If you're as captivated as I am by Massimo Iosa Ghini's Kinea Tub for Teuco, I've six simple words of caution for you: keep it on the first floor! While this little tidbit of wisdom may seem like common sense (and in all truth, your movers probably wouldn't get it past the second step), it behooves designers and clients alike to be ever-cognizant of the piece's sheer materiality.

Stone Tub. Designed by Massimo Iosa Ghini for Teuco.

With the Stone Tub, Teuco and Ghini are aiming for an elemental appeal-the kind of atavistic attraction that can only emerge from earth, air, fire, or water-and with the Stone Tub, Teuco has at least two of these covered: "starting from the idea of a geometric block of matter etched by the slow flow of water, the Stone Bathtub creates a clear and harmonic opposition of shell and cradle. Enveloping and dominating its surroundings, its sensual lines give the impression of being inside a rock." For another knockout Teuco tub, see the Sorgente designed by Lenci Design.

Sorgente Tub. Designed by Lenci Design for Teuco.

Indeed, Ghini's Stone Tub is far removed from the mundanity of daily ablutions. Its literal and metaphorical massiveness, its somber geometry, its evocation of the play of water upon earth, give it a staid and reverential aspect that make it seem-dare I say-important. All kidding about its weight aside, the piece reminds me of the classic aphorism about the sculptor's masterpiece hidden deep in the recesses of the solid block of marble. In this case, however, the revelatory tool isn't the artist's chisel or the artisan's steady hand, but the easy tumble of water, ever at its steady work of shaping stone. Bathing in this elegant piece must invite the most potent of daydreams. So dim the lights, fill the tub to the brim, and envision water's epochal flow-in the darkest of caves, the most tranquil of verdant valleys, the stillest of glacial enclaves. With the Stone Tub, you'll feel like you're witness to it all.

If you dig Massimo Iosa Ghini as much as we do, you’ll definitely be inclined to follow his latest project, New York Residence, a new mixed-use project in Budapest, Hungary slated for completion in June 2009.

via Designboom