So we’ve seen a tub you can program with your iPhone (Infinity), a tub with a built-in TV (Saturn TV Tub), a tub shaped like an internationally-renowned Cajun confection (Beignet Tub). We’ve even seen a tub/shower that bathes you in pure light (Etoile). That’s a pretty broad portfolio for bath-time incarnations, but, even so, we’ve yet to see the likes of TUB . by Italy’s NIC Design. A four-cornered minimalist masterstroke, TUB is the most simple (and that’s a compliment) dual bath/shower unit I’ve come across.

TUB. Designed by NIC Design.

Constructed from the recently-trendy Pietraluce–a material that’s a dead ringer for ceramic yet is more resistant to cleaning products and the ravages of use–TUB resembles an oversized, hollowed out block of mozzarella cheese (or white marble, if you prefer to keep your dairy analogies out of the bathroom). The piece has a sculptural quality that testifies to the material’s resilience. And I’m not privy to the particular technical specs that might bear out the following supposition, but I’m guessing Pietraluce is especially amenable to the narrow sidewall aspect of many recent tubs and sinks, a choice that looks great and saves space, but always makes me a wince a bit at the prospect of its fragility.

NIC assures us all, however, that TUB is anything but fragile. Its four walls can accommodate any prodigious bulk you might inflict upon it, whether in the form of water or persons or both–though, at 100 x 100 x 60 cm, you’d have to be a fairly slim pair indeed to subject it to this kind of double duty. However, one double duty it certainly can support is the rapid shift from bath to shower (I always feel compelled to go back to shower mode for a quick rinse after a bath anyway). Chrome fixtures and a sliding, adjustable hand-held sprayer complete this picture. All that’s left is the high degree of unabashed-ness that TUB’s full-frontal exposure would seem to require of users. For unless there’s an optional curtain or glass wall in the works, TUB is distinctly Euro-centric in this way–I’m betting the pictured model is either French or Italian. But if you appreciate the freedom of a pleine-air shower or bath, you might very well go for TUB.

Via Trendir.