By Pop up my Bathroom
Published March 16, 2021
Home has never played a more valuable role in personal quality of life than it does today. Lockdown, uncertainty, home office and home schooling, restrictions on our mobility and social life – there’s no question that all these things are easier to compensate for and cope with in a spacious and attractively designed living environment than in cramped, unsatisfactory surroundings. As working from home and mobile working become more widespread, our focus is shifting to our own four walls as the epicentre of our lives – and that will have a lasting impact on the home setting. And that means contemporary architecture will have to satisfy new requirements.
Putting the home office and balcony aside for a moment, where are significant improvements in the quality of living space feasible in the short term? It will take structural changes to provide bigger floor plans and more greenery – and that kind of change doesn’t just take time, it can only be achieved by increasing per-capita living space and more urban sprawl.
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For the ISH digital 2021 trade fair that runs March 22 – 26, communications platform Pop up my Bathroom is presenting three long-term trends for planning and designing bathrooms. Every day, the industry platform initiated by the German Bathroom Sector Association (Vereinigung Deutsche Sanitärwirtschaft e.V. [VDS]) and Messe Frankfurt will be broadcasting live from the ISH digital TV studio in Frankfurt. This year’s programme covers the combined interests of architects, bathroom planners and fitters. There will also be a hybrid format featuring three physical trend installations that visitors can explore interactively.
The goal of the event, that shall run digitally due to efforts to combat the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, is to provide five days of networking for exhibitors, visitors, experts and journalists, as well as top-quality content and an extensive supporting programme.
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Bathroom refurbishment and new bathroom concepts to meet growing demand for a comfortable home
Inside | Outside – Pop up my Bathroom ISH 2021 digital
But there are alternatives. One area that still has considerable potential for enhancing the quality of our living space is the bathroom. It provides space for retreat, for structuring everyday life and relaxing. When it comes to existing buildings, the bathroom is a refurbishment market with a great deal of pent-up demand. According to a survey on behalf of the German Bathroom Sector Association (VDS), 16.7 million Germans are planning to invest in their bathrooms in the near future – and 6.2 million are even planning a complete overhaul. The challenge here is to find intelligent systems that can be integrated into the existing fabric as efficiently and gently as possible.
The future belongs to concepts that integrate what’s in front of the wall with what’s behind it
In new builds, however, it’s possible to satisfy the growing demand for bathroom concepts that convey a cosy, natural atmosphere and can be linked with smart luxury and sustainable construction. Now is the time for progressive solutions from architects and bathroom planners! Under the motto Inside | Outside, Pop up my Bathroom – the information platform for creative bathroom planning, architecture and design – is raising awareness of the necessary symbiosis between lifestyle-oriented bathroom products in front of the wall and innovative installation systems behind it.
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The trends in bathroom design: Green, Smart and Living
It’s not long until the bathroom sector’s leading trade fair, the two-yearly ISH in Frankfurt, opens its doors – this time round as the ISH digital 2021.The industry needs intelligent solutions in order to meet both the demand for refurbishment and people’s growing expectations of sustainability and cosiness. The Pop up my Bathroom trend platform, which the VDS and Messe Frankfurt have been promoting for more than 12 years, has put a great deal of thought into describing and illustrating the most important developments. During the online event, it will be reporting on its findings in a magazine format and presenting the three most important trends in the bathroom for the next few years on the basis of installations. Here they are:
.Smart Bathroom: innovative technology optimises procedures and routines
Rather than showing the bathroom of a distant tomorrow, Pop up my Bathroom portrays the Smart Bathroom equipped with the technical possibilities of our time. Combining products that are already on the market can result in an exemplary .Smart Bathroom: a mirror that doubles as an information centre, smart controls for water applications (shower etc.), app-controlled shower toilets, water at the push of a button, UV-based hygiene functions, an intelligent lighting control system and touchless technologies – in the .Smart Bathroom, such conveniences have long been more than visions of a faraway future. Once and for all, the growth market for smart home technologies has now reached the bathroom as well.
.Green Bathroom: sustainable products, new designs and new material options combine resource conservation with a sense of being close to nature
.Green Bathroom is probably the most important trend of all in terms of its significance for the sector. But the way to a sustainable bathroom isn’t only paved with highly complex technical products and state-of-the-art technologies; products made of natural materials that can be used for many years to come also play a vital role. The .Green Bathroom is a future concept that strives for the optimal combination of smart, water-saving and energy-saving products, eco-friendly industrial production, sustainable materials and enduring design – while simultaneously conveying a sense of being in touch with nature.
.Living Bathroom: the bathroom is increasingly becoming a lifestyle space
The .Living Bathroom is a response to the still-growing demand for an individual, comfortable and cosy wellness retreat in one’s own four walls. The bathroom has undergone a continuous upgrade in recent years. Cosiness, zeitgeist, fashion and style are very much in demand as the cornerstones of a professionally planned bathroom, as are modern usage concepts that enhance the quality of the space and permit health-related activities. The .Living Bathroom features more furniture and more fabrics, is more flexible and more attractive – and there’s no shortage of old bathrooms that are waiting to be kissed awake.
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“While the Living Bathroom trend continues to gain significance due to the shared pandemic experience and the resulting increase in the value placed on the home in general, there are two drivers that are specific to our industry and are likely to influence market shares in favour of the respective product segments,” says Jens J. Wischmann, managing director of the German Bathroom Sector Association (Vereinigung Deutsche Sanitärwirtschaft e.V. [VDS]) of the current trends in the bathroom. “First, growing hygiene awareness; and second, the pent-up demand for refurbishment in both private bathrooms and (semi-) public sanitary facilities. There are a great many old bathrooms waiting to have new life breathed into them. And of course the pandemic is having an impact when it comes to bathrooms too, and sensitising people to hygiene-related aspects.”
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