 |
Interview with Antonio Citterio |   |
“The feeling of having a proper room, a proper bathroom.”
The Axor Citterio collection has the typically elegant and important signature of the Italian designer, but above all it is characterised by the structured working principles and strong concepts of the architect Antonio Citterio. His holistic approach during the process of designing a concept for a room and a collection is regarded as a milestone in bathroom design. Citterio runs one of the most successful design companies in the world from his base in Milan and has shaped brands such as B&B Italia, Kartell, littala and Flos. His hotel projects for Bulgari are already legendary.
Does the Axor Citterio collection perhaps mark the first time an architect has really thought about the bathroom as a space?
The reason it differs from other designer collections lies in the fact that initially I thought only about the space, and the family of fittings formed part of this spatial concept. My design was aimed more at a solution for the space, rather than a solution for an individual product. This is where principally I see my role – as an inventor of spatial concepts. My industrial design is always about the interior design concept or about a certain type of room, not a solution in detail.
The collection has now been extended yet again …
Yes, this work is a continuous project. We will unveil a further collection in autumn this year and with this further develop the idea of a room concept for the bathroom.
Where will this development lead?
The bathroom is one of the most important rooms in the house, and during the last 10 years there was a drastic change in the vision of the bathroom. In the past the bathroom was for most people only a place where hygienic needs were satisfied, a purely functional room, but today it is a designer room. The functional part is still important, but it has decreased while the water, or rather the space that is taken up by it, has become the actual designer object. I do a lot of hotel projects, and there you can really see what’s it all about.
The comparison of floor plans, one of which depicts the “classical” layout of sanitation products on the wall, demonstrates the advantages of your room concept very clearly. The clear separation between a wellbeing area with bathtub and basin and a needs area with shower and WC comes across as open and liveable due to the transparent division, especially the opening towards the bedroom – an effect which is certainly augmented by the use of high-quality materials.
Absolutely. Of course one could also design nice things using a conventional layout for a room, but this wouldn’t convey the feeling to anybody of having a proper room, a proper bathroom. Nice details do not in themselves result in a beautiful overall picture. In the past, the products stood by themselves, today the individual products have to create an entity. This is my mission in design. I’m working a lot with typologies and solutions – in the areas of bathrooms, kitchens, offices, etc.
Will the general trend towards larger bathrooms continue?
I am planning a lot of apartment projects worldwide, and it is becoming increasingly obvious, that it is exactly these areas – bathrooms and kitchens – where a lot of investment has to be made. And for these needs I develop the appropriate room concept. This “somewhat different” concept for the room and the quality of the interior design will then be determining factors when choosing an apartment.
Interview: Frank A. Reinhardt
Photos: Andreas Körner, ‘Bildhübsche Fotografie’, www.a-koerner.de
|
)
|
)
|
)
|
)
|
)
Copyright 2010 Hansgrohe AG