Boutique Hotel Volkshaus – Successful Mixture
As one of the world’s leading bathroom fitters, we at LAUFEN, named for our home city of Laufen in the Basel region, are known for high-quality complete bathrooms and faucets for both, bathroom and kitchen. In addition to private homes and public facilities, we have proven our expertise in the hospitality sector, too. One of the first and most important projects was the luxurious five-star hotel, the Mondrian Doha in Qatar, which was designed by Marcel Wanders. For the 12 different types of guest rooms, LAUFEN delivered all the elements for the 270 bathrooms. As in other hospitality projects involving LAUFEN, the recipe for success called for a proven mix of serial and custom-made products.
In its successful collaboration with Herzog & de Meuron on the New York residential project 56 Leonard, LAUFEN demonstrated its ability to provide custom-made products. The service from LAUFEN made it possible for designers and architects to design and plan customized solutions for bathrooms and other areas.
Marcel Wanders designed the luxurious Mondrian Doha Hotel, including some bathtubs and washbasins, which LAUFEN produced.
Guests at the luxury hotel Mondrian Doha can enjoy the view from the Falcon Tower in the West Bay Lagoon in Doha, the capital of Qatar.
For the spectacular residential tower 56 Leonard Street in New York City, LAUFEN worked with the designs from architects Herzog & de Meuron to produce 411 washbasins, 142 free-standing bathtubs and 577 matte-finished toilets with their own “56” signature.
While toilets and washbasins for the Mondrian Doha were selected from the portfolio of standard products, washbasins from the LAUFEN Pro series and toilets from the Palomba Collection, bathrooms also were equipped with bathtubs and vanity units that LAUFEN BESPOKE produced according to Wanders’ designs. The successful collaboration with Wanders began with 56 Leonard, continued with the launch of jointly developed The New Classic series in 2018 and came full circle with the 2022 opening of the Fairmont & Raffles Hotel in Doha, which featured designs by Wanders and bathroom products from LAUFEN.
“One of our basic principles in working with decision makers is listening to what they say about the elements they want realized in their projects. Communication and story-telling are in the foreground,“ says Ilker Hussein, Commercial Director at LAUFEN. “Every project has its own story and there is an art to grasping it.“
The VAL washbasin from LAUFEN awaits guests in the boutique hotel Volkshaus Basel.
The renowned architects Herzog & de Meuron revived the Volkshaus in Basel and restored the architectural identity to the public spaces and guest rooms.
In the hotel Volkshaus Basel too, the design and implementation of the bathrooms were inspired by the building’s history, which goes back to the 14th century. In addition to the boutique hotel, the historic Volkshaus houses a brasserie and a concert hall.
In 2013, Herzog & de Meuron restored the bar, the brasserie and some of the event rooms in the building. The last step in the transformation was the completion of the hotel in 2020.
Once again LAUFEN was commissioned to equip the bathrooms for the 45 hotel rooms. At the time the building was constructed, it was customary to put bathrooms and showers in the hallways. In keeping with the history of the building, the hotel’s showers and toilets were installed discreetly behind black-stained oak doors while the VAL washbasins were placed at the front of the room where they could be seen and admired. This design reminds guests of the building’s history and draws attention to the skillful implementation with products made by LAUFEN.
