Rejuvenation Station: Dornbracht

People do sport. People eat healthily. People wear pedometers on their wrists, and use apps on their smartphones to measure their body mass index and heart rate. The stark demographic prognosis has seized society firmly by its Achilles heel and won’t relax its grip: we are getting older than expected. But we want to maximise our fitness and health as we age.

We have no choice but to face the challenge that this poses, and it demands our full attention. In the bath, health-enhancing water applications are called for. These are meant to help us feel fresh and put a lifelong spring in our step. Andreas Dornbracht, managing partner of the Dornbracht company, embraces these new developments. The pragmatic pioneer joins forces with winning design and expert teams to strike out on ever-new paths. What captures his imagination is the benefit a product offers. And this has far-reaching consequences.

For generations, the firm has inspired a whole industry – not only through its distinctive design vocabulary, but in its responsible use of water as well. Yet the Dornbracht name also stands for the special, refreshing experience of water, which the company has consistently and skilfully given expression to for over thirty years in its groundbreaking, unmistakeable products. Its Ambiance Tuning Technique, or ATT, for example, enables the user to custom-choreograph his or her own water experience in the bathroom. This technology is employed in numerous Dornbracht products, such as the Horizontal Shower, which offers a reclining shower experience of pure pleasure, complete with a water massage function. In cooperation with the Italian manufacturer Effegibi, the Horizontal Shower has newly been combined with the amenities of a steam bath.

More than a bath

In 2017, Dornbracht takes another big step, presenting a programme decisively focused on health. It will come as no surprise that LifeSpa integrates the Kneipp principles and ideas from traditional Chinese medicine, applying these various sources in a modern interpretation. And the future calls for just such an interfacing of influences. Andreas Dornbracht has the trend clearly in view. “In the future, preventive health care will take place largely in the home,” he says. “Water applications can enrich a health-conscious lifestyle in many ways – with regard not just to physical fitness, but also mental performance and vital energy.”

The LifeSpa experience centres on the salutary encounter of body, mind and water, which can take various forms. One is aqua pressure for health-promoting and preventive applications, as offered by the Vertical Shower. This incorporates the new types of water streams emitted by the individually adjustable massage jets – WaterCurve for the neck area and WaterFan for the chest and lower back. The stream types are combined to gently envelop or pleasantly massage the body, while the pre-programmed Signature Treatments replicate classical acupressure.

Water, the lifeline

Today, the fact that health and beauty go hand in hand no longer needs explanation. It is precisely this self-evident principle that underlies the combination of the therapeutic and the pleasurable in all Dornbracht product solutions, which are designed with an eye to everything that enlivens, cares for and tones the body, from head to toe. The Hot & Cold Water Dispenser provides refreshing drinking water – for a cool glass, or a warming cup of tea. The laminar jet of the Dornbracht Affusion Pipe delivers a bracingly cold, invigorating fountain for the face and arms. This jet is also put to very effective use in the Dornbracht Water Tube for Kneipp affusions that stimulate the circulatory system, and it can be integrated in the daily shower as desired. At the touch of a button, the Foot Bath completes the full-body treatment with a vitalising or soothing massage.

Also of special note is a current Dornbracht design study: Aquamoon creates a new kind of encounter with water by enveloping the body in whatever way the user wishes. In combination with a concentrated, varying ambience of light, a repertoire of water applications ranging from weightless mist to a powerful cascade immerses the body and spirit in a multisensory experience – one that makes manifest the holistic approach that is woven right into Dornbracht’s DNA. Much more than a collection of free-floating singular features, LifeSpa is literally the confluence of all of these elements. In addition, the comprehensive Dornbracht product range gives architects and planners a variety of means by which to shape the most diverse bathroom landscapes with great flexibility.

© Architonic