DORNBRACHT - Butterfly Trading

DORNBRACHT the SPIRITof WATER Tara
There are two fundamentally different types of
product. Some are rather loud and obvious, and
force you to notice them. The other sort of object
is simply there. It takes some time to notice it,
because one of its more important qualities is
that you believe that you have always known it,
radiating peace and implicitness. Tara is one such
item. It is a fitting that in just a few years has
become an icon. Tara is the product range created
by Dornbracht with Sieger Design at the start of
the 90s which has inspired architects, designers
and developers around the world. Tara is an item
that inspires with its simplicity and clarity.
Water is an ambivalent material which many life
forms rely on for existence. Humans, too, consist
primarily of water. However, too much water occurring
suddenly or without restraint can bring
devastation and death. Humans have therefore
always attempted to restrain it, store and direct it.
The tap, a fitting for controlling the flow of water
in our own homes, is the most visible expression
of a range of civilising achievements. Tara is a
monument raised to this ingenious human achievement,
which can be used every day.
The book “Tara – Armatur und Archetypus” (Tara
– Fitting and Archetype) illuminates different
aspects of our contact with water. Leafing
through, the eye is caught by images from the New
York photographer Jesse Frohman, in which Tara
gradually becomes detached from its familiar
environment in the bathroom and kitchen, and
is connected more and more with contrasting
backgrounds and materials. Screws, worked and
weathered stones and wooden beams, and workshop
containers: a tension exists between the perfect,
high-gloss, industrial product and the results
of age, destruction and patina, which look perfect
in a completely different way.
Yet however bewitching the images are, this is no
standard book of design images with brief descriptions.
In fact, this large-format book on Tara
pays homage in a more discreet way, by letting
distinguished authors, architects and critics speak.
In his contribution on “Stainless Steel and Ecstasy
of Form”, the renowned art critic Bazon Brock
tells of the origins of purism as an artistic principle
that, in many areas of life, represents purity
and a turning away from tradition. But he also
speaks of the ambivalence of purism: “Since then,”
writes Brock, “one has become aware that there
can be no such radical, puristic implementation of
formal logical form or contrast with historical
structures or artefacts.”
The Swiss architecture critic Köbi Gantenbein
remembers the time when a private bathroom was
anything but standard, even in our part of the
world. Gantenbein invented the imaginary figure
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“Some objects are simply there” // “Certi oggetti semplicemente esistono” // “Algunos objetos simplemente
están ahí”
Max Bär, who, happily splashing, ponders on
bathing and water and the future. “If we want to
continue bathing, we must think about the world’s
water,” says Bär, and continues “water is not a
moral problem, but a global distribution problem.”
The London author Jane Withers examines the
changing attitudes of mind regarding bathroom
design and bathing. Her analysis of the change is
“From function to ritual”. With the improvement
in the standard of western bathrooms, “it is in fact
the West, of all places, that is looking into other
cultures and into the pre-industrial past,” writes
Withers, in order to rediscover a sensuousness that
we have relinquished in favour of simpler ideas
of hygiene. One historical discovery is the text
“The Bath as a Measure of Culture”, by Sigfried
Giedion, who in the 1920s worked as the secretary
of the CIAM, the International Centre of Modern
Architecture, and is known to have pleaded with
one-sided arguments in favour of spreading the
modern style. Indeed Giedion is thinking here of
cultures that do not conceive the bath as “just for
washing or water-sport”. In 1935, he wrote that
“no culture would be able to manage without the
idea of leisure”. He therefore wanted to combine
bathing and leisure as in ancient Rome or in the
Islamic hammam.
So what does this book actually have to do with
Tara? The Hamburg architecture and theatre critic
Till Briegleb describes the departure from the
“expensive bulk made from heavy brass, which suits
oversized necklaces and bling on the tumbler”.
Briegleb recapitulates the ideas and the process
behind the development of Tara and how Sieger
Design gave it its “aura of elegance” that has
contributed to its great success to this day. “Each
bathroom facility that looks half-way modern in
its basic form is Tara-compatible,” states Briegleb.
As Jesse Frohman and Bazon Brock previously
showed: it almost lives on contrast.
In another contribution, the British architect John
Pawson, a self-confessed minimalist, reports from
a completely different perspective. What would
I do if I had to build a modern bathroom for
Cistercian monks? For him, this is not a rhetorical
question, but an actual building commission: He
built a monastery building and the associated
baths and wash-rooms for the Cistercian order in
Novy Dvur in the Czech Republic. That he finally
decided on using Tara is only mentioned in passing.
Initially, it was more important for him to
discover what his task there actually was: “The
difference lay in the fact that I was not designing
wet rooms as living rooms, which is how I came to
see private bathrooms,” said Pawson. He selected
Tara, because it belongs to those items that
“should be able to be read as a whole and without
distractions”.
Last but not least, “Tara – Armatur und Archetypus”
(Tara – Fitting and Archetype) is a book on water
and our contact with this liquid material.
Fondamentalmente esistono due diverse categorie
di prodotti. Alcuni sono chiassosi e appariscenti,
sempre in primo piano. Gli altri, semplicemente,
esistono. Occorre un po’ di tempo per notarli, si
pensa di conoscerli da sempre, dato il senso di
calma e naturalezza che emanano, e questa è certo
una delle loro più importanti qualità. Tara fa parte
di questi oggetti. En Una linea di rubinetteria che
in pochi anni è diventata un’icona. Con Tara, agli
inizi degli anni ’90 Dornbracht e Sieger Design
hanno creato una linea di prodotti che ha entusiasmato
architetti, designer e imprenditori di tutto il
mondo. Tara è un oggetto che stupisce per la sua
semplicità ed essenzialità.
L’acqua è una sostanza ambivalente. Molte forme di
vita devono all’acqua la loro esistenza. Anche l’uomo
è composto principalmente d’acqua. Eppure,
quando fluisce troppo abbondante, improvvisa e
indomita, porta morte e distruzione. Per questo
l’uomo cerca da sempre di imbrigliarla, contenerla
e condurne i movimenti. Il rubinetto con cui rego-
“A monument that can be used every day” // “Un
monumento di uso quotidiano” // “Un monumento
cotidiano y útil”
liamo il flusso dell’acqua nelle nostre case è dunque
l’espressione più evidente tra molteplici opere
di civilizzazione. Tara supera l’ingegno dell’uomo,
e ne diventa monumento di uso quotidiano.
L’opera “Tara – Armatur und Archetypus” (Tara –
rubinetteria e archetipo) illumina diversi aspetti
del nostro rapporto con l’acqua. Sfogliandone le
pagine, subito colpiscono le immagini del fotografo
newyorkese Jesse Frohman che a poco a poco
svincola Tara dai suoi ambienti abituali, all’inizio
ancora sullo sfondo, per arrivare a fonderne gli
elementi con scenografie e materiali in contrasto.
Viti, pietre lavorate e segnate dalle intemperie,
travi di legno e recipienti da officina. Questa contrapposizione
crea una tensione tra la perfezione
scintillante del prodotto industriale e quella, di
natura diversa, che risulta dall’invecchiamento,
dalla distruzione, dalla patina.
Le immagini sono talmente incantevoli da rendere
l’opera totalmente diversa dalle solite raccolte di
fotografia di design, che offrono solo stringate
descrizioni. Il grande volume dedicato a Tara è
piuttosto un omaggio discreto a cui prendono
parte autori, architetti e critici eminenti. Nel suo
contributo “acciaio ed estasi della forma” il celebre
critico d’arte Bazon Brock racconta dell’avvento
del purismo come principio d’arte, espressione di
purezza e distacco dalla tradizione in molti aspetti
della vita. Tuttavia Brock sottolinea anche l’ambivalenza
del purismo: “Ormai è noto”, scrive Brock,
“che le logiche formali della creazione non possono
affermarsi in modo tanto radicale e purista senza
scontrarsi con edifici storici o artefatti.”
DORNBRACHT the SPIRITof WATER Tara
“It almost lives on contrast” // “Tara vive esattamente
di contrasti” // “Vive precisamente del contraste”
Köbi Gantenbein, critico svizzero d’architettura,
ricorda i tempi in cui anche dalle nostre parti il
bagno privato era cosa tutt’altro che scontata.
Gantenbein immagina il personaggio Max Bär che
sguazzando allegramente medita sul bagno, sull’acqua
e sul futuro. “Se vogliamo continuare a
fare il bagno, dobbiamo preoccuparci delle nostre
riserve idriche” afferma Bär. E aggiunge “l’acqua
non è una questione morale, ma un problema di
distribuzione su scala mondiale”.
L’autrice londinese Jane Withers studia l’evoluzione
dell’habitus mentale in riferimento al bagno e
al design del luogo a questo preposto. “Da funzione
a rituale”, questo il titolo della sua analisi.
Con la diffusione delle stanze da bagno di stampo
occidentale, scrive la Withers, “l’occidente
guarda proprio ad altre culture e al passato preindustriale”,
per ritrovare una sensualità da tempo
abbandonata a vantaggio di meccaniche pratiche
meramente igieniche. L’opera “Il bagno come
TARA
The abstract sculptures of
Constantin Brancusi, containing
ideas found in African
and pre-historic carvings,
were the inspiration for the
Tara designs. Archaic materials,
such as wood and
stone, and an iconic representation
in black and white.
L’ambientazione di Tara si
ispira alle sculture astratte
di Constantin Brancusi, che
prendono spunto dall'arte
scultorea africana e preistorica.
Materiali arcaici come
legno e pietra e una rappresentazione
iconica in bianco
e nero.
Las esculturas abstractas
de Constantin Brancusi, con
sus préstamos del arte
escultórico africano y prehistórico,
inspiraron la escenificación
de TARA. Materiales
arcaicos como la madera y
la piedra y la representación
icónica en blanco y negro.
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