LAUFEN x Yves Béhar • Hotel Designs

This year’s Milan Design Week saw Swiss bathroom specialist LAUFEN, part of the Roca Group, collaborate with designer and innovator Yves Béhar, recently named the ‘Most Influential Industrial Designer in the World‘ by Forbes. The project: to discover how design can flow as freely as water – a poetic ode to the essential role of natural elements in shaping everyday spaces.

Image credit: Pierre Kellenberger

Pioneering sustainability

In 2023, following four years of research and development inspired by nature, LAUFEN inaugurated the world’s first electric tunnel kiln to produce sanitary ceramics. The highly efficient, decarbonised and automated e-kiln provides a valuable alternative to conventional production dependent on fossil fuels. The new kiln also represents a transformative step towards making the LAUFEN plant in Gmunden, Austria, the world’s first net-zero ceramic production facility.

To honour this technological leap, LAUFEN invited Yves to design the first sanitary ceramic object to be fired using the electric tunnel kiln firing process.

A water sculpture

Famed for his philanthropic initiatives and his fascination by the interaction between technology and the quality of design to guarantee a better life and more sustainable future, Yves Béhar responded to LAUFEN’s offer with the VOLTA.

A brand new sanitary ceramics concept, VOLTA has revolutionised the shape of the washbasin with a design that perfectly balances pure aesthetics, innovation and maximum functionality.

A pure and formal washbasin, VOLTA has sculptural character and is a product of Yves’ study of the sinuous and mercurial motion of water. Aside from the material innovation, the VOLTA’s unusual shape, with two levels, creates a swirling motion which moves the water in such a way that it also cleans the basin.

The two-level interior design also allows water to flow quickly to the lower part of the basin, reducing the need to fill the entire sink and minimising water consumption. This innovative approach makes VOLTA particularly noteworthy from a water-saving perspective.

LAUFEN also developed a large hidden outlet for the VOLTA which reduces the size of the siphon and maintains an elegancy: “aesthetics has a function and function has an aesthetics,” commented Yves.

This project also marked a new chapter in LAUFEN’s exploration of the brand’s ultra-thin and highly versatile ceramic material, Saphirkeramik.

Image credit: Pierre Kellenberger

A milestone

Speaking of LAUFEN’s innovative and sustainable design ethos, Yves said: “To see a major industry leader taking a tremendously bold initiative and creating the very first kiln of this size, powered by solar and green sources of electricity, set the basis for a fantastic collaboration.”

Marc Viardot, Marketing and Design Director of Roca Group, said: “It was a dream come true to create something together that has never been done before. It felt that with the new electric kiln, paired with LAUFEN’s unique Saphirkeramik technology, the time was ripe for our collaboration.

“Since this was Yves’ first project with sanitary ceramic, we gave him carte blanche to create an icon. Inspired by the first CO2 free production in the world, Yves’ approach was very fresh and resulted in an unconventional new concept for the bathroom. It feels a bit like we reinvented the wheel – at least the way we relate to the daily use of water.”

The installation

Debuting VOLTA at Milan Design Week, LAUFEN worked with Studio Achermann Founder and Creative Director Beda Achermann and Matteo Fiorini, Founder of Studio Lys, to create the ‘a new dimension of water’ installation.

Located on the Via Manzoni, The LAUFEN exhibition followed a conceptual path that allowed visitors to discover the innovative processes developed by the company in recent years. The shopwindow offered a first glimpse of Yves Béhar’s new concept, inviting visitors to discover the transformative power of solar energy.

Image credits: Pierre Kellenberger

A scaled reproduction of the e-kiln was placed in the courtyard, providing a realistic representation of the Gmunden plant in Austria. On the e-kiln, a selection of Saphirkeramik pieces celebrated the history and relentless technological research that has characterised the LAUFEN brand since its birth.

The lineup of immaculately crafted washbasins beautifully showcased the evolution of LAUFEN’s revolutionary ceramic material that has reshaped the bathroom design over the years.

Ascending to the main floor, visitors entered an immersive setting where displayed products emerged from the darkness like actors on a stage; the nocturnal scenography of the LAUFEN space Milano only enhancing the refined designs of the VOLTA by Yves Béhar.

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Main image credit: LAUFEN