Besides the kitchen, the bathroom often takes top priority when building or renovating a home. However, choosing a look is not always easy, so here we have gathered 13 stunning bathrooms from previously published projects to provide inspiration in your own designs. Each is filled with inspiring ideas for your own project; from relaxing tubs to sleek showers, one of these bathrooms is sure to suit your style.
The first steps in the evolution of the physical space of the bathroom that we know of today occurred in Scotland, where the first rustic latrines were constructed, and in Pakistan, where systems of pipes of cooked mud embedded in brick constructions have been found. These innovations date back to 3000 BC, later evolving into the first vats, toilets and ceramic pipes of the Minoan nobility, then to the copper plumbing of the Egyptians (who used their baths to celebrate religious ceremonies), then to the Romans, who transformed personal hygiene into a social act with public baths, covered with tiles.
During the middle ages, a widespread lack of concern for hygiene arose, but plumbing systems resurfaced in the early seventeenth century – although some of this era’s most impressive constructions, such as the palace of Versailles, did not include bathrooms. The early industrial revolution in England also did not contribute much, since the rapidity of urbanization and industrialization caused an overcrowding that was very difficult to control. It was only in the 1830s that an outbreak of cholera in London forced the authorities to launch a campaign to incorporate sanitary facilities into homes, taking the first step towards the toilets with cisterns that we use today.
Today the bathroom as a space has gone beyond its purely hygienic function and has entered into an exclusive area of its own design. Now, regardless of whether you are a bath person or strictly a shower person, these 13 awe-inducing bathrooms take daily cleansing to a whole new level.
You are walking through an elegant house, admiring the large living-room windows, the paintings on the wall, and the spacious kitchen. Pendant lights cast a soft glow, the terrazzo flooring gleams beneath your feet, the furnishings feel inviting. Then you take off the virtual-reality goggles and resume your meeting.
This scenario is becoming increasingly common as more architects incorporate virtual reality (VR) into their practices. Along with its cousins—augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR)—virtual reality allows designers to push the boundaries of visualization, giving colleagues and clients new ways to experience and understand a building or space long before it is actually built. With VR, architects can transmit not just what a building will look like, but also what it will feel like.
Oculus Rift. Image Courtesy of Oculus Rift
“Traditionally in architecture, you have blueprints and scale models, and 3D modeling has been around in force for the last 20 years,” says Jeff Mottle, president and CEO of CGarchitect Digital Media Corp and publisher of CGarchitect, an online magazine and community for architectural-visualization professionals. “VR plays into these traditional methods because the two fit closely together, more than the manufacturers actually realize.” Manufacturers still mostly view VR for gaming rather than enterprise solutions—but that is changing, according to Mottle, who just moderated a panel about these emerging technologies at this year’s Autodesk University Las Vegas.
With the dizzying rate of technology advancement and growing options, here are four considerations for firms thinking of entering this brave new virtual world.
1. VR is a rapidly changing industry
Virtual reality has been around in some form for decades (with the first head-mounted systems debuting in 1968), but the technology has not been elastic or advanced enough to have widespread application until now. With advances in mobile technology, which placed high-resolution imagery into everyone’s hands, VR has experienced an explosion in the past two years.
Widely available head-mounted displays (HMDs) such as Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR, HTC Vive, Microsoft HoloLens, and Google Cardboard have brought VR into the mainstream and made it more affordable (although costs generally still run from hundreds to thousands). Facebook’s purchase of Oculus for $2 billion in 2014 also offered the industry a highly visible boost.
“One of the challenges is everything is changing so quickly,” Mottle says. “Not everyone has the time or resources to try every one of these HMDs, so we’re trying to get the dialogue going to discuss the pros and cons.”
According to a survey in CGarchitect, the leading users of VR for architectural visualization are in Europe (40 percent) and the United States (21 percent), with commenters saying that the technology will be revolutionary for the industry. Nearly 70 percent of respondents are using VR/AR/MR in production or planning to do so in 2017, while 77 percent were experimenting with the technology or planning to do so.
2. VR, AR, and MR are similar but have different capabilities
VR is the immersive, full-headset experience that most people associate with this technology. “With virtual reality, you’re immersing yourself into a virtual environment and closing yourself off completely from the outside world,” Mottle says. “Depending on which device you’re using, you could do room-scale VR and ‘walk’ through the space.” (And with grid guidelines in your virtual world, you won’t accidentally walk into a real wall.)
With augmented reality, data and/or instructional information are animated over the real-world view, often through smaller devices such as a mobile phone or tablet. Pokémon Go is a popular consumer example of an augmented-reality app; a professional use case would be an engineer remotely teaching a mechanic how to repair something.
Then there’s MR: Mixing together aspects of VR and AR, MR takes virtual objects and overlays them onto the real world. Two people (say, an architect and a structural engineer based in another country) can be networked into a virtual world where they can interact together with a virtual building on a real site.
3. Architects can use VR at various stages in the design process
One benefit of VR is that it can be rendered at different Levels of Detail (LOD), so an architect in the early design phase could have an immersive experience in a non-photorealistic room, just to get a sense of spatial relationships and massing. Or the experience could be hyperreal, so that a VR video could have soft sunlight filtering down through a clerestory window, with the sound of birds chirping outside (for client presentations).
Increasingly, architects are integrating VR hardware such as HTC Vive and Oculus with BIM software. “This will allow architects and clients alike to truly understand the spatial qualities of the project,” says Kim Baumann Larsen, an architect and the VR advisor for The Future Group. “This spatial understanding should make clients more confident in the design and reduce time spent in meetings and the use of lateral design revisions.”
Mobile VR solutions using cardboard headsets and a smartphone are another increasingly popular solution. “The architect can render stereo 360 panoramic images directly from the BIM software such as [Autodesk] Revit or using a visualization tool like 3ds Max with V-Ray, and publish the images to the web using third-party services like VRto.me or IrisVR Scope,” Larsen says.
Casey Mahon of CarrierJohnson + CULTURE <a href='http://ift.tt/2ieKW3b a VR environment to design</a>. Image Courtesy of CarrierJohnson + CULTURE
4. VR has some catching up to do with the architecture industry
VR requires a fair amount of expertise, and it’s challenging for architects to find work time to experiment with the technology. “For the most part, VR relies on gaming engines to develop these immersive experiences,” Mottle says. “That has a whole different workflow and paradigm than architecture.”
He hopes that manufacturers will see the potential for developing VR solutions specifically geared toward architecture. Already, some firms are translating BIM data into VR with platforms such as Autodesk LIVE and Stingray, which maintains important building data that other gaming systems don’t capture. For now, though, gaming systems tend to focus on creating idealized end-user VR experiences rather than applications for iterative building-project design and construction.
The more architects get involved with VR, the more they can shape the future marketplace. “I’d really like to see these VR companies realize that there’s a market beyond gaming and the consumer market,” Mottle says. “I would like them to see that there are some huge opportunities and synergies with the design world.”
But Larsen says architects shouldn’t wait to dig in: “Get a PC-based VR system like the HTC Vive or Oculus Rift for exploring design from BIM tools, and play with mobile VR using cardboard and Gear VR and Google’s View to distribute your designs in VR to clients and collaborators alike. The most important thing is to start experimenting.”
House of Mirrors is a private residence renovated by Nook Architects. It is located in Barcelona, Spain and was completed in 2016. House of Mirrors by Nook Architects: “The projects we have done so far have had very centric locations within the city of Barcelona: Ciutat Vella, Eixample, Gràcia, Poble Nou… This time, however, it was at the centre of it all. Located in Plaça Catalunya, the first thing we..
Courtesy of The American Institute of Architects (AIA)
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has released its Home Design Trends Survey for the third quarter of 2016, which focuses on community and neighborhood design. According to the Survey, homeowners are generally expressing more interest in community development, as indicated by the popularity of thoughtful community design with access to amenities.
There is additionally, according to the Survey, a demand for walkable neighborhoods, access to public transportation, and multi-generational housing, as well as a demand for more and larger glass windows, driven by building technologies like smart glass windows.
Furthermore, “infill development along with an increasing demand for tear-down properties is a signal that urban housing continues to grow denser.”
Learn more about the 2016 Home Design Trends Survey at the AIA’s interactive infographic, here.
From the architect. Beets & Roots is a casual fast-food restaurant set in the heart of Berlin-Mitte. The restaurant integrates the idea of modern, healthy and honest fast-food to supply guests with vitamins in an atmosphere reminiscent of an American Diner.
The space sets the foundation of the brand and has been designed with future locations in mind.
First Floor Plan
The environment is fully integrated – the use of tiles across the bar, floors and walls create connections between the coloured zones that divide the space into the four main areas of the restaurant.
With a lighting concept that consists of irregular neon halos in contrasting warm and cold tones and Mary Lennox’s planting concept the atmosphere is balanced and with a good conscience.
V is a private home located in Xindian, New Taipei City, Taiwan. Completed in 2016, it was designed by Ganna Design. V by Ganna design: “Background of the Residents The house owner of this project is a couple. Because the host and hostess are all doctors, they are very busy on weekdays. Therefore they hope to have a quiet and elegant residence to relieve fatigue after all-day work. In addition,..
The November 2016 issue of a+u is a special issue dedicated to the Austrian architect Hermann Czech, who lives and works in Vienna, and was edited in cooperation with guest editor Professor Christian Kühn of the Technische Universität Wien. This issue explores the many facets of his architectural thought and practice through works that range from furniture design through to urban-scale infrastructure.
Feature: Hermann Czech
Essay:Hermann Czech and the Disappearance of Architecture / Christian Kühn
From the architect. In 2013, SLETH won the open architectural competition for the extension of Tønder Townhall in Denmark and has since completed the realization of the building and the landscape project.
Site Plan
The original building of Tønder Townhall was built in 1980-1981 and is one of the last realized buildings of the highly esteemed Danish architect Halldor Gunnløgsson. The original town hall has a distinct, heavy expression. It has relatively small windows and visually dominant postmodernism details. This architectural style was very typical in the 1980s, and is evident in many of Denmark’s public buildings from the period.
The proposal for the extension of the original Tønder town hall is based upon the juxtaposition of the historical town hall – a classical public office building with corridors and offices, reception and a central arrival hall – and an addition that brings in something new – a distinctly open and transparent public house. The new building opens up towards the town hall and creates a common space for its employees in an informal and open structure – a democratic and none-hierarchical plan. The addition submits itself to the existing town hall, but still has a specific expression – a glass building that meets the outdoors and is inviting in an informal manner. The concept for the proposal is a dialog between the brutality and heaviness of the original building and lightness and delicacy of the new building. The project is not creating two competing buildings, but two parts of the whole that works together and supplement each other.
Product Description.The new building is located in the transition between significant historic buildings of the town and the marshland landscape. The atmosphere of the historical city is brought into the town hall by using red brick as the material of the new courtyard and the ground floor surface of the building. The marshland landscape is marked in the curved shape of the new glass facade building, which underlines the landscape and the nearby river curves.
Sketches And Renderings: Courtesy of Arno Coenen, Iris Roskam and Hans van Bentem
Other Participants: Bouwinvest, TopVastgoed, Zuliani Kunst en Terrazzo, Friedhoff, De Beeldenfabriek, Maatwerk Tegels, Tetterode Glas, Wilwy, SUKI-D, Kolektiv, Arttenders, No Dutch No Glory, De Nijs – Dura Vermeer
Artists: Arno Coenen, Iris Roskam, Hans van Bentem
From the architect. Amsterdam Oersoep is part of Nowadays, a redevelopment project along the Nieuwendijk and Damrak in Amsterdam. Nowadays is designed by RAMSA in collaboration with Rijnboutt. Astists Arno Coenen, Iris Roskam and Hans van Bentem collaborated with the architects to create Amsterdam Oersoep as integral part of the architecture.
With ‘Amsterdam Oersoep’ artist duo Arno & Iris and Hans van Bentem bring an ode to the canals of Amsterdam. Each object, from the ceiling to the floors, has symbolic references to the city of Amsterdam, its history and its future.
The artwork shows 450 m2 of glass mosaic with representations of everything that defines the unique character of Amsterdam. The floor is a made out of a traditional Italian Terrazzo with a pattern designed to resemble archeological excavations. The walls are made of handmade tiles, with 27 symbols applied in goldluster. In addition, immensely large gilded and engraved mirrors are installed displaying a tale of water, life and death. The lighting is provided by a total of seven chandeliers in three different styles: two large ones (named ‘Rembrandt’), one middle size (the ‘Vermeer’), and four smaller ones (named after ‘Ferdinand Bol’). These unique chandeliers are made of recycled bicycle parts, such as gears, head lamps, and handlebars – a reference to the sediment found in the Amsterdam canals and the Dutch tradition of cycling. Furthermore, fourteen three-dimensional stained glass lamps are installed, inspired by classic portal lamps, still visible at the entrances of Amsterdam canal houses. And for those ready to get their bottle of water: all these crafts are combined by high tech technologies to mill the bronze fish fountain.
Sig Nordal 