The bathroom is one of our most important sources for regeneration and personal renewal, and that centre for wellbeing can manifest in many different ways: bold in personality, a space of subtle refinement, earthy, organic, opulent and elevated. Whatever the direction that your bathroom might take, its the orchestration of surface finishes and bathroom furniture that brings your unique concept into being.
New directions in bathroom design are seeing architects and designers adopt a sophisticated approach to materiality, harnessing natural stone to bring new dimension to a space through sophisticated surface treatments across vanities, flooring and walls.
A clever interplay of textures is achieved by applying different surface finishes to singular materials; or in other cases selecting natural stones that offer multi-dimensional patterns and striations accentuated by naturally occurring tones of pinks, greens, greys and more – the colour possibilities can be quite extraordinary.
Stone is wonderfully diverse as a bathroom material, stepping up the sense of opulence for a really luxurious space, or cleverly connecting the individual back to nature in a restful, retreat-like way.
Of equal importance is your bathroom furniture, the main pieces, the purveyors of wellbeing, that quickly become the centrepiece of your bathing zone, and around which the rest of the bathroom’s design revolve.
Italian bathroom brand Agape, encapsulates the essence of Italian-ness, bringing this together with its distinctly architectural ethos to create bathroom furniture pieces that are at once artful, yet restrained and always sophisticated.
Agape’s basin and bath collections empathetically respond to our needs and wants: hygiene and beauty blended together into an elevated story of wellness and rejuvenation. These design-led pieces command their space through artistic and sculptural forms, while delivering on function with joy, curiosity and an artful eye.
Agape accessories, too, offer an opportunity to not only acquire a piece of timeless design by the likes of Konstantin Grcic and Benedini Associati (both Agape collaborators), but to elevate the bathroom environment with a distinctly architectural dialogue – both visually pleasing and intuitively useful as you move about your everyday bathing functions.
Here we gather together 7 of our most popular natural stones and bathroom centrepieces for a modern and joyful bathroom experience.
1. Agape Bjhon 1 Basin
Bjhon Basins, conceived by Angelo Mangiarotti in 1970, extend the Agape bathing dialogue from indoors to out. This fabulously sculptural, yet eminently functional freestanding basin can be made in marble or stone – or using an advanced technological material, Cristalplant® biobased – for indoors. And for an outdoor bathing zone, Agape recommends a Petit Granit marble or Cemento finish.
2. Agape Immersion Bath
This bath is designed by Neri & Hu, whose uniquely global worldview sees the studio blend East and West influences as well as design disciplines to establish a new paradigm in architecture. This beautiful Immersion Bath, inspired by traditional timber bathing vessels used in Japan and China, offers a new and very enticing view on everyday bathing.
3. Agape Vieques Bath
First created for the W Hotel, a wellbeing oasis at Vieques Island, the Vieques Bath by Patricia Urquiola is now available to anyone looking to create their own wellbeing retreat. Teak accessories complement the bath, and you can create a wholistic Vieques experience by choosing the Vieques Pedestal or Counter Top basin, too.
4. Agape Sen Shelves, Tapware and Accessories
Sen is a clever execution of bathroom accessories, solving the need for multiple functions in a single, essential line that houses independent components. These components can be freely combined while appearing cohesive thanks to Sen’s combination of Eastern spirit and Western technology. The outcome is a distinctive, quite architectural statement which is impressively versatile.
5. Agape Pear Basin
Patricia Urquiola’s Pear Basin is designed with soft yet clean lines, inspired by nature. The two-colour version of the Pear Basin, with white inside and dark grey outside, gives your bathroom an almost optical look.
6. Agape Vitruvio Mirrors
Bringing a sense of theatre to your bathroom mirror, García Cumini’s Vitruvio mirror presents as a circle inscribed in a square. Very classic, quite contemporary – dynamic when lit, quietly elegant when not.
7. Agape Ottocento Basin
Inspired by forms of the past, interpreted in the light of an essential aesthetic, the Ottocento family encompasses washbasins and bathtubs. The design of these beautiful pieces speak for themselves.
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Words by Alice Blackwood