Designer Stefano Giovannoni and manufacturer Laufen have set a precedent with the stunning and sensuous IlBagnoAlessi One Bathroom Collection. Constructed of smooth-as-silk porcelain in a classical tone of alabaster white, Giovannoni’s line is “a bathroom design that has cast its spell over the home design world for years… it is characterised by a timeless form, sparkling imagination, and a hint of eccentricity.”

IlBagnoAlessi One Bathroom Collection. Designed by Stefano Giovannoni. Manufactured by Laufen.

Laufen’s IlBagnoAlessi One Makes the Bathroom a Locus of Sensuous Experience

Perhaps the most striking aspect of IlBagnoAlessi One is its formal interplay of feminine forms. In explaining Giovannoni’s conception of IlBagnoAlessi’s basic shape, Laufen describes the “maternal code of the porcelain pieces in particular, round and soft.”

To my eyes, the big, bold curvatures of IlBagnoAlessi’s washbasins, tubs, WCs, and bidets establish the principle aesthetic language of the collection, as it interacts in a dominant yet synergistic way with the linear and geometric shapes seen in the vanities and shower enclosures.

The effect is to balance and harmonize what Laufen refers to as the “four affective codes: the expressive language of a model of dreams and play.” And the upshot is an engaging and alluring bathroom suite that speaks to a fundamental wish—the desire for a place of repose, a profoundly relaxing sanctuary where we attend to the basics of bodily hygiene, yes, but also engage in a daily ritual of symbolic cleansing.

With IlBagnoAlessi One, Laufen and Giovannoni have created a new aesthetic language for the bathroom: an expression of holistic shapes that satisfies our deepest impulses for relaxation and replenishment, “an extensive vocabulary of forms that have been made available to humankind, creating objects that are at once more striking and more human.”

About the Manufacturer: A pioneer in bathroom culture since 1892, manufacturer Laufen believes bathrooms aren’t just functional spaces with a specific purpose, but rather “living spaces,” as deserving of a marked character and distinctive personality as any other room in the house. To that end, the company’s line of precision-engineered ceramic washbasins, WCs, bathtubs, and bidets demonstrates Laufen’s facility for creating “fully integrated bathrooms… each room, interpreted by Laufen as a haven of relaxation within the home, is fashioned to the highest design standard.”