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“Blue space” concept Schmutz & Partner design for Duravit in NYC

For the first time ever, a bathroom manufacturer is opening its doors in Madison Avenue, the centre of New York’s fashion mile, where all famous fashion designers have a shop. Baths, washbasins and wellness products are flaunted with confidence between clothes and suits – the bold statement of a bathroom supplier wishing to take its place in a world of fashion, glamour and lifestyle products. “The bathroom is currently undergoing a major transformation and, as a ‘private spa’, is becoming a primary consideration for living and furnishing specialists”, explains management board chairman, Franz Kook, Duravit’s decision: “In contrast to the complex demands of everyday life, it offers the modern user the desired space for relaxation and regeneration.” Bold design has become Duravit’s hallmark, both in terms of products and communication. To ensure that the showroom in NYC was in keeping with this illustrious location, Duravit collaborated with Stuttgart-based architects Schmutz & Partner who, in an experimental approach, designed the showroom’s 590 square metres display area as a “blue space”. A room with its own inherent movement that is not meant to be a room at all. because, according to the architects: “We have built a mood and not a formal idea.”

Dissolving spatial boundaries

As the exact house number of the showroom wasn’t known at the start of the design work, the architects started with the idea of creating a concept inspired by the desired atmosphere for the
objects on display rather than by any formal idea for a specific space. Which features are not derived primarily from the location and can be carried over to a greater, overall concept? The architects’ answer: water, light, texture and colour. They thus decided to move away from the regimented and, as far as possible, to use these components to dissolve the spatial boundaries and create a comprehensive, complete experience: a floating, apparently weightless atmosphere. This experimental design idea attempts to create a flowing, floating space with an atmosphere evoking endless expanses ahead – a suitable analogy for a manufacturer whose products give expression to the encounter with the element water. Taking all this into account, the architects presented a design concept consisting of four components:
1. Floating wall
2. D-cubes
3. Benches
4. Bay windows


1. Floating wall

Floating walls to create a sense of unlimited possibilities

In order to create a feeling of floating, weightlessness and vastness, existing spatial boundaries have to be dissolved. This creates the idea of removing the traditional boundaries between wall, floor and ceiling. Haunches transform the spatial boundaries into flowing areas. The result is an apparently endless background, a “seamless” space
that generates a sense of vastness, water, sky and air. Together, these features can be implemented and comprehended on a supracultural basis. And the only suitable colour for this representation is blue.

Blue as poetic dimension of the endless space

However, it wasn’t easy finding exactly the right tone of blue. In order to find just the right blue, the architects and the Duravit marketing team tested different blue tones and textures in various lighting situations on large areas of different room models on a scale of 1:1. “Not many would have been prepared to go to such lengths”, acknowledged the architects. The search for different materials and textiles for the floor, wall and ceiling also posed a particular challenge. Finally, the solution was a somewhat understated blue that evokes wide spaces and creates just the right mood at the same time as forming the perfect setting for the white ceramic lustre.

2. D-cubes

Fragmentary composition with D-cubes

Angular room fragments, so-called D-cubes, which can be adapted with flexibility to the specific character of the individual product ranges, are ideal for presenting bathroom objects in the context of interior environments. Glass or textile boundaries can be introduced between the floor area and the projecting roof. All inside surfaces of the D-cubes can be finished with different materials and surfaces in order to meet the changing requirements of future living environments.

On the inside, the supporting rear walls of the D-cubes are used to display bathroom scenarios. Facing the street, they are also media installations for
the visual and atmospheric presentation of Duravit AG. As media walls, they show passers-by changing series of motifs and themed displays. For the opening, they initially feature a range of portraits that refer to the Duravit brand’s current advertising strategy. The three D-cubes are also stacked vertically to create a deliberate interplay of visual elements and those that are artfully concealed in order to arouse the curiosity of passers-by and to encourage them overcome any feelings of apprehension they may have and to step inside.

3. Benches

Inspiration from the sea

Presentation and consultation benches are placed between the cubes as communication points. “These are island-like elements that we’ve always regarded as a sort of driftwood”, explain the architects. In accordance with this idea, these furniture elements are made of anthracite-coloured oak. The horizontal “cut surfaces” can be used as display cases and, in various layers, as communication levels. They have a coated glass surface with a night-blue light shining through that reflects the surrounding room structure.

4. Bay windows

Windows on the horizon

Specially moulded “openings on the horizon” serve as a background for presenting products from the various ceramic ranges in different ways. The special moulding of the wall surfaces creates slits of light that enable a specific, individual lighting mood and the illumination of separate product groups. In the ceiling area of the blue shell, three oval openings – each located on the points of intersection between upright props, supporting beams and secondary beams – reveal the existing building structure and so create a link with the building’s own support structure. They are also used to house air-conditioning, sprinkler and further lighting installations. The interplay of light and shadow is further enhanced by light slits in the rear wall of the flowing space that allow the different times of day to show through. A steel staircase leads along this rear wall, across an open gallery used for special occasions and through the oval opening in the ceiling to the upper floor. The administration and training rooms are located here.

Inspired by open spaces

The overall room concept is the result of two, initially apparently contradictory ideas: firstly, the development of a universal and unmistakeable expression of space that is perfectly tailored to Duravit’s requirements and product diversity and, secondly, the unique location, New York City, and a design that is in keeping with the buildings of this city. The concept transcends the traditional way in which space is structured. The exterior is still recognisable. The interior, the inside shell, however, is designed in such a way that the spatial boundaries simply dissolve. This gives the products and their specific environments sufficient space to develop in their own unique atmosphere. Vastness, superposition and de-limitation are the model for the “blue space” in New York – the showroom for Duravit and its living bathrooms.

Duravit New York will be a first port of call for bathroom design in New York City. Customers, architects, dealers and specifiers are all encouraged to visit and to make appointments for an in-depth consultation.

Duravit New York
105 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10016
info@us.duravit.com
www.duravit.us

Daily hours: Monday - Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

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