A well-designed project completely transcends its function and becomes timeless. Some of Ideal Standard’s
designs, created by Italian icons such as Ponti and Castiglioni are perfect testimonies to this principle.
I am honored to follow in the footsteps of these Italian Masters and support Ideal Standard’s continued journey to design and develop innovations that will once again redefine not only bathroom design, but design in general.

The challenge was to find the relationship between Ideal Standard today and its design heritage.

This needed to start from an understanding of past projects in order to create a vision for the future.

To recreate products based on the archive drawings would have been simpler – but it was not what we wanted. Instead, our challenge was to take the essence of the past and make it relevant for today.

“Design is the result of the joint effort of many people from many different
backgrounds and skills: technical, industrial, commercial and beauty.
The designer’s role is the expressive synthesis of all these elements.”

— Achille Castiglioni

The geometries and sensual details of the design remain unchanged,
but advanced technologies enable new levels of purity in design –
and an ability to consider the whole environment – unthinkable in the 1970s.

By removing the unnecessary and identifying the individual values that are unique
to the project we can challenge conventions and are able to increase the sense
of identity. The bathroom is where function and beauty collide.
A place in daily use, but also an expression of ourselves and our values.

“There is a connection between the evolution of the bathroom and the changes we see in society.
We are seeing significant changes in habits related to contemporary living – the tendency towards co-housing, sharing of domestic spaces, which is now more and more common in our society.
As designers we cannot disregard these trends, these changes. We must anticipate them – even influence them. Because there is no doubt that in ten years from now the bathroom as we know, live and interpret it today will be completely different.”

The simplicity and the purity of shapes reflect the balance between function and emotion.
This is the cultural environment that forms the philosophy of the new project of Ideal Standard.
It’s no coincidence that it takes inspiration from its own roots.