Toan Nguyen’s Ino collection for LAUFEN proves that material innovation and timeless form can coexist beautifully. 

When Swiss bathroom specialist LAUFEN invited French designer Toan Nguyen to explore the design potential of its proprietary Saphirkeramik material, the brief was deceptively simple: return to the archetype and reimagine it. The resulting Ino collection achieves something that genuinely distinguishes it from the crowded field of bathroom design, producing objects that appear to float, almost in defiance of their own materiality. Walls so thin they read as lines rather than surfaces, curves that resolve into angular forms at the rear of each basin, a lightness of presence that is somehow both delicate and authoritative. This is a bathroom design realised as object-making.

The collection’s origins lie in LAUFEN’s Saphirkeramik project, presented at the Salone del Mobile Milano in 2014, which challenged designers to push a material that shares all the hygienic advantages of conventional ceramic while achieving thinner profiles and greater precision of form. For Nguyen, SaphirKeramik unlocked a way of thinking about the washbasin that conventional ceramic simply ignores. “By not having a wide rim, as we know from conventional washbasins, we were able to create a more generous basin,” Nguyen explains, adding that the focus extended well beyond volume to encompass the lines and surfaces of each piece. The result is a collection where the material and the design are inseparable propositions.

The washbasin as centrepiece

One of the Ino range’s most compelling offerings is a wall-mounted washbasin featuring a recessed, integrated shelf with an upward-sweeping back wall. Conceived as a study within the original Saphirkeramik project and later refined to a production piece, the shelf is available on the left or right-hand side, offering well-considered placement for cosmetics and accessories without interrupting the basin’s clean geometry. The design earned the coveted Design Plus Award at ISH 2015, a recognition by a specialist jury whose appreciation for innovation serves both aesthetic and functional ends. 

Wall-mounted washbasins in 450mm and 560mm widths extend the range’s reach, whilst washbasin bowls and semi-recessed basins bring the same formal rigour to different installation scenarios. The bowls in particular radiate an almost improbable generosity, their extremely thin walls amplifying the sense of space within. As Nguyen observes, the washbasins and bowls engage with a physical quality that can be touched and felt, one rooted in the particular character of ceramic as a material rather than in surface treatment alone.

The coherence of a complete collection

The Ino collection extends beyond basins to encompass a freestanding bathtub. The bathtub, measuring 1800 x 800 x 520mm and fabricated in solid surface Sentec material, continues the collection’s insistence on the slim profile, its oval form and delicate rim drawing a visual line back to the washbasins it accompanies. An integrated headrest adds to the genuine attentiveness given to its design, while a more compact 1700 x 750mm alternative without a headrest broadens the collection’s applicability. 

The Ino collection stands as a convincing argument that formal restraint and material intelligence are the most durable foundations for enduring bathroom design.

To view the entire Ino collection, visit laufen.com.