Finalist

Sculture-bath

Designed by: José Manuel Ribeiro de Aguiar and Cristina Alexandra Santos (Portugal)

Sculture-bath 1

We were looking for a unique bathroom, in a single piece, a single space, questioning the space’s daily use… both in the future and for today… we discover that we want objects forming a part and parts forming one object.

The bathroom should be a space: however, is the space formed by walls? Will be the sanitary fixture still a be a fixture?

Function and form united at their maximum limit offer the best of architecture and design… a space formed by the parts themselves. In use, a sink will always be a sink; it is not this that we intend to modify. We do not question the items as identity, as objects, they are not our goal; what concerns us is the space which creates the link, the relation with its occupants...

We occupy the items themselves, we live inside them, we use them on the inside and on the outside, from the inside and from the outside. This is our goal: our unit, the bathroom, the bath in the room...

A sculpture, adapted to the body, that looks the organic form, is fixed with sensuality to the person. The space is not delimited, there is neither an interior nor an exterior, the notion of privacy is modified – what type of privacy we want when we are in a hotel? – the door is banished, the window also disappears, the taps and the accessories that we know don’t have any reason to exist...

We are, then, reduced – we are naked!!!!

Its form is born of the needs of the pieces: three moments, three functions – sink, bathtub/shower and WC – compose and decompose the space, there are no walls to which to connect, not even a floor for support. The piece is the sanitary pieces and vice versa.

The organic space thus obtained allows for constant pleasure and delight at every moment. This isn’t just a “bathroom”; it’s also a sofa, a bed, a bench, a dressing-room or a stage… the “inside/outside” relation makes it possible, through distinct, positive/negative experiences, to create visual shades, unique sensations.

But in this very plasticity there exists order, logic. The possibility of mass production...is wanted, needed... changing the exception to the rule.... one unique bathroom repeated...

Three sizes, XL, L and M form the shape... with different space requirements, one sort of “Scale to fit” model... the biggest one is restricted to a 2.5 x 4.8 m rectangle.

The stability of the piece is obtained through fullness and emptiness... as if it had been excavated and glued elsewhere to obtain balance.

And when questioned about the materials used, the answer was clear: ceramics.

After all they are all ceramic pieces.... ceramic pieces that are extended and enlarged to form the space. A smooth shining white colour on the outside and textured shining white finishing on the inside.