Seen as a whole, the bathroom scenario is not only the place where we clean our bodies. It is much more: it provides us with the symbols to mediate, within ourselves, the conflict between certain affective codes that recall the less valued aspects of our Self: between the wish to regress and the need/wish to grow, and between the maternal code, which is centred on gratifying the child in ourselves and meeting its needs, the child’s code, which is centred on play, the code of erotic corporeality, which is centred on the contemplation and exhibition of our body, and the paternal code, which is centred on performance and stimulus to growth. This scenario assumes many different levels of meaning in whoever enters this space: these levels clearly recall the universe of dreams.
As can be seen, this is more than enough to stimulate someone like me, who is involved in design management. After being involved many years with the kitchen, revolutionising the landscape of its small objects with our designers’ fantasy, humour, excitement and poetry and creating that mix of eccentricity and style, playfulness and culture, irony and elegance that has become typical of Alessi products, I decided to go ahead with the “Il Bagno Alessi” project.
To do this, we put together an operational model for a virtual company, in which Alessi, as responsible for strategic marketing, design management and communications, joined forces with three firms representing the finest European tradition in the realm of bathrooms, and which addressed project engineering, production and distribution of their respective elements:
- the Swiss company, Laufen, with its head office in Laufen (Basel), one of the largest world manufacturers of ceramic fixtures
- the Finnish company, Oras, with its head office in Rauma in South West Finland, leading company in the production of taps in all Scandinavian countries
- the Italian company, Inda, with its head office in Caravate on Lake Maggiore in Northern Italy, which for over three generations has been producing accessories, lighting and fittings for high quality bathrooms.
With design collaboration from Stefano Giovannoni and the passion and skill of the partner companies, we have created the most complete scenario for the bathroom that has ever been achieved on an industrial scale: from ceramic fixtures to taps, from accessories to mirrors, from furnishings to shower cabinets, from lighting to bathroom textiles.
Drawing inspiration (at least in part) from my psychoanalytic approach, the designer has combined the four affective codes in masterly fashion. Components that are markedly centred on the maternal code (in particular, the ceramic ware, with its round and soft shape) are placed alongside other components that clearly belong to the paternal code (the furniture and metal accessories, with their simple, austere lines), the erotic code (such as the taps, which are resolutely phallic) and the child’s code (such as the playful hideaway bath mixer tap, or the way the cabinet drawers open).
I believe the formal outcome of this project is highly innovative and sets a fine example: by harmoniously combining the four affective codes, Stefano was able to overcome the practice of the personal stylistic codebook that characterised practically all top design from the eighties and nineties. Using a strongly innovative design approach, one that I would describe as meta-style, he has drawn freely and masterfully from the vast repertoire of forms available to us to create objects that are both more exciting and more human. I think this may be a valuable indication of where new design is heading for in the 2000s.
Alberto Alessi, 2002