Hygiene takes over
The history of the bathroom changed in the twentieth century when the intention to satisfy hygiene needs inside one's home had determined a quick reflection on the arrangement of domestic environments, attributing the bathroom a central role in this mutation.
Adapting to spaces: mimetic furnishings
The first solutions had to adapt to pre-existing spaces, thus giving rise to the first mimetic furnishings.
Initially positioned near the kitchen, to meet water needs, they were later moved near the bedroom.
At the same time, water heating systems also underwent specialization, with the widespread diffusion of containers that used urban gas to heat water.
Running Water Comes to the Bathroom
With the introduction of running water in homes, these pieces of furniture could be connected to both the water supply and the sewer system.
The supplies were often integrated with the surrounding furniture, resulting in the usual vision of sinks in cabinets made of materials such as ash and cherry. These pieces of furniture had legs and a frame in bronzed iron, completed with a border in black walnut, cherry or ash.
Bathroom and Modernist Architecture
The bathroom designed by Otto Wagner demonstrated his innovative ideas about functionality and hygiene in the design of living spaces. At the time, these concepts were crucial elements of modernist architecture, which aimed to adapt residential environments to the growing needs of society, embracing new standards of hygiene and comfort.
Wagner emerged, within the history of the bathroom, as the forerunner in connecting the concept of “hygiene” not only to functional purposes, but also to the aesthetic aspects of architecture.
His perspective, integrated into the theory of architectural modernization, transformed hygiene from an essential element for proper functioning to a fundamental prerequisite for a complete revolution in the field of architecture.
Adolf Loos: without plumbers there is no modernity
The result of this exhibition according to Adolf Loos, as he wrote on June 12, 1898 in the article The Interiors in the Rotunda, was a “jewel” of modernity, a change of pace in the history of the bathroom.
A few months later Loos wrote another article entitled The Plumbers where he argued that without the plumber there would be no modernity.
Loos seemed to indicate a shift of architectural attention to what escapes direct perception, to what is imperceptible.
The plumbing system, far from being exclusively an invisible infrastructure or the mechanical part of buildings, instead becomes a functional aesthetic component.
The plumbing system reveals itself as an element of spatial organization. In this way, it becomes a key element in architectural design and in the history of the bathroom as we know it today.
On the cover: On the occasion of the 1898 Jubilee of Vienna, the Austrian architect Otto Wagner exhibits a bathroom that has as its model that of his residence. But with the innovation of a transparent glass bathtub and a single type of white and violet striped fabric on the wall, on the floor, for towels and bathrobes. Ph Courtesy Österreichische nationalbibliothek.