Small wonder: Cayonoplan Multispace from Kaldewei

It was an unforgettable day. Travelling to Ahlen in North Rhine-Westphalia, I finally got to meet one of my heroes – the legendary architect and designer Ettore Sottsass.

The occasion was the opening of KALDEWEI Iconic World in 2005. With cladding featuring coloured enamel elements, the external design of this building bears witness to the manufacturer's long tradition in the field of enamel processing. From a podium, Sottsass, already an impressive 87 years of age at the time, answered questions about bathroom design – not least ones related to his own advanced years.

He radiated sage serenity and formulated his thoughts with a mixture of precision, experience and poetry. One astute statement of his can still be found on the KALDEWEI website today: 'According to an age-old tradition, the bathroom is a place where you put your thoughts in order.'

In designing bathrooms, his primary focus was not on washing the body, he stated, but with refreshing the mind and soul. Sottsass designed a variety of products for KALDEWEI, and the company's collaboration with his Milan studio continued even after his death.

There is no doubt that the elderly have special needs when it comes to bathrooms, but a point which is often forgotten is that these are not just purely functional, but also aesthetic.

Even in advanced age, those who have always been interested in the beauty of objects continue to appreciate well-designed rooms and spatial solutions. So when we think about accessibility concepts, it is precisely those designs that don't necessarily appear barrier-free at first glance that are particularly impressive.

The new Cayonoplan Multispace shower concept developed in-house by KALDEWEI is such a product. Its designers took up a challenge that is part of the everyday lives of many people, in other words using the floor area of the shower as an element to create additional space, especially in smaller bathrooms.

The starting point for the considerations was a highly compact bathroom with a floor space of just 4sqm. In such spaces, practically every centimetre counts. In these mini-bathrooms, the shower often takes up a lot of space, and a raised shower tray surround represents a barrier which can also become a tripping hazard.

The walk-in shower solution from KALDEWEI is barrier-free and leaves up to 60% of its floor area – a generous 120 x 120cm – available for movement.

A decisive criterion for safety in the shower is the anti-slip properties of the floor, which is ensured here by the Secure Plus surface finish and its group B rating from the TÜV Rheinland technical inspection body. It ensures that people can stand safely and without slipping while showering. A vital factor – and not only for older people.

A barely perceptible incline in the floor surface also ensures safe drainage during showering. The result is a DIN 18040-2-certified solution which is highly effective in the smallest of spaces. The Cayonoplan Multispace's impact sound insulation – which comes in 25 dB and 30 dB versions – is an invisible but also extremely useful feature.

There's no doubt that most architects and interior designers appreciate minimalist design approaches. And this is where the purist design of the Cayonoplan Multispace offers an elegant alternative that matches a wide range of interior styles: designers can choose from ten different, finely-correlated shades of colour.

A further practical feature is that these are also available in virtual form for bathroom planning: 3D and BIM planning data is available on the KALDEWEI website, enabling virtual experimentation with a variety of colour and spatial design solutions.

And talking of colours, distinct contrasts to the rest of the bathroom floor are recommended in order to provide clear guidance for people with impaired vision. But, with the ten colour variants offered by the Cayonoplan Multispace range, this should not present a problem.

It's no wonder that this well-thought-out design has already impressed the red dot awards' jury. And what might Ettore Sottsass make of the design if he were here? We have no idea, but regardless, his non-slip place in the Olympus of Design is secure – a place also without barriers, surely.

© Architonic