The Bathroom as an Experience
Villeroy & Boch is a brand steeped in tradition and its products are fixed entities in households the world over. Everything started with a crafts workshop back in 1748. Then, in 1836, two friends, Jean-Francois Boch and Nicolas Villeroy, merged their successful businesses to form a single, internationally operating ceramics manufacturing company. Today Villeroy & Boch in Mettlach is under the management of the ninth generation of its original founding families.
A renowned ceramics manufacturer, Villeroy & Boch has also made a significant contribution to advances in the field of “bathrooms & wellness” and pushed for the democratization of bathroom facilities. With its passion for innovation and design, in 1975, the company started collaborating with designer Luigi Colani, who saw the bathroom’s potential as a place where people could relax, as a design statement and an expression of personality. In this way, Villeroy & Boch encouraged a bold change of perspective, no longer seeing the bathroom as a purely functional space, but allowing it to become an experience. This trailblazing creative collaboration was followed by many more, for instance with artist Keith Haring, and with designers Gesa Hansen and Christian Haas.
By combining sophisticated products, well-thought-out solutions and cutting-edge technology the company has developed into one of the leading premium brands. Thanks to the pioneering spirit that is part of its DNA, Villeroy & Boch has been able to establish itself as a one-stop shop for both top-class bathrooms and other leading stylish products. Moreover, the particularly refined shapes of its ceramic products reduce not only water consumption but also the effort needed to clean bathrooms.
One current example of Villeroy & Boch’s state-of-the-art bathroom products is its “Antao” collection, developed in collaboration with designer duo kaschkasch. A holistic approach, for which Sebastian Schneider and Florian Kallus took their inspiration from the asymmetric shape of a dewdrop on a leaf. Not only the ceramicware but also the bathtub, the furniture made of solid wood, and the tap fittings boast an organic design with a character that is all their own. For the finishes and the colors kaschkasch has opted for a harmonious range in which, as with a capsule wardrobe, every element matches all the others, something that makes it easier to plan the relevant bathroom. Furthermore, matching illuminated mirrors mean that modern lighting technology forms part of the “Antao” collection, the kind that boasts touch sensors and provides atmospheric lighting.
With this harmonious interplay between innovation, tradition, and contemporaneity, Villeroy & Boch has over the past 275 years succeeded not only in defining a unique profile for itself, but also in creating a design idiom that countless generations have since associated with the idea of ‘home’. “Thanks to our wide range of products, we have become an ‘assemble to order’ company, one that has succeeded in making customers’ homes truly comfortable. Way back when, all we offered was a functional entity, today we provide a place where you can relax,” explains Luitwin Gisbert von Boch.
