Making a Splash
Lock, stock and two full barrels, we’re off en masse to the launch of luxury taps etcetera company Hansgrohe’s Water Studio in Clerkenwell. Prosecco on tap. As everyone knows Clerkenwell has more architects | designers | architect designers per cubic metre than anywhere else in London. Clerkenwell Design Week simply flows into the rest of the calendar. MIPIM-on-Thames. In the days when loft meant attic to the great unwashed, space savvy trailblazers were busy setting up home in the former warehouses of EC1A. Tapping into the potential of this zeitgeisty enclave, Hansgrohe’s Water Studio AKA the London Specification Centre is a paean to the contemporary predilection for lifestyle design infiltration. International neighbours include compatriot Bulthaup and Swiss Vitra plus home grown West One Bathrooms.
Bookazines, Netflix binging and two tone kitchen cupboards are all fashion moments of early spring. Closer to home, bathroom trends from the lips of Hansgrohe are floor level continuous surface showers, transparent glass taps and wood is big, especially if you splash out £80,000 on a timber bathtub like those in the One Tower Bridge penthouses. In a saturated market, Hansgrohe rises above the rest. Ever since 1901 when Hans Grohe himself pioneered bathroom sanitation in his Black Forest HQ, the company has taken design seriously. It regularly holds design competitions. Past winners include Ian Shrager. It regularly wins design awards. So far, 400 and counting.
