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ISH 2015: Special show 'Pop up my Bathroom' presents the ideal bathroom from four different perspectives

Trend for bathrooms, designed to cater appropriately for the different phases of life, goes hand in hand with innovative ground plans and renovation techniques

The 'Pop up my Bathroom' slogan 'Freedom within four walls' brings new impetus and concepts for the use of space to the notion of the barrier-free bathroom

 

Modern bathroom design adapts to future lifestyles and changing demands. In the run up to ISH 2015 and on behalf of Messe Frankfurt, the 'Pop up my Bathroom' platform for new trends, initiated by the Association of the German Sanitation Industry (Vereinigung Deutsche Sanitärwirtschaft e.V. - VDS) will be concerning itself with the requirements that need to be taken into account in the conception of bathrooms appropriate to the various stages of life. Variable ground plans and modern systems of installation are likely to be able, in future, to so enhance the adaptability of the bathroom, that it can be changed to fit in with the lives of its users.
 
The four concept bathrooms thus follow the slogan for 'Pop up my Bathroom' 2015: 'Freedom within four walls'. The slogan not only asks for greater acceptance of barrier-free bathrooms, but also seeks the freedom to create new bathroom concepts, where it is the needs of the users that determine the design.
 
Bathrooms not only get us through the day – they get us through the whole of our lives

Interior design in the industrial nations is dominated by two complementary approaches to life: the wish for self-fulfilment through an individual life style and furnishings to match, and a search for security and somewhere to unwind in a private space – sometimes known as the 'homing trend'. We want things to be nice and we also want the outside world to identify us with the image of our home.
 
In the bathroom, this cultural syndrome comes up against our fundamental need for hygiene, agreeable bodily sensations and relaxation. The functionality of the bathroom is of the greatest significance, precisely when it combines with the wish to remain independent for as long as possible in a society that is becoming older. The bathroom not only helps us to get through the day, it helps us to get through our entire lives. A complex level of functionality, which makes the whole business of designing this room into a very sophisticated task.
 
Bathrooms are a good reflection of the way in which the various stages of a person's life change. The Pop up my Bathroom platform has investigated the changing demands and corresponding bathroom concepts and created some blueprint images to reflect them. Each of them expresses the sense of what life is about at each particular stage and for different family groupings, all of which impact on our perceptions and on the design of the bathroom.
 
At the forthcoming ISH, the leading world trade fair for the combination of water and energy, from 10 to 14 March 2015 in Frankfurt am Main, the four bathrooms will be staged from various perspectives in elaborate scenarios.
 
Adventure: children need bathrooms as experiential spaces

In ideal circumstances the bathroom is a place of fun for children, where they can splash around, lark about and play with rubber animals, bottles and sponges, where mum towels you down and dad gets sprayed with water. Quite often, however, the bathroom is fraught with negative feelings, perhaps because they are afraid of water, because they are shy of going to the loo or because brushing their teeth is a tiresome business. An atmosphere of security often helps more than brightly coloured beakers and, if something does occasionally go wrong, it shouldn't become a major issue, either for the children or the parents.
 
Above all, children need space and security. But they also want have access to things that are outside their reach. So that they have the feeling of belonging, they need furniture, loos and wash basins appropriate to their size. Where that is not possible, there needs to be help to bring them up to a suitable level. To take account of this when planning a bathroom requires just a little empathy – and, of course, more available space.
 
A place to dream and relax for individualists

For most bathroom users who live alone, the bathroom is a place to lose themselves in dreams, to make themselves beautiful, to launch themselves for an energetic day and to wind down in the evening, without having to consider the needs of others. And, for that, they need space for individual elements: fitness equipment or accessories for the sporty, a wall for their own pictures or to hang the lifebuoy they brought back from that holiday beach, a shelving unit for those boom boxes, tinctures or flowerpots. They want colours in the bathroom that they can change on a whim, fashionable accessories and technical gadgets. They all represent areas for experiment in their search for a lifestyle, or indeed, when they reach a certain age, the ultimate, settled conditions for their set routines. What younger single people demand in terms of flexibility, older ones expect in terms of comfort and convenience: unlimited freedom for individual preferences. A private spa that unites body and spirit in a harmonious whole, through personal rituals and a sophisticated aesthetic.
 
Families need room for improvisation

When several people live together, the bathroom becomes a place of communication – particularly when it involves several generations, who start the day here, learn and practice rituals, have to take care of one another and compromise. As a rule these are couples or families with children, but also families who live with one of their number needing care. In busy families, in which everyone pursues his or her own life, the kitchen and the bathroom are often the last free spaces for communal rituals, a place where people's paths cross fortuitously and a place where daily routine or problems get discussed. In a "busy bathroom" like that, the sanitary fittings and furniture must offer, above all, opportunity and space for improvisation. It is not so much perfect styling that counts here, but tolerance on the part of the room and its inhabitants for the inevitable chaos. Life with children, in particular, means being able to let things take their course, and then "clearing the decks" at a later stage.
 
Multi-functional features such as walk-in showers and spray-proofed bathtubs, which can withstand 'crazy hour' and double basins that are not too high and within general reach are a great boon in trying to bring order to the chaos. If there is room, then it makes sense to plan separate zones for different things that need to be done at the same time. The lavatory is at the top of the list here, but it is also worth thinking about a washing area with a separate corner for the parents, or a separate washing area just for the for children, a bathing and dressing area screened off with a built-in unit or shelves or even a generously proportioned, spray-proof shower area.
For those who can include in their plans room for plenty of storage space – ideally dedicated storage space for each member of the 'bathroom user-group' – as well, perhaps, as a little extra 'snuggle space', the busy bathroom can be an intimate space where the family can enjoy a sense of togetherness and security.
 
A bathroom designed for ease – at every age

If, indeed, every step needs to be thought out, so that nobody slips or stumbles, then security means freedom; freedom from tiresome safety features and awkward fiddling about, freedom of movement, and freedom to enjoy the various options available. A close-knit security net involving a familiar environment, technical fittings and barrier-free living space provides that sense of safety and allows a feeling of ease to permeate the user's experience. A sense of ease that also needs to find expression in the design of the 'Easy Bathroom', which, whilst it is technically sophisticated, is nevertheless simple and intuitive to use.
 
People who have to cope with restricted movement of various kinds, whether physical or age-related, know, only too well, how important a freely accessible, secure and easily usable bathroom is for independence, fitness and well-being. They value the impact that water has on our health and our spirits, the convenience of the combined bidet toilet and the secure feeling afforded by firmly fixed, support-giving furniture, seats and handholds as well as good, perhaps even sensor-controlled, lighting systems. Walk-in showers and space for sufficient freedom of movement are basic prerequisites for any bathroom in which elderly people can organise themselves as they please and need - for all eventualities.
 
'Freedom bathrooms' should open the space up for new ideas and solutions that meet the needs of all generations

Campaigns, like the 'Freedom within four walls' campaign for 'Pop up my Bathroom', seek to encourage people to challenge boundaries and break them down – both barriers and  apparently fixed concepts of the way people use bathrooms. For the notion of freedom in the bathroom – in ergonomic, multifunctional and aesthetic terms – is more than just that of barrier-free living. The concept bathrooms of 'Pop up my Bathroom' pursue this thought further. The images of ideal bathrooms that adapt to people and their needs at all stages of their lives support the notion of barrier-free living in the bathroom as a personalised concept that applies to all.
 
The initiators of 'Pop up my Bathroom 2015' deliberately chose the notion of 'Freedom within four walls' as its slogan, using the German notion of "Freibad" – an open-air bathing area or swimming pool. In effect, it is a completely new usage in German, with the impact of a proper name, as the words are borrowed from an outdoor context and transferred into the world of interior architecture. "Free" is thus intended to stand for 'freedom from limitation', 'independence' and 'freedom to enjoy life'.
 
The crucial prerequisite for bathrooms, which will meet the needs of users as they move through the successive phases of their lives, is more space. It is only on a larger floor-plan, or one that can be flexibly changed, that built-in units to create individual zones, floor connections, barrier-free concepts, space-hungry bathroom furniture and designs for usable living-space really make sense. And it is only technology that meets current standards, together with intelligent, non-messy renovation solutions, that will provide the future answers of an innovative sanitation industry to tomorrow's sophisticated requirements.

 


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