A great man once said, “in order to lively wisely one must live well.” Or was it “in order to live well one must live wisely?” Or perhaps the aphorism went “a wise man once said, in order to live well one must live greatly.” Let’s dispense with this confusion and go with number one, for it’s a deft summation of a sentiment apropos of design: that one must first achieve certain creature comforts before hoping to attain intellectual or spiritual enlightenment. This is a long way of saying that the next time you feel pangs of guilt at the extravagance of your Italian marble vanity or the indulgence of your Japanese ceramic tub, just banish the thought and chalk it up to a greater good.

Living City Collection. Designed by Laufen.

Or you could go for the best of both worlds (modesty and aesthetic panache) with your bathroom collection by opting for the Living City Washbasin by Laufen. A stand-alone item designed to function as a “sculptural centerpiece,” Living City boasts a modern, geometrical aspect with high sidewalls and a deep, narrow basin–certainly a look that’s been done in the past, but never before with the accompanying modular shelf, an addition that, in addition to ‘”offering the possibility of spreading out and having one’s bathroom articles close at hand,” also facilitates a hefty dash of artistic flourish. And besides being a palette for everything from a faux pool of brimming and shimmering water to the swirling contours of a nautilus shell, the shelf gives you the freedom to specify a preference for a right or left hand orientation or even to order custom-cut shelves for niche installations.

Since Living City is an open, wall-mounted design with free space beneath, users can specify customized height installations–an attractive option for households with multiple bathrooms or larger shared bathrooms, since it can create individualized set-ups for each family member. And last but certainly not least, Living City features Laufen’s patented EFC touch-sensitive controls, a feature that turns the ceramic surface into command central for temperature and flow control: “a hygienic advantage in that the user
does not have to touch a tap that has been previously touched by other people.” It also makes the unit easy to clean.

Laufen created Living City as an ideal accompaniment for the “Open” range of modular bathroom furnishings. Just as the name suggests, “Open” gives designers multiple options for shelf and basin arrangements, and Living City works especially well therein: “the precision-cut tap holes allow the Living City handbasins to integrate seamlessly into this very versatile furniture system.”