(Pre-)View at Bathrooms of the Year 2020, part 2:
Business Nomads Treading New Paths
What is it that determines architecture and bathroom design in the year 2020? GROHE dealt with this question in a scientific way and developed a range of scenarios. With orientation at different target groups, corresponding concepts were developed. A special focus lay on the so-called „Best Agers“, the „Luxury Ascetics“ and the „Business Nomads“.
For the business nomad, lifestyle and work at the beginning of the third decade of the 21st century form a union. He is, however, highly flexible in both areas. This is because every work place, to him, is but a temporary stage – just like the dwelling providing him with a home for a short time-span.
The business nomad of the year 2020 gets accustomed easily anywhere and everywhere, he is here today, there tomorrow and at home everywhere - at the penthouse provided by the employer, for instance. Through the large-scale window fronts all around, the business nomad always keeps an eye on what is going on. The novel glazing, at the same time, allows the necessary seclusion, if he wishes for it – within an instant, lighting effects, atmospheric pictures and scenical impressions can be projected onto it. The basic program of equipment and decoration is individualized quickly by everyone who moves in new. Display picture-frames as well as odour and sound fragments contribute to this.
All rooms are clearly structured, especially the bathroom. Wash basin, shower and the spacious relaxing pool are designed unobtrusively, yet highly individual and exquisite. The multi-media display has its say via the mirror – the organizer faded in reminds you of upcoming appointments. In order to take out the bathroom utensils, shampoos and cremes stored in the mirror cupboard, you just let the mirror, divided into two elements, glide to the left and the right.
The cleaning of the wash basin and the shower tub is unnecessary since the self-purifying ceramics take over the major share of the job. And the membrane coming out of the wall, covering the shower and protecting the room from splashes, disappears in the wall directly after the refreshing gush.
The urban-oriented business nomad takes a liking to expressive colours. The playful handling of light balances his tendency towards a rather “cool“ furniture. The traditional division of rooms into various areas of living is hardly a subject for discussion. Living, sleeping, enjoyment and bathing merge. In a figurative and literal sense, the new architecture breaks down the walls between these worlds. This applies for the smaller as well as the larger context: To a cosmopolitan who is at home everywhere, borders and distances are losing importance.
