Promotion: architect Hadi Teherani has designed a bathroom concept for Axor based on Middle Eastern bathhouses, imagining the room as a place of retreat and holistic cleansing.
Teherani designed the concept as part of Axor's Distinctive project, which presents bathroom ideas from renowned architects as a way of exploring the trend of individualisation.
Teherani was asked to create a personal "bathroom with personality" for the project and answered the brief by creating a circular, cupola-topped room meant to provide a sense of security and serenity.
"I see the bathroom as a space where I can clean myself – in a metaphorical sense as well," said Teherani. "Here is where I arm myself for the day. This space protects me, offers me security, but at the same time, it doesn't restrict me but rather gives me a feeling of space and infinity."
The concept takes the form of a cupola, which is Teherani's way of conjuring those seemingly contradictory feelings of safety and liberation, security and freedom. It is "enveloping but not narrowing".
The cupola would sit at the centre of a home or hotel suite and be accessible from several points. It is inspired by Middle Eastern public baths, which would typically have several individual cupolas accommodating different functions.
In Teherani's design, an organically shaped bathtub sits directly under the cupola, with a spacious shower area and oval double washbasin around it.
"For me the cupola symbolises openness and secureness," said Teherani. "The vastness comes from the high arched ceiling with a glass mosaic that stretches across the room like the sky."
"When you lay here in the bathtub placed in the centre of the room you get the feeling of looking into the vastness of the starry sky."
This effect is enhanced by the chosen materials, which include glass mirror mosaic tiles that stretch from the floor to the cupola overhead. These reflect the light marble surfaces below, creating a glittering panorama of silvers and golds.
Teherani's bathroom concept is completed with Axor fittings in matt black: Axor Citterio E lever-handle and pin-handle faucets, Axor overhead and handheld showers, as well as Axor Universal Softsquare Accessories. He sees them as fulfilling the role of "functional jewellery".
"The faucets crown the bathroom concept with their timeless elegance and transport the water to the washbasin," said Teherani. "The overhead shower is a recharging area for new energy, the bathtub faucet the water source at the bathtub."
The bathroom demonstrates how linear fittings can be made to work in a round space, which Teherani said he accomplished by making "little cuts into the walls" and planning the positioning carefully.
"The good thing about Axor is that the brand offers so many individual product variants so that it's always possible to find a solution," he added.
Axor's Distinctive project explores the trend of individualisation in personal living spaces through interviews and conversations with experts and Axor design partners, as well as bathroom concepts designed by leading architects.
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Partnership content
This article was written by Dezeen for Axor as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.