DURAVIT NEW YORK
105 Madison Avenue
Tel: 212-577-0044
Designer: Schmutz & Partner
Duravit, the German manufacturer of bathroom furnishings, recently set up shop on Madison Avenue in an expansive, 4,000-square-foot showroom designed by Stuttgart-based architectural firm Schmutz & Partner. Guided by Duravit’s signature aesthetic—sleek, sophisticated products conceived by the likes of Philippe Starck—designers Eduard Schmutz and Matthias Mayer have fully embraced the company’s notion of “living bathrooms” as places for rest and regeneration. Naturally, the main design motif is inspired by water: A tranquil shade of blue wraps around the walls, ceiling, and floor of the open-plan space,complementing the company’s purist white ceramic forms. Large oval portals, painted white, are set in the ceiling with fixtures that softly illuminate the products below. The showroom is partitioned into a series of recessed “room fragments,” as the architects call them, that are furnished with materials and products from Duravit. Specially constructed anthracite oak benches, finished with a coated glass surface and fitted with a reflective blue light, function as both seating and display cases. According to the architects, “These are island-like elements that we’ve always regarded as a sort of driftwood”—in keeping with the room’s aquatic ambience.