Psychologist Esther Perel, who has dealt far and wide with body and senses, says that sooner or later culture and thought meet the body. As if to say that our physicality is the indispensable verification of any idea we may have of the world. The body claims a primacy over the mind, over projects, over styles. Designing a bathroom or its individual components is challenging, because any typological or decorative invention collides with the gestures of care and intimacy, for oneself and for others.
We have seen these spaces in the house increasingly claim to be something different. Bathroom yes, but also spa. Bathroom, but also beauty center, therapeutic space, place of the senses, thermal fountain, domestic waterfall. Many things, perhaps too many. However, typological innovation of the bathroom tout court is rare. “The role of design is limited until we can tell ourselves what we want to do with our bodies” comments Odoardo Fioravanti. “I would like to design spaces that respond to desires. But it is still difficult to talk about the body, desire and well-being understood as pleasure. Perhaps in Nordic cultures the issue is more resolved. A small cultural step is still missing here”.
