LAUFEN BATHROOMS

The traditional Swiss brand’s personality flourishes in a symbiosis of design, quality and function. As a premium brand under the ROCA Group umbrella, LAUFEN is one of the leading international manufacturers of ceramic sanitary ware with worldwide distribution.

The company's core competence is its expertise in the manufacturing of ceramics. For over 125 years, LAUFEN has been processing mankind's oldest malleable material into ground breaking sanitary products - in state-of-the-art facilities and with legendary Swiss precision. Developed to perfection over a 16-year period in LAUFEN (from approx. 1966 to 1982), die casting turned out to be a quantum leap: previously a maximum of 80 - 100 castings could be made with one mould, but thanks to die casting up to 40,000 castings per mould were suddenly possible. In 2009, the American specialist author John B. Wachtman noted that since the introduction "more than 200 die casting systems had been successfully put into operation", with which "approximately 40 million articles" were produced worldwide. This core competence in ceramics and production technology has supported the all-encompassing know-how for the bathroom as a whole that characterises LAUFEN at a high design level.

What sets LAUFEN products apart at first sight is the Swiss design as a fusion of two key design currents: Emotional Italian design from the South paired with the precision and clarity of the design tradition from the North.
For LAUFEN there are two aspects to quality: on the one hand production kow-how and on the other product benefits conveyed by the finished bathroom to the customer.

LAUFEN's expertise can be experienced first-hand at the award-winning LAUFEN Forum at the company’s headquarters in Laufen near Basel, Switzerland, or at one of the many international references.


COMPANY HISTORY

Founding
The company was founded as a public limited company under the name of Tonwarenfabrik Laufen (Laufen Earthenware Factory) on 4 July 1892 in the town of Laufen in Switzerland, which the company owes its name to. In 1925, Keramik Laufen AG, founded as a subsidiary of Tonwarenfabrik, was the first Swiss company to produce ceramics for the domestic sanitary market. In 2017, the company celebrated its 125th anniversary.

Expansion and growth
With the takeover of a tile factory in Brazil in 1952, LAUFEN laid the foundation for a worldwide expansion. In 1967 two long established Austrian production plants Wilhelmsburg and Gmunden joined the Laufen Group. In the 1990s, LAUFEN expanded with two further production sites in Bechyně and Znojmo in the Czech Republic. Through the merger with Roca Sanitario in 1999, the company became part of the Spanish Roca Group, now the world's largest manufacturer of bathroom ceramics. With the construction of a new logistics centre and high bay warehouse at the headquarters in LAUFEN, as well as the installation of modern production systems in various European factories, LAUFEN has positioned itself for further growth since 2006. In 2007, the Swiss SimilorGroup, one of the oldest faucets manufacturers in the world, joined the Roca Group. The dynamic alliance of the two Swiss subsidiaries is already evident in numerous complete bathroom concepts, which also include the faucets. In 2009 LAUFEN opened a showroom and visitor centre called the Laufen Forum. The building’s purpose is to serve as an architectural statement of the brand and as an event platform. The innovative and sustainable building made of exposed concrete has won the Green Good Design Award 2012, the Award for Marketing + Architecture 2010 and the Best Architects Award 2011.

Success factors

Innovation and design
With the development and introduction of high-pressure casting in 1982, LAUFEN revolutionised the manufacturing technology for sanitary ceramics and thus laid the foundation for high production capacities and the industrial production of top-quality design bathrooms. The casting process is characterised by the high quality of the surfaces and minimal post-processing effort. High-pressure casting is now used by many companies in the sanitary industry.

LAUFEN launched its first complete designer bathroom in the 1990s together with the design studio F.A. Porsche. In 2002 the company landed a sensational coup with "ILBAGNOALESSI One", which was created in cooperation with the Italian design company Alessi. ILBAGNOALESSI has since established itself as a classic in bathroom design and has won numerous design awards. In 2004, "Laufen Pro" was launched, a series that is particularly successful in the construction segment. One year later, in cooperation with ps+a, the modular expandable "Palomba Collection" was launched and the Bauhaus-inspired "Form by Laufen" series joined LAUFEN’s portfolio.

With the launch of the architecturally oriented "ILABGNOALESSI dot" by architect Wiel Arets in 2007, LAUFEN set the course for the future as a supplier of high-quality design options for the bathroom. With the relaunch of the classic “Palace” washbasin as a complete bathroom collection and the new “Living Square” washbasin series - both series include washbasins which can be cut to size - LAUFEN expanded its range in 2011 for the private bathroom in the mid-price segment as well as for the hotel sector and for customised architectural backdrops. LAUFEN now offers bathroom furniture for all its sets, thus underlining its claim as a true complete bathroom supplier.

SaphirKeramik, which has been available on the market since 2013, is the latest innovation of global significance. The SaphirKeramik project, together with the two designers Konstantin Grcic and his collection "Val" and Toan Nguyen with "Ino", set the course for a completely new design language in the bathroom.

In 2014, LAUFEN consolidated its DNA with the architectural project that speaks a completely new language: innovative, rich in emotion, transparency and colour, the SaphirKeramik collection "Kartell by Laufen" is the synthesis of the work ps+a have done in the bathroom world in recent years and represents an important step forward in this field.

With Sonar, presented to the general public in 2017, the versatile and internationally acclaimed designer Patricia Urquiola presents the 3rd generation of the LAUFEN SaphirKeramik project. She elevates the extraordinary material into the 3rd dimension.

With the Cleanet RIVA shower toilet from Vetica Design, in collaboration with Swiss technology company Noventa, LAUFEN has written a new chapter in hygiene and wellbeing in 2017.

The New Classic, created in collaboration with Marcel Wanders, has been radiating the practicality of harmonious form since 2019 - combining it with contemporary elements. The result is a clear formal language of modern elegance that celebrates the bathroom as a place of purity.


Designers and architects
LAUFEN’s self-contained bathroom concepts are developed in partnership with well-known designers and architects: for example, Marcel Wanders (The New Classic), Stefano Giovannoni (ILBAGNOALESSI One), Toan Nguyen (Ino), Konstantin Grcic (Val), Patricia Urquiola (Sonar), ps+a (Kartell by Laufen), Wiel Arets (ILBAGNOALESSI dOt), Peter Wirz, Vetica Design (Cleanet shower toilets and Laufen Pro), Andreas Dimitriadis (Palace, Living) and others. A particular speciality of LAUFEN is to explore the limits of ceramic as a material and to transform it into technically sophisticated designs - for example, the ceramic, floor-standing Tam-Tam washbasin from the "ILBAGNOALESSI One" series, the extremely flat and angular 120-centimetre-long VAL washbasin made of SaphirKeramik or the up to 180-centimetre-long Palace and Living Square washbasins that can be cut to measure and fitted into niches. In order to overcome design limits attached to traditional ceramics, LAUFEN developed a new ceramic material in years of research. The new material enables considerably thinner wall thicknesses and defined edges, and therefore a new ceramic design language: SaphirKeramik.


Quality and environment
LAUFEN produces products that use such a valuable resource as water. As a result, the company feels obliged to protect the natural water resources and foundations of life as such. LAUFEN therefore places great emphasis on environmentally friendly production and uses energy and raw materials efficiently at each production stage - from development to marketing. For example, the Swiss manufacturer uses the waste heat generated during the production process and uses it to dry the ceramics.

But it is also important for the company to produce products of the highest quality - as confirmed by numerous internationally recognised product certificates and standards. The Swiss Q-Plus stamp certifies that LAUFEN products comply with the European standard and the higher Swiss standard. An important point for LAUFEN, because only durable and robust products deserve to be called "environmentally friendly" - after all, prevention comes before recycling. LAUFEN also helps its customers to live in a more environmentally friendly way and to reduce energy costs. The bathroom specialist's products are also equipped with the latest energy- and water-saving technologies. For example, the water-saving faucets with Ecototal cartridge or the latest generation of water-saving WCs.

Close to the customer, close to the market

The market for sanitary products is one of the most sophisticated markets in the world - because elegant design, advanced technology, high quality and good service are highly valued. An environment in which LAUFEN feels at home - and to which the company has made its own contribution for decades. To be able to offer the highest quality of service and product everywhere and at all times, LAUFEN takes part in numerous regional and international trade fairs and adapts its solutions to the cultural requirements of the customer.

Internationally LAUFEN also focuses on architecture. By taking part in and supporting numerous architecture events and platforms, such as the AIA (Association of International Architects), the AHEAD Awards, the Sleep Event, or Leaf International, LAUFEN showcases its expertise on the international stage of architects and planners. In addition, LAUFEN organises its own events such as the Architecture during Art Event at the company headquarters in LAUFEN, in which hundreds of guests take part every year.
To enable end customers, architects and bathroom professionals all over the world to see the appeal, quality and functionality of LAUFEN products for themselves, the company is showcasig its high-quality bathroom solutions in numerous showrooms such as Vienna, Milan, Prague, Madrid, Moscow and Miami.