For this year’s ISH in Frankfurt am Main, Laufen put the spotlight on design and hygiene along with highly functional and sustainable bathroom solutions…
Laufen has developed new possibilities for its SaphirKeramik, one of the most exciting bathroom material innovations of recent years. This particularly slim-profile and robust material has revolutionised the conventions of bathroom design, kick-starting a trend towards a lighter styling with a more pronounced graphic aesthetic.
Laufen is now working with the fourth generation of SaphirKeramik, showcasing in addition to its form and aesthetics some inspiring new possibilities for this material. Now that the Swiss bathroom brand has perfected the industrial process used to manufacture SaphirKeramik, it is able to offer new takes on the humble washbasin and even new applications for it, for example double washbasins in single-washbasin sizes, washbasin bowls with an integral overflow, or freestanding washbasins with a minimal footprint – new ideas that are simply unthinkable with conventional ceramic bathroom products.
To implement its design ideas, Laufen works with internationally celebrated designers such as Marcel Wanders, Patricia Urquiola and Konstantin Grcic. The result? Stunning yet practical everyday products for the bathroom environment that offer designers and architects exciting new opportunities when it comes to creating high-end bathrooms.
Laufen is building on the success of its shower toilets with a new version that focuses very much on the user benefits and concentrates on keeping the user interface as efficient as possible.
Image credit: Laufen
Taking responsibility for the future
It goes without saying that Laufen is also taking responsibility for the company’s impact on people and the environment, because the rational use of water and recycling wastewater are fundamental to our future and represent significant challenges and opportunities. To this end, the bathroom products manufacturer has begun a fruitful cooperation with EOOS to develop the Austrian design company’s revolutionary proposal for a new kind of waste-sorting WC (developed for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) into a marketable product. At ISH, Laufen presented this ground-breaking innovation that is set to revolutionise the sanitary industry and relieve pressure on the existing wastewater infrastructure in fast-growing cities all over the world.
Laufen has also formalised its responsibility for its use of resources and environmental impact in a new environmental product declaration (EPD). For this, the company has completed certification of the environmental quality of its complete ceramics range across all of its Central European manufacturing plants in accordance with ISO14025, EN15804 and EN16578.
The connected bathroom
Laufen is also busy developing trendsetting new bathroom networking and digitalisation ideas. In this area, the bathroom specialist is focusing on public and semi-public sanitary areas, where networked concepts bring the greatest benefits. The company now offers a complete solution for networking electronic washbasin faucets and urinal and shower controls in public facilities. And when it comes to incorporating elegant and discreet digital functionality in private bathrooms, true to form, Laufen has successfully combined technology with aesthetics.
In addition, the company has been working on improving and expanding its existing range, adding new products and new options in just about every area in its bid to offer bathroom designers more freedom and bathroom users superior benefits and greater choice.
Product innovations
The New Classic by Marcel Wanders
The New Classic is a new bathroom collection by Laufen. The celebrity designer Marcel Wanders was engaged to re-interpret classical styles using the material SaphirKeramik. Every item included in the ensemble brings together the designer’s flair and creativity with Laufen’s mastery of raw materials. The New Classic range encompasses washbasins, bowl washbasins, toilets, a bidet and bathtub, faucets, mirrors and accessories, as well as furniture. This individualistic collection won the iF Design Award 2019 for its sensual combination of aesthetics and function.
Image credit/caption: The New Classic in collaboration with Marcel Wanders
The Cleanet Navia shower toilet focuses very much on user benefits and concentrates on keeping the user interface as efficient as possible. With its compact design, simple functions and attractive price, it is suitable for a very broad market. The Navia features the tried-and-tested intuitive operating concept, with a side-mounted controller for the standard functions plus an app to access the full functionality that Laufen previously developed for its popular Cleanet Riva shower toilet.
When it originated Sonar, Laufen focused in particular on exploring the formal scope for new bathroom solutions afforded by SaphirKeramik. The expressive Sonar bathroom collection thus features novel washbasin designs that are simply not possible using conventional bathroom ceramics. Already the winner of an iF Design Award, the collection now offers even greater variety thanks to the addition of more washbasins, WCs, a bidet, a new bathtub and a suite of bathroom furniture, again created by Patricia Urquiola.
Image credit/caption: Laufen’s Sonar in collaboration with Patricia Urquiola
Compact and demanding bathrooms call for intelligent equipment solutions, to make best use of the restricted space without appearing cluttered. The new SaphirKeramik washbasins that Laufen co-developed with designer Konstantin Grcic for the Val bathroom collection take on this challenge in a new and innovative way, concentrating particularly on compact and demanding bathroom layouts.
A 1970s revival is currently sweeping the fashion and furnishing markets – and entering the bathroom as well. But nobody is calling for a renaissance of the harsh colour schemes and frenzied contours that defined the decade – it took many years to rid the world of the final excesses of taste that flourished back then. The modular colour concept and timeless, simple design vocabulary of Kartell by Laufen represents a modern approach to bringing colour into the bathroom while observing the enduring principles of good taste. And with new options available, the possibilities of expression offered by this popular bathroom collection are now greater than ever.
Palace is a timelessly elegant bathroom classic for hotels and architect-designed bathrooms. The collection already enjoys an excellent reputation for problem-solving, flexibility and practicality, and Laufen is consolidating this reputation with the new pre-packed products. These new products include the Palace Slim Packs, comprising a washbasin and vanity unit, and the Palace WC Packs, which bundle every component required for installation in one handy packaged unit.
Laufen has extended its popular Base bathroom furniture range, bringing out new vanity units for the Ino washbasin collection. The now more extensive furniture range is timelessly simple and graceful. The collection features Laufen’s trademark attention to detail in carefully thought-through functionality, high-quality materials and an up-to-the-minute colour scheme.
With Leelo, Laufen has added to its existing mirror offer to create a flexible collection of mirrors that bring comfort and light into the bathroom. Leelo features a range of sizes and versions, each of which matches individually with a variety of bathroom designs and ambiances. Because of its understated styling, Leelo can be combined with all of Laufen’s bathroom series and bathroom furniture ranges.
The New Classic faucets by Marcel Wanders
In his creations for the new faucet line The New Classic, Marcel Wanders finds the perfect balance between an innovative design and an archetype for a cosmopolitan and diverse lifestyle – and takes the bathroom user on a journey to a bygone age. This versatile and technologically advanced range comfortably covers every bathroom requirement.
Sense faucets
A confident and gracious silhouette is the dominant design feature of the new Laufen Sense bathroom faucet line. With its extremely precise design vocabulary, the complete faucet range cuts an impressive figure, both in the private residential property and in the premium hotel and hospitality sectors.
Innovations
The Save! waste-separating WC
The Austrian design studio EOOS, Eawag (the Swiss Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology) and Laufen have joined forces to develop the ground breaking Save! urine-separating WC that is set to revolutionise the user interface in sustainable urban water management thanks to a new kind of passive separation technique. The Save! waste-separating WC is the next step in a concept developed by EOOS and Eawag with the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as part of the ‘Reinvent the Toilet Challenge’.
Laufen Advanced Control
Laufen’s Advanced Control concept improves hygiene, reduces response times, enhances services and decreases water and energy consumption, thus saving costs in public and semi-public washrooms. Starting from summer 2019, a cloud solution that networks smart washrooms and transfers data to building management systems will also be available.
Bespoke design
Specially developed tailored products feature precisely the sort of special sophistication in design and functionality that gives high-end interiors their unmistakeably individual character. This is why Laufen has been busy developing its know-how and production capacity to be able to provide bespoke solutions in the bathroom too. To this end, the company works closely with designers and architects all over the world who are looking for a customer-tailored solution for a building project. The most recent example of this is Omniturm in Frankfurt am Main, for which Laufen worked closely with the architects and project managers to develop special bespoke vanity units.
Laufen’s new products and innovations were showcased on its spectacular stand in Hall 3.1, Stand B51, for which the company has employed the talents of internationally renowned Swiss architects Andreas Fuhrimann and Gabrielle Hächler. The two architects have been instrumental in creating a stand that reflects the roots of the Swiss brand while making it clear from the moment one sets foot inside that Laufen is one of the most influential bathroom fixtures and fittings companies in the world.
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