Where everyone who’s anyone on the international furniture design and manufacturing scene come together: Salon del Mobile. ArchiExpo spins around the fair’s extensive bathroom exhibition to get a glimpse of the latest products to compile a list of the top style trends.
1. Integrity
Looking behind the rituals of cleanliness, bathroom products portray the essential. Level with this intention, Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola‘s bathtub, Cuna, devised for the Italian company Agape.
The shape of the vessel was thermoformed using Solid-surface, a water-resistant material composed of marble dust, bauxite, acrylic, epoxy or polyester resins and pigments. The tub’s compact and rounded shape is accentuated by a tubular, steel frame.
Cuna by Patricia Urquiola. Courtesy of Agape
2. Personality
Just as stylish, Italian design brand Ex.t exposed Sebastian Herkner‘s brand-new, oval-formed collection, Plateau. Sitting on the brim of each sink, bathtub and mirror is a slim tray, which the designer calls a “sidetracking plateau.” This intuitive detail exerts a certain poetry. The collection is fabricated with the non-toxic, Livingtec material.
Plateau by Sebastian Herkner. Courtesy of Ex-t.
3. Harmony
A gentle ambience is found in Rexa’s new collection, Hammam, designed by Monica Graffeo. The collection is crafted with a material composed of clay with Corian or marble. These brand-new washbasins pitch a soft and peaceful wholeness, inspired by a Japanese concept symbolizing the bathroom as a space of self-care.
Hammam. Courtesy of Monica Graffeo.
4. Romance
Alongside practicality and meaning, bathroom design materials are dedicated a local essence.The recent collection Isole, designed by Marco Piva for Lithea, presents forms seized from the Sicilian, Baroque era. Gleaning inspiration from the beauty of the Mediterannean landscape, the basins and washstands are made of stone with attachments made of iron.
Isole, designed by Marco Piva for Lithea. Courtesy of the designer.
5. Audacity
Boldness meets tactility Ritmonio‘s 2016 release two new faucet handles made of concrete: a new version of Inox Diametro35 and HAPTIC, each with a concrete top. Designed by Ritmonio DesignLAB, the handles are available for basins, bidets, showers and bathtubs. Haptic offers a choice of chrome or nickel finishings, or a concrete handle without lever. Diametro35 Concrete combines stainless steel with concrete handles.
Diametro35. Courtesy of Ritmonio.
6. Innovation
The statement comes forth in cleanliness design. Axor design studio presented the current 2016 selection of their ongoing (20 years running) Waterdream Project at the FuoriSalone. The venture invites designers to reconsider the function of a spout. Watersteps by the Swedish duo Front, and The Sea and the Shore by Werner Aisslinger exceeded the ordinary. Watersteps portrays the acoustic quality of water, with two metal spouts in the form of inverted cymbals. The Sea and the Shore illustrates its title with a clay shelf holding greenery that acts as a shore aside its water-spout (sea).
