Bathrooms then and now
Is showering a bit like a mini-break for you? A moment that’s all yours, a little bit of comfort for body and soul.
Time just for you. Where can we find that in our everyday lives? Exactly – in the bathroom, under the shower! When warm water runs slowly over your skin and makes it tingle, and a gentle stream of water massages your scalp, allowing you to breathe a little more deeply. You’re left feeling not only clean, but also relaxed. In short, you feel comfortable in your skin. But water hasn’t always meant cleanliness and relaxation. In the 17th and early 18th centuries, washing with water was considered unhealthy, because it was thought that water carried and caused disease if it came into contact with the skin.
Real convenience
A bathroom with a shower is pretty standard these days, wouldn’t you say? Well yes, in many parts of the world, that is true. But right up until the middle of the 19th century, it was normal to visit public washing and bathing facilities to take care of your personal hygiene – and our grandparents will still be able to recall what it was like when the whole family gathered in the kitchen on Saturday evenings to hop into the washtub one after another. It was only in the mid-20th century that the bathroom became a room in the home in its own right. In the 1950s, the appearance of a bathroom was secondary: the functional aspects of daily washing were the primary focus. Bathrooms were small and special attention was given to ensuring privacy. Only in the 2000s did the bathroom emerge in its new form as a more open, often more generously proportioned room, without opaque shower cubicles and partition walls.
Health and wellbeing
Today, in the age of a distinctive cult of the body, we are spending more and more time in the bathroom and have developed our own personal rituals for wellbeing and self-care. According to a study by the Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung (Society for Consumer Research), 41 per cent of survey respondents said that the bathroom is an important place of respite for them. 70 per cent said that relaxation is important to them. Wellness showers, aromatherapy programmes and special light effects are increasing in popularity, as is sound and entertainment technology. Another interesting fact to emerge from the study is that 70 per cent of over 55s agree that “Personal hygiene is an important prerequisite for me to feel young.”
Visual design is important too
Incidentally, for anyone who wants to create the perfect sense of wellbeing in the bathroom, take note: design, materials and texture in the room and furniture, as well as the right lighting, are key here. Only high-quality furnishings in combination with individual self-care rituals create the perfect environment for wellbeing and a place that allows you to relax so that creative ideas can flow.
Which bathroom is the right one for you?
But, what exactly are your needs? Is space, cleanliness or the design important to you? Would you like user-friendly products or would you prefer that extra degree of comfort that the Geberit AquaClean shower toilet, for example, has to offer? Or would you prefer a universal design? No matter what your needs are, we simplify your daily routine with our clever bathroom solutions.
More space in the bathroom
Higher standard of cleanliness in the bathroom
More functional design in the bathroom
Greater comfort in the bathroom
Increased accessibility in the bathroom
Improved usability in the bathroom