Bath with a view: eight uncommon places to put the tub

Text by James Wormald
15.03.22

With plumbing, privacy and functional considerations, bathroom layouts can be hard to plan. A more relaxing soak space remains a possibility, however, with careful bath positioning.

Flush-fitting sliding glass doors like these in raumplus' S 800 series can seamlessly connect bathroom spaces to elsewhere inside, or outside, the home

Blending together various competing functionalities in a restricted space, bathroom design can feel like banging your head against a tile wall. The bathtub itself is often tucked away in a shadowy corner, ensuring space for other primary elements, but by making the tub the hero, either with central positioning or by bravely breaking the concept of the bath ‘room’ entirely, a more tranquil solution can be found.

Replus design bureau positioned this apartment's bath underneath a central skylight, spotlighting it for success. Photo courtesy of Replus design bureau

Centre stage

If the square metres allow it, a centrally-positioned bathtub becomes the hero of the bathroom space, spotlighting its enveloped VIP subjects along with it. This apartment by Replus design bureau in Lviv, Ukraine, for example, showers its central slipper bath with natural light from above. Using a skylight allows bathers to look, and therefore feel, their best, without causing a disturbance across the street.

House H's version of a broken-plan ensuite means bringing the tub out from the separate bathroom, and placing it on the other side of the bed's headboard. Photo: Hey! Cheese

If it ain’t broke, fix it

Bathing under the spotlight may provide a more majestic experience, but in smaller bathroom spaces it simply wouldn’t be possible to squeeze around it. Instead of moving the bath, however, House H in Taipei, Taiwan, by KC Design Studio, solves the problem by moving the wall. Seclusion and privacy are alternatively provided by a remaining lower wall portion, housing the plumbing and doubling as a headboard on its other side, creating a balanced broken-plan ensuite.

Dizaino Virtuve allowed the bathtub to headline in their Spanish Forest Villa's glass-walled ensuite, without the need for supporting bathroom fixtures. Photo: Kernius Pauliukonis

Up against the wall

Also without the room for a full en-suite, this Spanish Forest Villa, confusingly in Vilnius, Lithuania, by Dizaino Virtuve, gives the toilet and sink the night off and keeps the bathtub just for itself. In a world of its own, privacy isn’t an issue for the single-use space, and the shared bedroom wall is replaced with glass.

In Fild Design Thinking Company's brave Rybalsky Apartment, the bath is hidden or revealed behind a fabric curtain, inside a glass box, inside the living area. Photos: Andrey Bezuglov

Privacy? Who needs it

It’s one thing to put the bath in the bedroom behind a low wall, or even glass – but it’s another entirely to put it smack bang in the middle of the living space. That’s exactly what the brave Fild Design Thinking Company suggested for their Rybalsky Apartment project in Kyiv, Ukraine, however. And an even braver client allowed it.

It’s one thing to put the bath in the bedroom behind a low wall, or even glass – but it’s another entirely to put it smack bang in the middle of the living space

Positioning the bath inside a glass-edged box creates a more spacious atmosphere for lone bathers. And when more privacy is required, remote-controlled water-repellent fabric curtains are a button away.

Montalba Architects' Whitepod Zen Suites' tall tubs feel like a miniature hot spring bath in the Swiss Alps. Photos: Delphine Burtin

Go high

Space in one of Montalba Architects’ Whitepod Zen Suite’s cupboards in the Swiss Alps, may need to be reserved for a handy step-stool to gain careful entry to its centrally-positioned bathtub. But once you’re in, you’re in deep. Due to its slim but tall proportions, the bath uses relatively little water and takes less filling time to completely immerse seated bathers, leaving them with more time to admire the alpine view.

In an old radar station on Dungeness beach, Kent, UK, this sunken bath features a view across the beach's desert-like plane. Photos: Billy Bolton

Go low

At the other end of the spectrum, meanwhile, is the possibility to sink the bath into the floor. Built on Dungeness beach in Kent, UK, the Radar Station holiday let by Johnson Naylor, extends the open space in its heated-floor bathroom with a sunken bathtub. Combining it with a low window gives bathers a clear view out across the desert-like beach landscape, without giving anything away once they’re out.

The high-rise International Chongqing Raffles City building treats residents to views across the city and the water at every turn, even from the bathtub. Photos: Feng Shao

On the lookout

For those who prefer to keep their soap-soaked bravery well hidden underneath the bubbles, but still like the idea of having a window to gaze through, residency at the Intercontinental Chongqing Raffles City in Chongqing, China, is right up their street. The luxury high-rise apartments boast views across the city from many public areas, with more private views also available from the apartments’ bathtubs.

BetteAir floor-level tiles (top) allow for walk-through bathroom designs which, combined with sliding glass doors, bring an open-air bathing experience like that at the Wool Sauna (bottom). Photo: Alvis Rozenbergs

Open-air performance

The Wool Sauna by Open AD is hidden in the trees away from the rest of the Ziedlejas Wellness Resort in Sigulda, Latvia. An open-air plunge pool is part of the circling sauna entrance, with a natural view across the treetops. For those looking to recreate the outdoor bathing experience at home, however, there are further possibilities than a hot tub on the decking. With innovative products like flush-fitting sliding glass doors from brands like raumplus, and floor-level shower tiles with near-seamless drainage from Bette, it’s possible to extend private bathroom spaces directly onto outdoor terraces. Just make sure you’re not overlooked.