Bath to the future: Villeroy & Boch

Even the early rulers of the Mesopotamian city-state of Mari – one of mankind’s oldest settlements – recognised that a bathroom could be much more than just a place for the daily wash. They had private bathrooms installed as early as 2000 BC, for warm baths and undisturbed relaxation. And if this advanced culture had prevailed, our living spaces may well have looked very different today.

In antiquity, the bathroom became a public place, only to move very slowly back into the home in the 19th century as the laying of water pipes became more widespread. Since its founding, German brand Villeroy & Boch has been committed to furnishing bathrooms as places of well-being, from the creation of its first sanitary ceramics to the modern designs with comfort features of today.

And just in time for Innovation Days 2021, the international lifestyle brand is delivering a trend-setting collection that aims to put the bathroom ahead of other living spaces in terms of creating an atmosphere of comfort and feeling good. With its timeless design and durable materials, Subway 3.0 continues Villeroy & Boch's tradition of designing bathrooms individually, innovatively and harmoniously, while at the same time steering the concept into the future with new technologies and possibilities.

The controlled water vortex is extremely quiet, prevents rinsing water from splashing out of the basin and reduces the formation of aerosols. Cleanliness is further enhanced by the refined CeramicPlus surface and the innovative AntiBac surface technology, which reduces bacterial growth by 99.9 per cent. The use of harsh, environmentally harmful cleaning agents is superfluous. In the future, too, less will be more.

The TwistFlush WC, for example, takes the company's resource-saving claim to new levels: the revolutionary WC uses the physical force of a whirlpool of water to flush everything away and requires only 4.5 litres to guarantee cleanliness all across the board, while the conically shaped, rimless bowl further supports the hygiene concept.

The hygiene concept can also be optionally expanded by Villeroy & Boch’s next generation of actuator plates. ProActive+, either sensor-controlled or triggered manually by movement, prevents the formation of germs through time-controlled hygiene flushing and can even adapt the flush volume to usage-level via a time-recording function. In order to adjust the water consumption economically, ProActive+ can also be evaluated by analysing usage statistics and configured individually – a big advantage in public sanitary areas.

‘For me, colour is the soul of a product,’ says Hansen, implying that even a classic White or a deep Coal Black can create personal mood highlights. From now on, the Artis design will be presented in a total of nine colours and two shades of white on the outside – on the inside, the bowls will remain glossy white in all versions.

The Artis countertop washbasins are just as visionary, doing away with the old idea that a bathroom has to be white to be hygienic. Villeroy & Boch has joined forces with the German-Danish designer Gesa Hansen, who has further developed her exclusive colour concept for the BiColour series, to call for more courage to use colour. With Indian Summer, Sage Green, Rust and Bordeaux, she completes the finely graduated colour palette for wash areas with more individuality.

The result is the 3 x 3 x 3 concept with a choice of three shapes – oval, round and rectangular, three installation types – countertop, recessed and substructure, and three colours – beige shade Almond, deep black Ebony and grey Graphite. This formula provides planners and interior designers with a multitude of options to shape an individual style in the bathroom and to find the right solution for every room situation.

Villeroy & Boch's enormous selection always aims to offer more than the sum of selected individual products. This is also how the new products step up to offer planners and architects greater design freedom for turning functional bathrooms into future-oriented, wellness spaces. The important thing is that people feel at home. Today and tomorrow.

© Architonic

The best-selling Loop & Friends bathroom range is also ready for a reboot in 2021, but still remains true to its look. It has retained the geometric variety of shapes, but thanks to the special TitanCeram material, the individual elements now appear more nuanced and with more lightness. The washbasins appear filigree and can be staged in three matt colours.

The oval and rectangular design language of the washbasins is also adopted by the current Loop & Friends bathtubs. With their narrow edges, the baths offer more space inside and are also water-saving thanks to their shallow interior depth. A whirlpool system or waterfall inlet are also available as extras.