State of the plumbing art: 10 examples of cutting-edge bathroom design

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State of the plumbing art: 10 examples of cutting-edge bathroom design

Regardless of who you are, you’re going to come in contact with plumbing fixtures every day. Where a simple outhouse festooned with a half-moon might have sufficed in days of yore, now there’s a 21st-century renaissance going on with toilets, faucets and the like. Designers, and the plumbing companies employing them, are encouraging us to make the most of our daily ablutions, and have risen to the occasion with admirable aplomb.

In search of the ideal bathroom components, we scoured the world for the prettiest potties, the most sumptuous sinks and the best of the bodacious baths, all certain to help you to complete your daily bathroom tour with style and grace. Prepare to be dazzled; hit Continue for the best of the best…

Design Odyssey Vertebrae

Here’s a space-saving idea that’s decidedly space age. Design Odyssey Vertebrae is an all-in-one fixture with water flowing into it from the top, giving you a shower, a cistern for storing water, a couple of storage areas, a sink and a toilet, all in one stack.

Hansgrohe Showerpleasure XXL

If there’s a bigger shower head in this world, we haven’t seen it. Team up this Hansgrohe Showerpleasure XXL with a few other water jets coming from every which way, and you’ll be standing smack-dab in the middle of a virtual tropical storm. Using special Raindance AIR technology, it provides the perfect mixture of air and water that’ll supposedly get you cleaner than clean. Maybe it'll even relax you enough to prevent a heart attack when you see your water bill.

Lacava Embrace

This is a faucet? Your guests will stand there, jaws agape, asking not only how to get water flowing from this polished chrome sculpture, but also wondering what demons possessed the otherworldly designer who conceived such a thing. Part of the Lacava Embrace series, this $690 faucet is the most outlandish component of the bunch.

Toto Neorest Air Bath

If bathing is an art, you can create a masterpiece simply by lying in the Toto Neorest Air Bath. Its flume waterfall cleanses while you control the water temperature, depth and flow speed with its LCD touchpanel. Built for two, it’ll gently cascade warm water onto both occupants' shoulders while they sit across from each other, smirking at their decadence.

Mastella Vov Bathtub

This one will practically take you back to the womb. The Mastella Vov Bathtub’s egg shape might remind you of your origins as you lie back, admiring the sparkling silver chains hanging from a ring above. The floor-mounted water filler adds to the weird illusion, as well as your choice of easter-egg colors adorning the tub’s interior.

Toto Washlet S400

Add this $1,400 Toto Washlet S400 toilet seat to your existing potty, and you get a carwash for your butt. When it's time for cleanup, a tiny spraying wand sneaks out to rinse your nether regions with soothing warm water, and then a blow dryer completes the task. Control that and a lot more with its wall-mounted remote, and it opens and closes the seat automagically for you, too.

Touch360 Ripple Faucet

This Touch360 Ripple faucet is not just a plumbing fixture, it’s “a new way to interact with water.” It's called Touch360 because water gushes out in a circular fashion, converging at an apex before flowing into your awaiting hands. You control the temperature and flow with a small metal ball, with LEDs lighting its translucent surface, color-coordinated with the temperature of the water.

Kohler C3-200 Toilet Seat with Bidet Functionality

Kohler answers Toto’s washlet juggernaut with the C3-200, a bidet seat of its own, offering similar functionality at nearly half the price (find it online for $845). This one gives you a warm wash and dry, deodorizing all the while. There are even LED landing lights for those late-night pit stops. We’ve installed one of these in our Midwest Test Facility, so stay tuned for our hands-on (butts-on?) review.

Wet X-Light Surround Sink

The X-Light Surround sink is a whole lot more than a plumbing fixture. Yes, it’s a speaker, and it’s iPod-friendly, too. Plug in that music player and you’ll be splish splashin’ your way to well-scrubbed bliss. Or something. Wonder if it sounds different when you fill it up with water...?

Aperture Shower Head

The Aperture Shower Head is a design concept whose main idea is to show you how much water you’re wasting in hopes of getting you out of that shower as soon as possible. Using the force of the water to generate its own hydroelectric power, its LEDs pour on the guilt as you get clean. If it can deliver a powerful-enough stream, it might be worth the worry.

By Charlie White
1:41 PM ON 06/05/08

(52) COMMENTS

bathroom:
sorry its http://www.cascadabathrooms.co.uk...More »

Comments

By danlannin at 12:17 AM ON 06/06/08

Very cool stuff. I wish to one day experience that sort of luxury...

By Web Design at 1:34 AM ON 06/06/08

Awesome designs!

By RippyDoDipp at 10:37 AM ON 06/06/08

I dunno, seems to me as long as I can take a dump or a shower, its all I need. Just the basics is fine.

JT
http://www.FIreMe.To/Udi

By Thadrine at 10:49 AM ON 06/06/08

Apature ......I would be too afraid it would try to kill me.
\
And what is the other stuff for? I still dump on a pile of leaves.

By ThehardwareCity at 10:52 AM ON 06/06/08

I liked the Lacava, very cool.

By mozey at 11:04 AM ON 06/06/08

Thats EXACTLY what this guy needs

By mozey at 11:07 AM ON 06/06/08

Wops, forgot the link on my last message, Its exactly what THIS guy needs
http://mozey.wordpress.com/2008/06/05/brown-note/

By freshbum at 11:08 AM ON 06/06/08

I've had the pleasure of experiening the Toto Washlet. Let me summarize in a way the rest of you can understand:

1) Take ordinary garden hose
2) Aim at nether region
3) Turn on water flow to, hell, FULL BLAST.

Any stronger and it could remove graffiti from buildings.

By mike at 11:12 AM ON 06/06/08

Why does a toilet seat need a remote?

By Dumpy at 11:31 AM ON 06/06/08

Good luck during a power outage

By CJW at 12:06 PM ON 06/06/08

Freshbum: I own a TOTO C100 "Chloe" and even at full blast, it's nowhere near garden hose pressure. Perhaps yours was hooked to a system with very high (80PSI+) water pressure. Was it an old (Pre-1970) house?

Overall, I think this is a pretty good collection of tech and design. The Vertebrae is a really eye catching and silly concept. It tricks you into thinking that it's space saving, but it looks like it'd still take a pretty large room to accommodate it. It's shiny though, so I love it anyway, I just don't think it's particularly practical or luxurious other than a design piece.

By Toto washlet S400 at 1:51 PM ON 06/06/08

It's not new but very usefull.

By Lacava Embrace at 1:59 PM ON 06/06/08

Great concept and design. It's a truly piece of art.

By Greg at 4:29 PM ON 06/06/08

All very interesting, however most seem very expensive for the average Joe.

By Easy Women at 5:54 PM ON 06/06/08

http://poprl.com/r/2C

By KrAzE at 8:08 PM ON 06/06/08

Aperture Science: We do what we must, because we can.

By Dr SEO at 8:10 PM ON 06/06/08

I want to live in one of these toilets.

By IsoTek at 10:02 PM ON 06/06/08

The Vertebrae reminds me of the toilets used in the prison that housed Tek Lord Sonny Hakori in the movie TekJustice.

By Matthew W. S. Bell at 10:06 PM ON 06/06/08

If I have to ask how to turn on a tap, it is designed wrongly.

By Craig at 2:04 AM ON 06/07/08

http://www.plumbersurplus.com/

This website has several of these products, pretty sweet!

By no one in particular at 2:18 AM ON 06/07/08

the aperture shower head sounds an awful lot like something from aperture laboratories in portal

By Furious Photographers at 5:39 AM ON 06/07/08

Wow amazing pictures of totally awesome bathroom technologies!

By artica at 9:54 AM ON 06/07/08

I love the Design Odyssey Vertebrae, such beautiful and intelligent design.

By Jenny at 12:16 AM ON 06/08/08

Interesting.

By john at 5:33 AM ON 06/08/08

nothing too impressive here. over priced, over designed and ugly crap. an extra large shower head - wow how amazing - a tap thats a poor copy of a moebius ring, speakers built in to a sink. can't believe the bidets are so expensive. the Odyssey Vertebrae concept is interesting and the bathtub is a beautiful shape - but thats all

By bathroombuzz at 8:36 AM ON 06/09/08

love toto neorest, looks minimalist yet relaxing...

By bgalmar at 9:34 AM ON 06/12/08

Shouldn't state of the art technology simplify things and be functional. Some of this stuff looks prety confusing.

By Ajan at 5:25 PM ON 06/14/08

i want all of them in different differnt bathrooms of my house... hope to get the Design Odyssey Vertebrae in teh beginning!! :D

By paresh at 12:49 PM ON 06/16/08

nice, what a sexy looks & shapes

By Nashville Photographer at 2:09 PM ON 06/22/08

The design of most of this is very elegant but I agree with what some of the others have said about questionable functionality. Still, it's eye candy. I really like the Air Bath. Artwork for your bathroom

By Karuvai at 8:05 AM ON 06/28/08

Funny pictures and good thinking....

By Bella Bathrooms at 12:04 PM ON 06/28/08

WOW, so cool but I don’t think they would sell in the UK bathroom market, shame!!!

By Kohler at 6:00 PM ON 07/29/08

The cascading chains on the Mastella Vov Bathtub offer nothing for privacy unless your a severe anorexic or blind...

We all know that's a Wii remote on the Kohler C3-200 Toilet Seat with Bidet Functionality for playing games while you do your business...

Do they make this same thing for fridges like the Aperture Shower Head. It could tell me how many times I have opened the fridge and make call me fat too?

By California Plumber at 12:45 PM ON 09/23/08

All I can say is wow! Those are some of the most beautifully designed bathroom accessories. The design is beautiful, I just wish I could afford them!

By A Plumber in Cambridge at 11:45 AM ON 09/26/08

Wow, just great designs. I wish my clients can afford one of those.

For the benefit of everybody, here is a glossary of plumbing terms.

By FaucetDepot at 12:54 PM ON 11/11/08

Exquisite! Definitely the most luxurious and contemporary bathroom fixtures I've ever seen.

By Electric Showers at 9:08 AM ON 11/17/08

Some nice designs, really cool!

By plumbing contractor in utah at 8:41 AM ON 11/26/08

Very nice looking and modern design. How much are tehese? i mean the starting price? seems to be very expensive Lol!

By FRANKE SINKS at 1:22 PM ON 12/02/08

I wish that Franke sinks would come out with a bathroom line in the USA as I prefer a less modern but still comtempory bathrrom style.

By FEHMIDA at 10:16 AM ON 01/13/09

LOOKING FOR SUPPLIERS IN UK FOR TOTO WASHLET S400

By izlesene at 12:29 PM ON 01/16/09

ty man hi,

i am caroline. Perfect pictures.

By ganja at 5:44 PM ON 01/22/09

Funny pictures and good thinking

By guido at 12:31 PM ON 01/26/09

It´s amazing

By Kitcherner Plumber at 2:30 PM ON 02/16/09

Wow nice design !! I really like these pictures...

By Toronto Plumber at 4:43 PM ON 02/23/09

Amazing photos!! The prices are very expensive though.

By BUDGET PLUMBING at 7:03 AM ON 05/28/09

LOL
find someone that can service the above..

good luck

By Joseph at 10:57 AM ON 07/06/09

You have started a very interesting discussion on bathroom design. I'm a cabinetmaker who really does not want to make kitchens and bathrooms for a living, because the most of what is done in the US is just boxes with a "choice of doors and drawer fronts," the most of which are made in a factory somewhere. Boring. I want to do something else if I can, but what?

European design just absolutely blows my mind, and I find myself reading quite a bit on it, even though these are often modular kitchens and bathrooms that one would simply send away for and have installed by a local craftsman. But what fascinates me is the utter innovation of those designs, so I find myself returning to them quite a bit.

I am also looking to design two bathrooms and a kitchen for my wife in too-small spaces in a tract home, which necessarily lets out those wonderful European designs that excite me so. And whenever I find myself going out on a limb with some idea or another, my wife always grounds me by saying, "If you stick with the classics, you won't grow tired of them."

So, what do you do that is different and yet timeless and practical and stimulating to make if you're a cabinetmaker? Damned if I know, but if I ever figure it out, I mean to make it for us and splash those babies all over the Internet!

What you've written, though, has given me quite a bit to think about, and I thank you for sharing your concepts.

By Need Plumbing at 1:08 PM ON 09/09/09

Some cool stuff here

By designerpro at 9:34 PM ON 10/11/09

Very cool stuff to build a dream kitchen or bath. Several of these products and some other cool things we have found can be found at http://www.efaucets.com

By bathroom at 1:16 AM ON 11/03/09

cool designs seen more on www.cascadabathrooms.co.uk check them out

By bathroom at 12:00 PM ON 11/03/09

sorry its http://www.cascadabathrooms.co.uk

By bathroom at 12:07 PM ON 11/03/09

sorry its http://www.cascadabathrooms.co.uk

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