Spaces for self-care
Pepa Casado, Jorge Herrera and three studios discuss the bathroom as a space for well-being at Matter Barcelona, with the Calma and Tempo bathtubs by Sanycces.
EventsTalks That Matter7 of 147 min read
With the pause brought about by the pandemic, we are increasingly aware of the importance of looking after ourselves. The bathroom is that intimate space in which we can bring out the best version of ourselves and boost our well-being with moments of relaxation and disconnection.
With that idea in mind, on 20 October 2022 we held “Spaces for self-care: Bathing Care” at Matter Barcelona, a new edition of the Talks that Matter series sponsored by Sanycces. We reflected on architecture’s capacity for transformation and its responsibility for the quality of life of those who inhabit spaces – in this case, the bathroom. Jorge Herrera presented the Calma and Tempo bathtubs he has designed for Sanycces, and four studios shared how they design the bathroom as a place of well-being. Here we summarise their talks and the conclusions of the event.
Speakers and studios
This exchange of views brought together a trends expert, an industrial designer and three architecture and interior design studios:
- Pepa Casado (future-A): an introduction to bathroom trends and their components.
- Jorge Herrera (Jorge Herrera Studio): the Calma and Tempo bathtubs, designed for Sanycces.
- Carla Navas and Víctor Molina (WIT Architects): the bathroom as a sensory experience in homes and hotels.
- Natali Canas del Pozo (El Equipo Creativo): well-being, colour and local identity at the Hotel Kimpton Vividora.
- Javier Verdugo (CM4 Arquitectos): touch, the body and materials at the Apartamentos Turísticos Muralla.
The bathroom as refuge: well-being trends
Pepa Casado, trends researcher and co-founder of the consultancy future-A, opened the session with a figure: we spend around 80% of our time indoors and barely reflect on the impact this has on our physical, emotional and mental health. Well-being, or wellness, has opened up a new landscape in interior design and architecture, driven by personal and global events such as the pandemic. To frame it, the session revisited a reflection by the designer Ilse Crawford:
“Lockdown has been a vast social experiment, revealing that we must focus on our homes as places we inhabit consciously and actively (…) with a direct impact on our physical and mental health.”
— Ilse Crawford
In recent years awareness of mental health has grown and, with it, the idea of ritual and the importance of daily habits. The culture of self-care has made a strong entrance into the bathroom, which is no longer a purely hygienic and functional space but a place of intimacy and disconnection.
“The bathroom is a place of intimacy and disconnection. We have recovered the idea that the home is the only intimate refuge that protects us from the world.”
— Pepa Casado
One of the objects most representative of this shift is the bathtub, now more than ever associated with comfort and connecting with oneself: bathtubs that speak of ‘me time’ and of the bathroom as a sanctuary for everyday rituals. Casado also linked well-being with sustainability and nature: recovering our connection with the environment is part of the same search.
Calma and Tempo: two bathtubs to stop time
Jorge Herrera, an industrial designer, founded his studio in Valencia in 2008. For Sanycces, and from this new view of the bathroom as a place of well-being, he designed Calma and Tempo, two bathtubs inspired by the Mediterranean atmosphere, which the brand presented in March 2022 and which won a Red Dot in the Product Design category that year.
The starting point of the brief was that we live doing many things at once, so a space was needed that would stop time, a place to calm down and feel at ease. Both bathtubs include wooden trays on which to rest the hands, eat or drink something; according to Sanycces, they are engraved with phrases that evoke the Mediterranean winds. Herrera also explained a tap from which the water seems to come out of nowhere, as a reference to the relationship between water, body and personal care: the intention was to move away from the traditional towards a more spiritual concept.
“Ultimately, the Calma & Tempo bathtubs are about being able to disconnect, enjoying the moment. I am here and now.”
— Jorge Herrera
Calma
Calma is inspired by the Japanese tea ceremony and the ideal of living in the present moment. It has interior curves within a very compact space that recreate a sense of retreat, as if the bathtub were embracing you. Sanycces describes it as a concave, enveloping vessel that rests on legs to give a sense of floating.
Tempo
Tempo, as its name suggests, refers to capturing time. A rope runs around the bathtub and, according to the manufacturer, acts as a transitional element that allows each side to be lacquered in a different colour; the textures and the rope give it a comfortable aesthetic.
WIT Architects: water as everyday therapy
Carla Navas and Víctor Molina founded WIT Architects in Barcelona in 2016. In their talk they spoke about the particular qualities of bath time: being naked in an intimate space and in contact with water offers an especially relaxing sensation, and activities such as taking a bath or singing in the shower are associated with the release of endorphins. Their projects aim for the bathroom to offer an experience that is good for the body and fosters calm and disconnection.
For the studio, the materials of the bathroom are of the utmost importance. Texture and use leave their mark – surfaces get scratched, stained, wet – and all of this conveys the value of the experience: a bathroom to be lived in and touched. Because it is in contact with water, it demands details and materials that will not cause problems in the future, such as damp. Lighting is the tool that allows them to create settings and atmospheres for relaxation.
“The spaces we design will be important moments in our client’s life.”
— Carla Navas and Víctor Molina, WIT Architects
El Equipo Creativo: well-being that invites people to socialise
Natali Canas del Pozo is co-founder of El Equipo Creativo, a Barcelona interior design studio focused on hotels and restaurants. For the studio, well-being goes beyond exercising or being in contact with nature: above all, they look for the relationship between people, with spaces designed for getting to know one another and forming bonds.
She illustrated this with the Hotel Kimpton Vividora in Ciutat Vella (Barcelona), where the neighbourhood becomes an aesthetic expression: golden light, stone as the main ingredient, Mediterranean-style lattices, plants and locally crafted ceramics. In the rooms, and above all in the bathrooms, colour intensifies – terracotta, in relation to the sea and the sky – to express an ideal of identity and culture and to get away from what is expected of a standardised hotel. The studio plays with different settings within each room, juxtaposing the visually beautiful and the functional.
“We like to make spaces that inspire you and make you feel good, spaces that invite you to socialise.”
— Natali Canas del Pozo
CM4 Arquitectos: touch and the closeness of the body
Javier Verdugo is a founding partner of CM4 Arquitectos, a Seville studio working in architecture, refurbishment and interior design, where he heads the interior design department. In bathroom spaces, the studio seeks to connect and integrate places that are more open, independent, bright and related to nature: the bathroom speaks of our personality and of the way we think and act.
Verdugo stressed the direct relationship between the body and the surfaces of the bathroom: we touch everything, so it falls to the architect and the interior designer to design intermediate spaces that generate feelings of relaxation, leisure, rest and intimacy. He showed this with the Apartamentos Turísticos Muralla in Seville, where the bathrooms, designed as steel and glass cabins, separate the bedroom from the living room without partition walls.
“There is a relationship with touch and with the closeness of your body, the space and the materials.”
— Javier Verdugo
Conclusions
Well-being is no longer an occasional luxury but an everyday need, subtler and inherent to how we live each day. Practices such as multitasking, hyperconnectivity and overstimulation affect our health, and design can offer solutions that encourage disconnection and daily self-care. These are the ideas with which we closed the event:
- The bathroom as a key space: its intimate relationship with the person gives it a new importance today within both homes and hotels.
- Materials in contact with the body: bathroom surfaces call for a conscious review of their composition in order to choose them well.
- Light, ventilation and nature: concepts deeply rooted in Mediterranean culture that inspire caring spaces.
- Designing with awareness: design responds to the individual client, but also to problems that affect society as a whole.
- Complementary scales: from the object, such as a bathtub, to the building, it is possible to act preventively on long-term health.
Summary video and full document
The video sums up the afternoon at Matter Barcelona, and the full document brings together the studios’ projects, the conclusions and a range of criteria for designing, building and materialising a bathroom, drawn from the participants’ professional experience.
Sponsored by Sanycces
Special thanks to Sanycces for supporting this event and the exchange of ideas between professionals that it makes possible.
Talks that Matter is our series of open meetings between architects and interior designers to share experiences and reflections on topics of common interest. Book your visit to Matter to see our Materioteca and talk about the materials for your next project.
