A guide to the latest trends and the choices of the most influential designers: living areas equipped with armchairs and every other comfort, here’s how our bathrooms are turning into real home spas
From service room to wellness oasis equipped with every comfort necessary for a moment of authentic relaxation: the bathrooms in our homes are increasingly transforming into places to live, spacious and comfortable equipped with increasingly iconic and minimal elements.
Sculptural lines, designer bathroom furniture and next-generation accessories fill bathrooms whose latest trend refers us to a very specific strand: luxory.
Marble-clad bathrooms are the latest trend, like jewels set in “magic boxes,” as says designer Pietro Russo, who in Île de la Cité recently renovated an apartment by cladding the master bathroom with a single slab of Grey marble with brass trim (the last frontier of luxury after steel and gold); or architect Luciano Giorgi whose latest creation in South Kensington sees a bathroom whose walls are of polychrome marble inlaid with very modern geometric designs.
Marble, an elegant and luxurious material par excellence, returns as the protagonist of our bathrooms not only on the walls but also in precious furnishing objects: this is the case of the Bjhon washbasin designed by Angelo Mangiarotti for Agape, from an idea of 1970 modernized and readapted to the idea of the most modern luxury. The truncated-cone column can support a variety of basin shapes, resulting in an object of strongly sculptural value that lends a touch of timeless classicism to any setting.
Also a marble model, but with a totally different impact, is Washbasin 815, designed by Benedini Associati studio also for Agape. This washbasin is presented as a thick rectangular top with an asymmetrical shape that recalls the naturalness of erosion produced by rain on stone. Available in both Carrara marble and other stones of the customer’s choice, this piece of furniture can be placed either on the wall or resting on the Flat XL program cabinets.
As for the shower, the main element of every bathroom, it is repurposed by Antonio Lupi as a real island. Isola in fact is the name of its latest shower model: a “360-degree” shower, placed in the middle of an elegant bathroom and separated from the rest of the room by a very thin 8mm layer of pure crystal. Water thus truly returns as the protagonist of the bathroom designed by Antonio Lupi, creating a pristine atmosphere in which the voice of nature returns to flow even in the most urban apartments.
Always in the pursuit of a wellness environment, the bath is recently being interpreted as a place of a ritual, taking up canons and stereotypes studied in detail to communicate to our senses the well-being and tranquility of exotic places such as saunas and hammams. It is precisely on a unique sensory experience that projects like Immersion, a bathtub designed by Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu for Agape, play. In this object, the oriental bathing ritual is reinterpreted in a modern key by replacing the traditional wooden tub with a tub that reproduces the typical thermal sensations of oriental culture: in fact, the tub allows for different positions, one more elevated thanks to an iroko wood seat positioned on one of the sides, the other completely submerged, promoting the sensation of relaxation, enveloped by the steam that slowly rises from the surface of the water. A design with essential lines that allows the bathroom area to be experienced from a totally new perspective. This tub, because of the specificity of its size, also fits very well in tight spaces; in fact, it is shorter than a normal tub, recovering in height instead.
Also with a view to minimal lines, we find the Simple collection designed by Piero Lissoni for the Boffi brand. This line includes a modular system of handle-less bathroom storage units with drawers or single pull-out door in various finishes. Both the doors and drawers (available in a high range of materials of the customer’s choice) can be opened by means of the Tip-On pressure system, which makes for a truly elegant and essential line system.
Finally, speaking of luxury bathrooms, we cannot fail to mention the Falper brand, a must-have in the industry, which among its latest products presents: Extreme Flat.
Designed by Michael Schmidt this product has endless possibilities for customization in size and thickness, as well as in the positioning of the basin on the top, all made of Cristalplant Biobased is the world’s highest performing and most certified material for the construction of washbasins and bathtubs and has a uniquely soft and uniform tactile and light-reflecting effect.
Again in the spirit of understated luxury geared toward minimal lines, this item succeeds in imparting character and elegance in whatever way it is customized.
