Dornbracht_Symetrics

SYMETRICS BY DORNBRACHT

"Symetrics opens up new perspectives in bathroom planning. This focuses not on the individual series or fitting, but on the room as a whole. By clearly separating the spouts and the controls, the entire appearance of the bathroom is redefined by the arrangement of the modules. This provides diverse application options for each area of the bathroom."

I find this quote quite contradicting to the chapter in Bathroom Uplugged written by Andreas Dornbracht himself. Although the chapter, "People, Ritual, Arhcitecture" focused on the Statements series, I would presume the same ethics and thought to go into the rest of Dornmbracht's bathroom designs.

This method of designing, or redesigning, the bathroom may not actually be as out-of-character as I first thought. I quite like the idea of a module based bathroom - not in the way that they are individual products still, but moreover that they help in catering to individual needs in a way. By making all these individual modules, the buyer is able to purchase the products which reflect their personal bathroom rituals. In saying this however, I don't agree that the bathroom should be "redefined by the arrangement of modules", however the use of a module system could aid in producing a bathroom [partially] unique to it's user. 

Defining 'ritual' for Dornbracht

In "People, Ritual, Architecture", Andreas Dornbracht states,

"The consideration of personal rituals is fundamental to achieving this aim [the shift from 'bathroom user' to 'bathroom occupier']. Because rituals, that is to say highly conscious actions at an ideal level, increase the value of matter, so that everyday things suddenly attain significance." P. 23

Taken from Hebel & Stollmann's Bathroom Unplugged.

This book has been requested back by Massey, but as it has been rather useful and I keep on finding more juicy information in it I will get it again.

"People, Rituals, Architecture"_Andreas Dornbracht

Dornbracht.

Dornbracht is a company in Germany. In Hebel & Stollmann's Bathroom Unplugged: Architecture and Intimacy, Andreas Dornbracht discussed the Dornbracht brand, particulary their "Statements" Culture Project series, which aims to create pieces of "art to represent the "cleaning rituals" theme."

"We have finally reached a point where our collected findings are again able to influence the design of standard shapes. And for once, the product is not the only focus of attention." P. 21

Inez Van Lammsweerde - Statements 02.98
BATHCOUTURE : Four photographers demonstrate the possibilities of photography after photography and cult author Sibylle Berg writes an angry text.

Dornbracht asked a series or artists, fashion designers, photographers to represent "cleaning rituals".

"What does a space look like that makes room for our rituals, regardless of whether conscious or unconscious, important or irrelevant, large or small?" P. 21
The Statements series reflect what the bathroom is/means to the artists, designers etc chosen. Dornbracht states that "...If we want to find ourselves, we must enjoy ourselves. In an individually personalized environment. In our own personal bathroom. A bathroom that, in its entirety, is a kind of interface for our physical and spiritual needs and which also reflects them." This emphasizes, through the Statements series at least, an shift from product-driven to design to user-central design - a "role" described by Dornbract a s "changing from that of "bathroom user" to "bathroom occupier"" - the bathroom has become more than a place to perform certain rituals, but a room to occupy through ritual.

"The discovery here is that it is not just a matter of rendering taste or style, but in particular it is the event, the experience that is paramount." P. 23
Event vs. Experience - event being the ritual one has to perform, or one does perform. The experience being what the occupier feels whilst performing the rituals. For me, the design should be more event based - what one does - as opposed to how one feels whilst doing. The experience should be a consequence of event, and if the design is for the event it should subsequently be a better, more enjoyable experience.

Laptop meltdown

My laptop had a melt-down after trying to install new software - thankfully it was with a Mac specialist at the time. Just need a new HDD, it's been ordered and should get here later today or tomorrow. Woohoo 500GB of it :)

Clean and Decent cont...

The Queen's Bathroom at Knossos is dated from 1700 B.C., even here we can see that the 'bathroom' was in fact a room with a bath in it - it is a room based on the 'product' within it as opposed to a room in itself. However if we look at Roman Baths, they can be defined by "thermae" which is the whole building as a bath, or "balneae" which is the chambers containing the bathing-vessel.

The Queen's Bathroom, above, was filled and emptied by hand, although she had a cistern in her toilet and a drain-able sink - it is thought that the bath water was probably re-used here. I wonder if the filling and emptying of the bath was purposeful and part of the bathing experience? If so, the bath today has resigned to convenience and laziness. Baths were not always as deep as the Queen's Bath - in the times of Agamemnon, a person did not have the ability to recline and water was only a couple of inches deep. This was to deter from "over-indulgence" and baths were "brief and cold" (P. 12).

I quite like the idea of having a shallow bath below the shower - and potentially the water coming from the shower to fill the 'bath'.

Wright, L. (1960). Clean and Decent. Routledge & Kegan Paul; London

P. 5 - One of these baths is 3600 years older than the other.

"[The first known bath] startles because it's form, dating from about 1700 B.c. or some 3600 years ago, is almost identical with the form of today." (Today being 1960). The other bath shown above is dated 1891 B.C.

This poses an interesting question, is the bath vessel we have today (and had in 1700 B.C.) ultimately the best it can be, or can it be re-designed to better? In my opinion, because the bath vessel shown in 'bathrooms' the world over can contain and hold the water we bathe in, we have neglected to further design it to do more than hold the water - with the exception of 'spa-baths' and the likes which have merely added-on extras to the form of the same vessel. It seems that baths have become more aesthetic based than function based - the form for function has been conquered in a rudimentary way - and high emphasis has been placed on the overall aesthetics of the bath itself. Even in 17090 B.C., the bath was a highly aesthetic object.

If we look to the bath vessels of today (2011), we can see that the form of the bath has still not developed much as demonstrated here in Lancamento's Bahheira Nobile at Kitchen & Bath 2011.