Press

3DAYSOFDESIGN

Spotlight on design and sustainability

May 02, 2019

LAUFEN@3daysofdesign
23–25 May 2019, Copenhagen

Laufen Bathrooms was proud to be part of the 3daysofdesign again, Copenhagen’s leading annual event for design enthusiasts from around the globe. The Swiss bathroom brand is well-known to be driven by design and innovation and a passion for architecture. With its engagement within the 3daysofdesign Laufen wanted to expand its dialogue within the architecture and design community in the Northern European countries.

During the event, Laufen was part of the Open Embassy, an initiative by the Swiss Embassy, which opened its gates for renowned or emerging Swiss designers and companies to illustrate the diversity and depth of classical and contemporary Swiss design. There, Laufen was showing pieces from its Sonar and Val bathroom collections made of SaphirKeramik as well as a ground-breaking urine-separation toilet, which is intended to reduce the environmental pollution caused by nitrates.

In the courtyard_SaphirKeramik

With SaphirKeramik, Laufen has developed one of the most exciting bathroom material innovations of recent years. A very hard and rigid ceramic, which for the first time allows very thin, but extremely robust ceramic walls and at the same time a defined rim – and has revolutionised the conventions of bathroom design, kick-starting a trend towards a lighter styling with a more pronounced graphic aesthetic. Thanks to this material, the Swiss brand is also able to offer new takes on the humble washbasin and even new applications for it, for example double washbasins in single-washbasin dimensions, washbasin bowls with an integral overflow, or freestanding washbasins with a minimal footprint or semi-dry areas within the basin – new ideas that are simply unthinkable with conventional ceramic bathroom products. To implement its design ideas, Laufen has worked with the internationally celebrated designers Patricia Urquiola (Sonar) and Konstantin Grcic (Val).

On the pier_save! The toilet revolution

Laufen is also highly aware of its responsibility for its impact on people and the environment. The rational use of water and recycling wastewater are fundamental to our future and represent significant challenges and opportunities. To this end, the Swiss manufacturer has begun a fruitful cooperation with EOOS to develop the Austrian design company’s revolutionary proposal for a new kind of waste-separation WC (developed for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) into a marketable product. With the new WC Save! Laufen shows a sustainable, new product that meets a little-known but all the more serious environmental problem of our time: excessive nitrogen levels caused by sewage and the agricultural use of fertilisers are more threatening even than rising CO2 levels and climate change. save! is the first gravity flushed urine-diverting toilet that functions like a conventional flushing toilet. It separates urine from solids and flush water so it can be treated using fast, simple and organic wastewater management processes.

Captions
Photo credits: Laufen