Bathroom Designs from Käsch
12 December 2008
"Making Prunes"
I have said many times in these blogs that a bathroom should be more than just a place to attend to one’s body. It should be a place to restore one’s soul, a retreat, another world one escapes to whenever one feels the need to do so. But in order for that to happen, we need to elevate our consciousness, to think of a bathroom as being something more than just a bathroom. "Had we but world enough and time," as the poet says, which is a thought that popped into my mind when I saw the subject of today’s blog, because what Käsch has done here is nothing short of transforming a simple bathroom into an entire world of one’s own.
If you are one of those who has a simple tub and shower, or worse, a molded combination shower/tub, what Käsch has come up with for their bathroom designs is nothing short of spectacular. But it brings it back to where I have been trying to go with these blogs. A bathroom can be such a glorious place. The one thing you most need to have for it, of course, is room. But really, for those who have the room for it, the best configuration is a separate tub and shower, which is what they have shown here. Of course, their bathroom design goes considerably beyond a separate tub and shower, primarily because of what they have done with the tubs.
So many people have commented on water’s being elemental to everything we do that I’m a little reluctant to bring it up, but looking at (OK, drooling over) these designs, I was immediately reminded that water is one of the principle ideals in Taoism. Water seeks the lowest level and is humble; it nurtures all life, but does not seek control. Yet, because it is patient, and always acts in accordance with its own inner nature, there is nothing water cannot overcome.
And water restores. The proof of that is in these pictures. Who among us, no matter how difficult the day may have been, can spend half an hour or so in a bathroom like this and not come out again ready for anything the world may have for us?
The heart of these bathroom designs, of course, is the overflowing tubs. I don’t drink sake, but I’m told that it is sometimes served in a wooden "masu" cup on a plate. They then pour sake into the cup until it overflows onto the plate; simple abundance. The overflow tubs seem to have that concept in mind. They are designed in such a way that overflowing water is directed back into the tub, and the sound of overflowing water is intended to evoke the image of bathing under a waterfall, hugged by nature, as it were.
The tubs come in various sizes, and some of them, just to add to my envy, are actually spas. They’ve naturally taken that a step further by including LED lighting for Chromotherapy, to go along with the relieving water therapy massage. Finally, despite the obvious newness of this concept, they have rooted it to both the past and to nature by using pebbles in some configurations to surround the tubs. And the flowing water channels used to fill the tubs are nothing short of genius being used to renew the harmony of body and spirit, to soothe, to comfort, to enhance the stillness of one’s soul, to induce serenity.
I know I’ve said it before in these blogs, but whenever I see a bathroom concept like this one, I find myself wondering how the hell these people ever make it out the door to go to work in the morning. And if they do manage to pop into the office for an hour or two, don’t they have some very wrinkled skin?
Joseph
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One Response to “Bathroom Designs from Käsch”
January 7th, 2009 at 2:36 AM
Previously, I commented on your blog and now I can’t resist myself, but to write comment again on your blog. What a beautiful pictures you have uploaded! Not only they are classy by their style, but their selection and presentation. I am watching the pictures again and again, and I wish if I could ever be there within any of these pictures. Really awesome. Thanks Joseph.