Places of inspiration

With BettePlaces, Bette has created a showroom that allows visitors to experience bathroom architecture first-hand: In various micro houses, the company shows differently designed rooms that pick up references from other cultures and illustrate how diverse bathroom worlds can be. The aim is to use a combination of different theme worlds, a minimalist design and various Bette products to design inspiring spaces that stimulate creativity. This includes a bathroom pavilion in the style of a Japanese Tiny House, designed as a retreat in the middle of a snow-covered mountain landscape near Tokyo.

The minimalist architecture of the pavilion is composed of wood and a lot of daylight. An underlying wooden design characterizes the interior, which radiates a cozy warmth thanks to light spruce wood on the floor, walls and ceiling. A large glass façade and a floor-to-ceiling window at the back bring light into the micro-house, which was conceived as a simple box and whose reduced and abstract body forms the greatest possible contrast to the impressive natural backdrop. "The fine art of aesthetics is revealed when you strip back to the essentials," says Sven Rensinghoff, Head of Marketing & Product Management, about the concept behind it.

The facade of the pavilion is a special detail: it is clad with a black-fired wood using the traditional Japanese suyaki technique. In this process, the surface is carbonized by controlled burning and then sealed with oil. Also known as "alligator skin," the surface forms a charred layer of soot that is robust, water-repellent, fire-retardant, UV-resistant, and color-fast – a sustainable technique that makes the black to silvery wood last for centuries, with more or less texture depending on the degree of carbonization.

The bathroom furniture also picks up on the Japanese aesthetics of the pavilion. The "BetteComodo" and "BetteUltra" bathroom elements are precisely placed in the room and, with their clear white contours, form a contrast to the wooden surfaces. At the same time, the built-in bathtub and washbasin from "BetteComodo" as well as the "BetteUltra" shower tray with their reduced design language fit naturally into the spatial geometry of the pavilion. Black details and accessories pick up on the façade look and provide further design accents inside. The interplay between the daylight and the materials used creates an atmospheric architecture that skilfully combines Japanese aesthetics with Bette products.