Wellness Bathroom Design, Dornbracht

In the age of the health conscious guest, Dornbracht looks to conceptualise the holistic approach of wellness environments through bathroom design. Wellness Bathroom Design, Dornbracht. Words: Ben Thomas

Culturing Life is an expression that Dornbracht has coined to cultivate the habitats of the bathroom space since its inception in 1950. A global leader in premium fittings, the Germanbased company has exerted considerable influence over the cultural importance of design, architecture and technology in the bathroom. With an eye on both aesthetic and social shifts, as well as products that deliver intuition and functionality, Dornbracht is now focusing on integrating health-enhancing water applications in the context of bathroom architecture. “At Dornbracht, one of our major drivers is to create intuitive products,” explains Managing Director Andreas Dornbracht. “With hotels attracting many different guests, we have the chance to impress with our product design and quality.”

Founder Aloys. F Dornbracht and his son Helmut initially ran the small-scale manufacturing business from a shack in Iserlohn on the outskirts of Dusseldorf, tussling with local wholesalers over pricing issues before gaining a foothold in the market. Differentiating itself through user-friendly products, Dornbracht created the extendable spout – a pivoting faucet aiding those filling bathtubs with buckets of boiled water. Simplistic in nature, the invention marked a new era for industrial design and kick-started the brand’s instinct for tapping into social and cultural shifts. Continuing his father’s strive to push the boundaries of design, Helmut Dornbracht further distinguished the brand’s identity with the launch of Edition 2000 in 1969, a distinctive gold faucet exuding luxury over its chrome counterparts. At first panned by industry critics, the fitting piqued the interest of design-conscious consumers and shaped a new market segment for Dornbracht.

During the 1980s, Dornbracht was to concentrate its portfolio on designer fittings with the help of long-standing partner Sieger Design, injecting industry-first matching applications and coloured faucets in the form of the Domani series. However, it was the 1990s, the company’s rebrand and introduction of Tara, that ushered in a new era of product design. A progressive concept with geometrically based symmetry, Tara’s minimalist shaping and varied colourways became ubiquitous with architects and interior designers alike. Venturing beyond their pioneering role in the high-quality designer fittings segment, brothers Andreas and Matthias inherited the company with a thirst for innovation greater than just form and function, quickly establishing the five design principles of proportion, precision, progressiveness, personality and performance. Collaborating with branding agency Meiré & Meiré, they explored the idea of rituals, translating cultural demands into architectonic concepts in The Statements series. The findings were channelled into the development of an elementary bathroom aesthetic, which focused on the needs of individuals and mental orientation in an increasingly complex world.

“Studies evidenced that the time awake in a hotel guestroom was mostly spent in the bathroom,” Dornbracht continues. “We identified a trend for larger bathrooms, particularly in luxury hotels, so our core focus for the future has therefore shifted to the in-room spa.” Catering to the hospitality industry, Dornbracht commissioned Sieger Design to convert the blueprints into concept spaces and room sets, which can be experienced first-hand at their Iserlohn headquarters. Overcoming the challenges of minimum square footage in metropolitan design, the Small Size Premium Spa – comprising intelligent spatial architecture and a functional arrangement of elements – was amongst a series launched in response to a global lean towards wellbeing. Pouring into suites within properties ranging from Mandarin Oriental to The Peninsula Paris, the concept’s versatile aesthetic has adapted to suit a plethora of interior styles.

A focus on digitalisation together with scientific research – investigating intergrated technology and connectivity in the bathroom sphere – furthered Dornbracht’s design process and enabled the brand to meet new cultural movements. Technology, particularly, has acted as a catalyst for a number of its health-driven systems, including the Ambience Tuning Technique, which measures lighting and temperature using a nanotech control system, responding to guest demand for sensory experiences. Likewise, the lie-down Horizontal Shower enable users to enjoy individual treatments with choreographed balancing, invigorating or relaxing effects. Despite their differing functions, all of the releases cultivate hydrotherapy – or Kneipp therapy – with technology their driving force.

“Focusing on hotels, we see that the spa area is becoming just as important as the restaurant and the bar,” explains Christian Sieger. “This creates a driving element for the bathroom as guests are realising that they need somewhere to recharge, especially in the Western world where we have the capacity, time and money to think about our health.” Looking ahead, Dornbracht predicts further immersion into technology and the in-room spa, and envisions a growing demand for holistic experiences through health-oriented bathroom and spa design. Reacting to the mega-trend, the brand showcased Life Spa – a carefully curated selection of matching products and applications arranged in a trail and placed in open architecture – at ISH 2017. Merging connectivity and health through its Smart Water ideology, while introducing updatable hard and software for its shower systems and fittings, the choreographed treatments can augment a user’s personal health strategy and in the long term, make a relevant contribution to improving wellbeing.

With plans to magnify its focus on integrated tech and wellness, the significance of water efficiency too has emerged a potential hurdle. Fuelled by its commitment to sustainability and water knowledge, a self-enforced responsibility that aims to care for the planet’s water, Dornbracht has responded by reducing its water usage by 30% in the last six years – aided significantly by cutting 80% of water used during its manufacturing process. An ideology of sustainability has also inspired the brand to investigate grey water recycling and reuse strategies, in which hotels could manage water consumption through Dornbracht technology. “We foresee that for the hospitality industry, which we have discussed with various hotel operators, guests could be given a water budget. We are not talking about penalising, but incentivising, using our faucets to measure usage levels,” continues Dornbracht. “However, this requires additional investment, and many are simply shying away from the idea right now.”

Individual rituals shape the bathroom of today and tomorrow for Dornbracht, and with wellness its cultural focal point today, the shack-operator-turned-market-leader must look to balance pioneering technology with sustainability in order to succeed in a society where water and sqaure footage are becoming increasingly precious commodities. Dornbracht concludes: “The focus used to be very much on the hardware – the product and the architecture. The major challenge for the future is to go beyond this and occupy ourselves with the software – the water.” www.dornbracht.com

sources: Sleeper, 01-02, 2018

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