productos Dornbracht - The BSC Group of Company

DORNBRACHT the SPIRITof WATER MEM
INVITATION TO LINGER A WHILE
The world of MEM is presented in an ideal environment
that no longer has anything in common
with the white tiled six-and-a-half-square-metre
wet room which has established itself in our latitudes
as the standard bathroom. Hitherto in the
ground plan architects have largely assigned this to
a residual area along the only installation wall –
the design of the area should be cost-effective and
above all functional, as after all no visitor ever saw
it. Why should any importance be attached to generous
proportions, demanding materials or adequate
lighting in the bathroom, which, unlike the
living room or kitchen, is not intended to be shown
to guests. Because the bathroom is the only area
where you can rest undisturbed and where the priority
is your own physical and mental wellbeing.
Mike Meiré gave people and their ritual of cleansing
centre stage in his considerations on MEM, a
creation by Sieger Design – and ahead of the concrete
product development created a totally new
bathroom architecture. Kristina Raderschad talking
to Mike Meiré.
K.R.: What was the starting point for you in your
considerations of the MEM fittings series developed
by Sieger Design?
M.M.: Several years ago as part of the “Energetic
Recovery System” I designed a sort of pipeline,
as an outline of an idea of the bathroom of the
future. I realized that there were other levels of
cleansing that the bathroom should provide: a
mental cleansing in addition to the purely physical.
A level transcending wellness in the normal
sense, over and above body treatments, applied
from the outside: it is much more a matter of a
healing process, restoring balance, replenishing
one with new power and energy. Only when the
bathroom fulfils these ideal functions does it
become a cultural place.
K.R.: What is necessary to create the kind of bathroom
that allows the regeneration of body and mind?
M.M.: The bathroom is the only place in the house
that gives you the opportunity to withdraw inside
yourself, find peace, come to terms with yourself.
And so the aspect of dematerializing was important
to me, a spiritual void in place of a cluttered
space. Space itself is defined as the most precious
commodity that remains untouched as far as possible,
but is charged with atmosphere. I designed a
room with generous proportions in which the products
withdraw from view. Here, neither the ground
plan design nor the illustrated furnishing elements
are to be taken dogmatically. They function, quite
the contrary, as the placeholders of an idea. Any
form of design must be restrained in order to create
peace. I can only find myself, turn myself inside
out, as it were, in a room that is as neutral as possible,
that does not make any formal aesthetic
statement to divert or burden me.
MEM Ritual Architecture
K.R.: So the bathroom becomes a kind of monastery
cell?
M.M.: The basic idea is very similar, but without the
aspect of self-mortification and total isolation from the
outside world. In my design I do not exclude the complexity
of the world, quite the opposite, I integrate its
poetic quality into the interior design – and create a
vista from the bathroom into a kind of Garden of Paradise
symbolizing the diversity of the world. What is
produced, therefore, is a form of minimalism but which
simultaneously allows a form of poetry from everyday
life: a room that is empty and yet sensual. The bathroom
becomes a kind of capsule where you can stop
and stay – and spend more than just ten minutes.
K.R.: What – apart from the Garden of Paradise
already mentioned – are the essential elements of
your room concept?
M.M.: The architecture should as far as possible be
plain, hence the decision for a rectangular floor
plan. Without being diverted to the right or left,
you can walk through the room, which is arranged
on the basis of a fixed sequence of daily cleansing
rituals. If you go through these rituals more conscientiously
it becomes a form of meditation and they
therefore are the key to your well-being. Along the
wall a linear washstand with a generously proportioned
shelf leads into the room. This is where the
ritual of grooming and beauty-care takes place. On
the front wall of the room a bath tub is set in the
floor. Bathing becomes a ritual: instead of stepping
up into the tub, you let yourself – as in old mansions
– glide down into the base. Warm water
comes bubbling out of the wall like out of a spring
feeding into the tub. A gentle shower rains down
from above, from a shower that is no longer recog-
nisable as such. Reduced to a rectangular plate
integrated into the ceiling, the product is only defined
as an interface in the architecture. From the
tub, the view leads into an atrium with the aforementioned
Garden of Paradise. After bathing you
sit on the wooden bench next to the basin. The
awaiting cushion and the incense stick invite you
to a ritual of relaxation: you light one of the incense
sticks, direct your attention to the few important
architectural details, take the time to observe,
reflect and relax. Here what matters is not
the actual cushion or incense stick, but the question:
can you create a room which allows ideal
functions, such as pausing and reflecting – can you
create a room which invites raising consciousness?
K.R.: In this context what role does the light play
that shines down through what appears to be randomly
arranged circular holes in the ceiling?
M.M.: The circular “light holes” in the ceiling
point in the same direction: if you sit down on the
daybed – which also seems to float, to accentuate
the lightness you feel after bathing, the relief
from everyday life, a kind of floating feeling –
they express an invitation to reflect and meditate.
Anyone who has ever lain on the hot marble table
in the middle of an oriental hammam, looking at
the ceiling that is perforated with innumerable,
sometimes coloured, glass light apertures is familiar
with the unbelievably calming, almost
hypnotic effect. In general, light is of crucial importance
in a room where we want to feel good
even when naked, which we enter first thing in
the morning and last thing at night. Different
lighting scenarios respond to the various moods
in the morning and evening – sometimes light is
stimulating, sometimes relaxing.
INVITO ALL’INDUGIO
Il mondo di MEM è presentato in un ambiente
ideale, completamente diverso dal locale da
6,5 m 2 piastrellato di bianco, tipico dello standard
occidentale. Finora gli architetti nei progetti generalmente
gli dedicavano uno spazio ricavato lungo
l’unica parete sfruttabile e lo allestivano all’insegna
dell’economicità e soprattutto della funzionalità,
perché tanto nessun ospite lo vedeva. Perché
in bagno bisognerebbe porre l’accento sulla grandezza,
su materiali pregiati o su una buona illuminazione,
se esso, contrariamente al soggiorno o
alla cucina, non svolge alcuna funzione rappresentativa?
Perché il bagno è l’unica stanza dove ci si
può occupare di se stessi, indisturbati e in tutta
tranquillità, dove ci si può concentrare sul proprio
benessere fisico e spirituale. Mike Meiré ha posto
l’uomo e i rituali del bagno al centro delle sue riflessioni
sul mondo MEM, creato da Sieger Design,
e, prima di dedicarsi allo sviluppo concreto
dei prodotti, ha ideato un’architettura assoluta-
DORNBRACHT the SPIRITof WATER MEM
Meditation place Washstand in front of Garden of Eden
mente innovativa per questo spazio. Intervista di
Kristina Raderschad a Mike Meiré.
K.R.: Qual è stato per lei il punto di partenza per
le riflessioni sulla serie di rubinetterie MEM, create
da Sieger Design?
M.M.: Qualche anno fa, nell’ambito dell’ “Energetic
Recovery System”, ho sviluppato una specie di
canalizzazione che doveva schematizzare l’idea
del bagno del futuro. Mi sono reso conto allora che
esiste un’altra concezione di questo spazio, da cui
non si può prescindere: alla pulizia del corpo si
affianca la purificazione dello spirito. Gesti che
vanno oltre il benessere inteso nel senso comune
del termine, quindi si spingono oltre la cura del
corpo: ben più di un processo di guarigione e di
riequilibrio per riprendere forza e attingere nuova
energia. Solo se svolge queste funzioni ideali, il
bagno diventa un luogo culturale.
K.R.: Come deve essere l’allestimento di un bagno
che consente la rigenerazione del corpo e dello spirito?
M.M.: Il bagno è l’unico luogo della casa che offre
la possibilità di ritirarsi in se stessi, di trovare pace e
concentrazione. Tanto da suggerirmi l’idea della
smaterializzazione, cioè di un vuoto spirituale che si
sostituisce a un luogo stipato di oggetti. Lo spazio in
quanto tale si definisce come bene prezioso, intoccabile
per quanto possibile, ma carico di atmosfera. Ho
concepito una zona di ampio respiro, in cui gli oggetti
passano in secondo piano dal punto di vista
ottico. Non conviene dunque procedere all’interpretazione
dogmatica della strutturazione del progetto
o degli elementi di arredo rappresentati. Essi svolgono,
al contrario, la funzione di simboli di un’idea.
Ogni forma di design deve annientarsi per dare libero
sfogo alla tranquillità. Posso trovare me stesso,
ovvero estrinsecare il mio intimo solo in uno spazio
neutrale al massimo, senza espressioni estetiche formali
che mi distraggano o mi reprimano.
K.R.: Il bagno allora diventa una sorta di cella conventuale?
M.M.: L’idea di fondo è molto simile, ma senza
l’aspetto dell’autopunizione e del completo isolamento
dal mondo esterno. Il mio progetto non
esclude la complessità del mondo, ma al contrario
integra le sue qualità poetiche nella concezione di
spazio, per creare dal bagno una visuale su una
sorta di giardino paradisiaco che simboleggia la
molteplicità del mondo. Ne scaturisce una forma di
minimalismo che però contempla al tempo stesso
una sorta di poesia del quotidiano; una stanza, sì
vuota, ma tuttavia sensuale. Il bagno diventa una
specie di cella, in cui potersi fermare e sostare – e
trascorrere ben più di dieci minuti.
MEM RITUAL ARCHITECTURE
A bath tub sunk into the
sandstone floor with a small
seating area “on the bank”,
nature integrated into the
bathroom as a Garden of
Eden for mind and soul, coloured
light as an expression
of natural moods and a
couch which seems to float –
and with its airiness invites
you to dream.
Vasca annegata nel pavimento
in grès con una piccola
seduta sul bordo, natura
integrata nel bagno come
giardino dell’Eden per l’anima
e lo spirito, luce colorata che
accompagna atmosfere naturali
e una poltrona che sembra
galleggiare, la cui leggerezza
invita al sogno.
Una bañera encajada en el
suelo de gres con una
pequeña área de asiento
“a la orilla”, naturaleza integrada
en el baño en forma
de Jardín del Edén para el
espíritu y el alma, luz de
colores como si se estuviera
aludiendo a los estados de
humor naturales y una tumbona
que parece flotar – y
que con su ligereza invita
a soñar.
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