DORNBRACHT - Butterfly Trading

DORNBRACHT the SPIRITof WATER Ritual Architecture
INVITATION TO LINGER A WHILE
The world of MEM is presented in an ideal environment
that no longer has anything in common
with the white tiled six-and-a-half-square-metre
wet room which has established itself in our latitudes
as the standard bathroom. Hitherto in the
ground plan architects have largely assigned this
to a residual area along the only installation wall –
the design of the area should be cost-effective and
above all functional, as after all no visitor ever saw
it. Why should any importance be attached to generous
proportions, demanding materials or adequate
lighting in the bathroom, which, unlike the
living room or kitchen, is not intended to be
shown to guests. Because the bathroom is the only
area where you can rest undisturbed and where the
priority is your own physical and mental wellbeing.
Mike Meiré gave people and their ritual of
cleansing centre stage in his considerations on
MEM, a creation by Sieger Design – and ahead of
the concrete product development created a totally
new bathroom architecture. The designer and
art director is responsible, together with his
agency Meiré und Meiré, inter alia for the
Dornbracht communication. Kristina Raderschad
talking to Mike Meiré.
K.R.: What was the starting point for you in your
considerations of the MEM fittings series developed
by Sieger Design?
M.M.: Several years ago as part of the “Energetic
Recovery System” I designed a sort of pipeline, as
an outline of an idea of the bathroom of the future.
I realised that there were other levels of cleansing
that the bathroom should provide: a mental cleansing
in addition to the purely physical. A level transcending
wellness in the normal sense, over and
above body treatments, applied from the outside:
it is much more a matter of a healing process,
restoring balance, replenishing one with new
power and energy. Only when the bathroom fulfils
these ideal functions does it become a cultural
place.
K.R.: What is necessary to create the kind of bathroom
that allows the regeneration of body and
mind?
M.M.: The bathroom is the only place in the house
that gives you the opportunity to withdraw inside
yourself, find peace, come to terms with yourself.
And so the aspect of dematerialising was important
to me, a spiritual void in place of a cluttered
space. Space itself is defined as the most precious
commodity that remains untouched as far as possible,
but is charged with atmosphere. I designed a
room with generous proportions in which the
products withdraw from view. Here, neither the
ground plan design nor the illustrated furnishing
elements are to be taken dogmatically. They function,
quite the contrary, as the placeholders of an
idea. Any form of design must be restrained in
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MEM Ritual Architecture
order to create peace. I can only find myself, turn
myself inside out, as it were, in a room that is as
neutral as possible, that does not make any formal
aesthetic statement to divert or burden me.
K.R.: So the bathroom becomes a kind of monastery
cell?
M.M.: The basic idea is very similar, but without
the aspect of self-mortification and total isolation
from the outside world. In my design I do not
exclude the complexity of the world, quite the
opposite, I integrate its poetic quality into the interior
design – and create a vista from the bathroom
into a kind of Garden of Paradise symbolising the
diversity of the world. What is produced, therefore,
is a form of minimalism but which simultaneously
allows a form of poetry from everyday
life: a room that is empty and yet sensual. The
bathroom becomes a kind of capsule where you
can stop and stay – and spend more than just ten
minutes.
K.R.: What – apart from the Garden of Paradise
already mentioned – are the essential elements of
your room concept?
M.M.: The architecture should as far as possible
be plain, hence the decision for a rectangular floor
plan. Without being diverted to the right or left,
you can walk through the room, which is arranged
on the basis of a fixed sequence of daily cleansing
rituals. If you go through these rituals more conscientiously
it becomes a form of meditation and
they therefore are the key to your well-being.
Along the wall a linear washstand with a generously
proportioned shelf leads into the room. This
is where the ritual of grooming and beauty-care
takes place. On the front wall of the room a bath
tub is set in the floor. Bathing becomes a ritual:
instead of stepping up into the tub, you let yourself
– as in old mansions – glide down into the
base. Warm water comes bubbling out of the wall
like out of a spring feeding into the tub. A gentle
shower rains down from above, from a shower that
is no longer recognisable as such. Reduced to a
rectangular plate integrated into the ceiling, the
product is only defined as an interface in the
architecture. From the tub, the view leads into an
atrium with the aforementioned Garden of
Paradise. After bathing you sit on the wooden
bench next to the basin. The awaiting cushion and
the incense stick invite you to a ritual of relaxation:
You light one of the incense sticks, direct
your attention to the few important architectural
details, take the time to observe, reflect and relax.
Here what matters is not the actual cushion or
incense stick, but the question: can you create a
room which allows ideal functions, such as pausing
and reflecting – can you create a room which
invites raising consciousness?
K.R.: In this context what role does the light play
that shines down through what appears to be randomly
arranged circular holes in the ceiling?
M.M.: The circular “light holes” in the ceiling
point in the same direction: if you sit down on the
daybed – which also seems to float, to accentuate
the lightness you feel after bathing, the relief from
everyday life, a kind of floating feeling – they
express an invitation to reflect and meditate. Anyone
who has ever lain on the hot marble table in
the middle of an oriental hammam, looking at the
ceiling that is perforated with innumerable, sometimes
coloured, glass light apertures is familiar
with the unbelievably calming, almost hypnotic
effect. In general light is of crucial importance in
a room where we want to feel good even when
naked, which we enter first thing in the morning
and last thing at night. Different lighting scenarios
respond to the various moods in the morning and
evening – sometimes light is stimulating, sometimes
relaxing.
INVITO ALL’INDUGIO
Il mondo di MEM è presentato in un ambiente
ideale, completamente diverso dal locale da
6,5 m 2 piastrellato di bianco, tipico dello
standard occidentale. Finora gli architetti nei
progetti generalmente gli dedicavano uno spazio
ricavato lungo l’unica parete sfruttabile e lo allestivano
all’insegna dell’economicità e soprattutto
della funzionalità, perché tanto nessun ospite lo
vedeva. Perché in bagno bisognerebbe porre l’accento
sulla grandezza, su materiali pregiati o su
una buona illuminazione, se esso, contrariamente
al soggiorno o alla cucina, non svolge alcuna funzione
rappresentativa? Perché il bagno è l’unica
stanza dove ci si può occupare di se stessi, indisturbati
e in tutta tranquillità, dove ci si può con-
DORNBRACHT the SPIRITof WATER Ritual Architecture
Wash-stand with petite coiffeuse Meditation place Wash-stand in front of Garden of Eden
centrare sul proprio benessere fisico e spirituale.
Mike Meiré ha posto l’uomo e i rituali del bagno
al centro delle sue riflessioni sul mondo MEM,
creato da Sieger Design, e, prima di dedicarsi allo
sviluppo concreto dei prodotti, ha ideato un’architettura
assolutamente innovativa per questo spazio.
Il designer e direttore artistico è responsabile
tra l’altro, con la sua agenzia Meiré und Meiré,
della comunicazione di Dornbracht. Intervista di
Kristina Raderschad a Mike Meiré.
K.R.: Qual è stato per lei il punto di partenza per
le riflessioni sulla serie di rubinetterie MEM,
create da Sieger Design?
M.M.: Qualche anno fa, nell’ambito dell’“Energetic
Recovery System”, ho sviluppato una
specie di canalizzazione che doveva schematizzare
l’idea del bagno del futuro. Mi sono reso conto
allora che esiste un’altra concezione di questo
MEM RITUAL ARCHITECTURE
A bath tub sunk into the
sandstone floor with a small
seating area “on the bank”,
nature integrated into the
bathroom as a Garden of Eden
for mind and soul, coloured
light as an expression of
natural moods and a couch
which seems to float – and
with its airiness invites you
to dream.
Vasca annegata nel pavimento
in grès con una piccola
seduta sul bordo, natura
integrata nel bagno come
giardino dell’Eden per l’anima
e lo spirito, luce colorata che
accompagna atmosfere
naturali e una poltrona che
sembra galleggiare, la cui
leggerezza invita al sogno.
Una bañera encajada en el
suelo de gres con una pequeña
área de asiento “a la orilla”,
naturaleza integrada en
el baño en forma de Jardín
del Edén para el espíritu y el
alma, luz de colores como si
se estuviera aludiendo a los
estados de humor naturales
y una tumbona que parece
flotar – y que con su ligereza
invita a soñar.
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