home accommodate, and how much nature does it need?

Frutiger Aero is not merely an expression of a longing for the once-so-beautiful new, ideal world. It harkens back to a time when digitalisation was associated with a new beginning towards a humane future, and when social media appeared as a universe of possibilities and peaceful coexistence – rather than an unmanageable realm of conspiracy theories and fake news with the potential to isolate people within their own individual bubbles. Frutiger Aero is also a (figurative) call to press the reset button, an invitation to identify with it for all those who wish to counter frustration and scepticism with something more than an escape into what is, admittedly, extremely stylish ‘cosy minimalism’.

Organic design: Stylistic features of the Frutiger Aero bathroom

But what exactly does this airy trend look like? The guiding principle is an organic design language. It follows the logic of water rather than the geometry of right angles, and can be identified by its typical characteristics: flowing, rounded contours without hard edges define furniture, sanitaryware and even the edges of rooms; amorphous, teardrop- and kidney-shaped basic forms replace rectangles and cuboids – from mirrors to freestanding baths. Ideally, soft transitions allow walls, floors and objects to merge seamlessly, as if the room were cast from a single mould. This is complemented by translucent and glossy materials such as satin-finished glass, cast stone and high-gloss surfaces, which reflect light and create depth. Emotionally, the interior style is underpinned by a colour palette of white, aqua blue and fresh green, enriched with natural motifs and living greenery. Light, finally, becomes a material in its own right: indirect, diffused, integrated into both the furnishings and the architecture. If you wish, you can even use projection to give the light the shape of water.

Admittedly, organic design^* is anything but new – what is new is the context. What began in the 1970s as ‘biodesign’ and lived on in the 2000s as a digital visual language is now returning as an interior concept. Its implementation need not be confined to showcase projects in boutique hotels, as there is much to be said for the Frutiger Aero look in private bathroom design too. Today, there is a wealth of commercially available products that are ideally suited to bringing this trend to life in the bathroom, ranging from floor-level showers and standard wall-hung sanitaryware and furniture to underfloor heating and designer radiators. Even large-format tiled or seamless floor and wall designs are no longer the exception. However, this futuristic aesthetic is only made technically feasible by solid surface materials, CNC manufacturing, digitalised bespoke production of bathroom furniture and flexible LED technology – which will likely be supplemented in future by OLED applications – through which light and water can be harmoniously combined.

Was Colani right?

The best-known pioneer of this approach was Luigi Colani^*, arguably the most radical advocate of fluid forms in German design. Colani’s influence on the contemporary look of our bathrooms has been formative – not least because of his bathroom collection for Villeroy & Boch. He once explained to me personally why a bathroom should not, in fact, have any corners or sharp edges: “The bathroom is the only room in which we move about naked. Here, the body’s vulnerability is immediately apparent – and that is precisely why the products and furnishings should serve the person, not the other way round. The naked body knows no right angles; why should the room that is closest to it?”

This sentence encapsulates the very essence of the trend. Frutiger Aero in the bathroom is more than just a stylistic exercise. Rather, it can be seen as the rediscovery of a humanistic idea: design that takes its cue from the body. The soft form here is not merely ornamental, but follows the principle of care – it removes the harshness from the space where people are most vulnerable.

Here’s how you can embrace this trend right now

Those who don’t want to wait for the bathroom of the future will find a number of building blocks already available on the market. Rounded bathroom furniture translates the organic design language into everyday use – for example, in the b:me collection by burgbad, whose mineral cast washbasins, inspired by the play of light and shadow on sand dunes, combine geometric clarity with soft curves. Organically shaped taps, such as the Axor Starck Organic range designed by Philippe Starck for Axor, bring flowing lines to the washbasin and combine them with a mindful approach to water use. These are complemented by round or amorphously shaped mirrors with indirect lighting, freestanding baths with soft contours, and seamless, glossy surfaces – from the glass splashback to the porcelain stoneware in aqua tones. The consistent use of greenery – whether as a plant in a glass vase or as a colour accent in accessories – brings not only the Frutiger Aero interior style but also a touch of natural utopia into the bathroom. Just a few of these elements are enough to bring the trend’s optimistic underlying mood into an existing bathroom – when fully implemented, the result is a space that feels like an update towards a better future.

Frutiger Aero brings together the elements likely to shape the bathroom of the coming years: digital aesthetics and natural materials, techno-optimism and a focus on the body. It remains to be seen to what extent this will come to pass. At the last ISH – the world’s leading trade fair for water, heating and ventilation in Frankfurt – Pop up my Bathroom had already championed the ‘Human Scale’: the primacy of human proportions, ergonomics and the adaptation of the bathroom to individual needs. We are therefore very keen to see whether the international industry will already be responding to the trends towards the ‘Human Scale’ and the Frutiger Aero aesthetic at the next edition of ISH (15–19 March 2027 in Frankfurt). The fact that, of all things, imagery from the early days of the internet serves as a reminder that design should serve people is a memorable twist – Colani would probably have liked it.