EOOS designed Duravit’s first sauna
At ISH, the Vienna-based design trio, EOOS, that recently produced some surprising designs for the kitchen, is again making itself heard in the bathroom: EOOS designed “Inipi”, the first sauna from bathroom manufacturer, Duravit, who wants to take the sauna out of the cellar and place it in the bathroom and living area. EOOS and Duravit have invested a total of four years in this project. “When you spend four years developing a project, there’s a danger of losing sight of the soul of the object”, reported Martin Bergmann during a visit to Vienna. However, in this case, the three designers, who specialise in creating designs derived from the energy of archaic role models, did not lose sight of the soul but only actually discovered it during the course of this process. A slow birth that has, however, developed in very clear stages: first there was the room concept, and only then the idea.
New posture concept for the sauna
“Duravit’s briefing was quite simple: we had to create a wellness module to fit a small footprint”, reports Gernot Bohmann. EOOS’s basic approach was simply to take the bathtub out of the bathroom and to replace it with the sauna. “We started by building a box and then deciding what we could actually put in it”, adds Harald Gründl, the third member of EOOS. What emerged at the end of this study was a minimal room that is entirely open on one side and with a rear wall that is completely bathed in light. Taking this right-angle as their starting point, they took a completely innovative approach to the interior. The result: the elements are arranged in a terrace-like layout to create a landscape comprising several levels that divides the benches in a completely new way”. Covering a surface area of 235x117 cm, there is space for a maximum of four people sitting or two people lying. And, people can even sit face to face. However, the main issue wasn’t just the number of people but the quality of the individual postures. Harald Gründl had even conducted extensive research into the extent to which certain postures, when concentrating accordingly, help the individual to move into different levels of consciousness. “However, it’s a very personal thing”, admitted Gründl. In any case, he’s in no doubt that this “sauna posture concept” offers a wider range of postures than the partitioning of conventional saunas.
Opening up the room
Although EOOS had now created enough space for four people, there wasn’t enough room for the heater. EOOS had worked closely with a ventilation engineer on a previous project and “he was used to us and our problems”, reported Bergmann, grinning. They discussed their ideas with him and together then built a prototype for a heater – the first one was nothing more than a pot that was welded closed at the top. This “pot” became the catalyst for the development of a unique technology that is outstanding in the way in which it masters complex functions without making any of them visible. In today’s final version, all units are mounted on a carrier that, as an extension of the side wall, is completely hidden behind a wooden panel. The carrier is designed as a pull-out unit. The control system, heater with ventilation unit and the evaporator are always accessible but never in view. The water tank containing the pouring water is also located here. To summarise: “This meant we finally had the room completely free for the postures concept”.
Searching for a historico-cultural model
Once they had resolved the question of the room concept, they went in search of a historico-cultural model. EOOS: “We looked at how other cultures in the world sweat.” The trio discovered that one element is always identical in all cultures: a stone was heated until it glowed and then rolled with a stag’s antler to the place where the sweating was to take place. “We thought that was a fantastic image and the Lakota Indians in particular have linked it with a totally solemn ritual”, said Bohmann enthusiastically: “For us, this glowing hot stone was what it was all about.” The essence of this ancient ritual or instinct was now to be transformed into new technologies and used in a completely different environment. The result: Today, a sauna session in the Duravit sauna also starts with a stone – in the form of a remote control with display. This is used to operate all functions: temperature, air humidity, coloured light and sound – all settings can be individually adjusted with the “stone”. Favourite combinations of settings can even be saved as user profiles. In addition, pre-set scenarios can be selected for variety. And when the stone is in the charging cradle, a corona effect appears around the stone – the stone is “heated” and supplied with energy.
Horizontal light from the side
EOOS also noticed something else in its search for a historico-cultural model: Whether a hole in the ground or a hut, the chosen locations for the sauna construction always had an opening through which light could enter; in each case, the incidence of the light was from the side and horizontal. This opening served simultaneously as “observation point”. EOOS interpreted this visual contact with the external landscape as an extremely important feature that represented a conscious attempt to establish contact and to communicate with the environment. The designers moved the light to an entire glass wall. Inipi’s entire rear wall is bathed in light; it is illuminated in various colours and radiates light to the front of the sauna. The front pane is also transparent; this offers a permanent view of the external “landscape”.
Bergmann loves this feature, which ensures that the sauna is always in communication with the outer world and dreams of one day installing a sauna in the garden – a garden with a clear view of the Dolomites. Bohmann is a little more pragmatic and would like his sauna to be installed in his office so that the whole team can relax when their day’s work is done. And Harald Gründl? He prefers to have “as few EOOS products as possible” at home. According to his colleagues, a big mistake. Perhaps it’s their differences in opinion that continue to give wings to the trio in their design quest – just like the sun horse in Greek mythology after which the company is named.