A conversation about ‘a vision for the future bathroom’ at Hansgrohe’s Melbourne showroom delved into the new smartphone controls and tactile textures in bathroom design – and whether any designs are “too crazy”.

On Tuesday 22 October, Australian Design Review‘s managing editor Jessica Agoston Cleary sat down with AXOR’s global brand ambassador Michael Kiolbassa to flesh out some of the findings of ADR‘s new ‘The Future of Bathrooms’ trend report, created in association with AXOR. Agoston Cleary drew on her interviews with prominent Australian designers and Kiolbassa reflected on his 29 years of experience marketing at AXOR: a subsidiary of Hansgrohe Group whose mission it is to bring personality to the bathroom.

Passion and personality in the bathroom

A long journey from his home in Germany didn’t appear to dampen Kiolbassa’s energy and enthusiasm for the great potential of the bathroom. Having worked with world-renowned designers such as Philippe Starck, Antonio Citterio and Patricia Urquiola – which he likened to “playing football with Lionel Messi” – he was bursting with insights and anecdotes around building a legacy, designing for longevity and keeping pace with innovation.

“I’ve only been in Australia now for two and a half days and I asked my friends and colleagues: ‘How often do Australians change their bathroom?’ And it’s very similar to Europe and the rest of the world,” he recounted to the audience. 

“It’s not every second or fifth year, maybe it’s [every] 10, 12 or 15 years. So it’s a very special product, the bathroom, when you compare it with maybe your car.”

Timeless bathroom design

The pair discussed the need for long-term thinking in bathroom design. Agoston Cleary asked how Australian designers can aspire to the level of timeless design espoused by Starck and Citterio, which resonates across different continents and cultures. Kiolbassa answered with a story:

“It was 6 December 2001 and we were sitting in a hotel in Switzerland. I asked Antonio Citterio, ‘For whom is your design?’ And he said, ‘Michael, this is quite easy.’”

Citterio told Kiolbassa that he designed “for a certain group of people”, that is, people with money who are interested in the “nice things in life”, including architecture and design.

“‘He said: ‘The world and the mindset of these people is the same whether they’re living in Milan or Paris, London, New York, Melbourne, Dubai or in Shanghai. Our target group is an international group of people and therefore, first of all, my design must be an international design,’” Kiolbassa recounted. 

European designers – who make up the majority of AXOR collaborators – “must have a view on the complete world”, not merely European or US design, Kiolbassa said. He later added that he has observed a few commonalities between these highly successful designers. The first is that they see the world in a totally different way. The second is that they are “a little bit crazy”. 

“We are giving them the freedom and this is one of the reasons that they like us. Our engineers in the Black Forest know how to turn it into a successful product, but [our designers] have the freedom. We must let them run free with their crazy ideas,” Kiolbassa said.

The latest tech innovations

At the other end of longevity and heritage in design is innovation.

Agoston Cleary reflected on an anecdote designer Adrian Condina shared during the research phase of the bathroom trend report. A number of Condina’s luxury residential projects in the US feature tech in their bathrooms via integrated televisions in their vanity mirrors, some of which can display stock market updates. 

Hansgrohe has a comparable tech integration for the shower entitled RainTunes, Kiolbassa explained, allowing users to control their shower temperature and pressure with an app.

“This is the latest technology which is individualised for every member of the family,” he said.

Retaining tactility in bathroom design

This level of tech integration is “just one direction” in which bathroom design is heading, said Kiolbassa. On a material level, bathrooms are paradoxically warmer and cosier than they were 30 years ago.

“When you are in the bathroom, you are on your own. You are a person as you are. This has to do with your body, and your body is not so much digital. Your body is more tactile.” 

AXOR therefore still creates products that you use with your hands.

“Many years ago we asked ourselves whether we should only go with the control of showers with electronics. And then we said no. We invented something that was called Select, just press a button and then everything is fine.”

Agoston Cleary agreed this was a strong theme that emerged in the trend report.

“There’s the need for materiality and tactility, and retreat and relaxation is a very important part of bathrooms. As you said, it’s no longer the big white tiled wet room that it used to be,” she said.

The Future of Bathrooms

The conversation concluded with the crucial question: what will the bathroom of 2050 be? Agoston Cleary asked Kiolbassa to gaze into his crystal ball.

“I think, first and foremost, that it will be much more sustainable than we have it today,” Kiolbassa said. 

“We’ll nearly use no water. We will have the same feeling on our skin when we are showering or washing our hands. We will, for sure, use less energy.”

He pondered the possibility that we might find ways to recycle our shower water or design with as yet unknown materials.

“We will be digital for sure. But as far as design is concerned, we’ll be more or less what we are at the moment,” he said.

“…And, as a matter of course, the bathroom will be even more individual than ever.”