The ClassicLine series from Unidrain has been expanded and now includes six different options in brushed stainless steel; the Column, Stripe, Anniversario, Classic, Square and Inca, each with their own unique grating design.
ClassicLine is the original linear floor drain and it was this invention that helped create Unidrain. This initial drain was a revelation – the patented wall and floor flanges, which enable the drain to be positioned against the wall yet keeping the surfaces 100% waterproof was a game-changer in the drainage world. The ClassicLine was introduced in 2003 and has since won numerous design awards. The original design series consists of a frame and a grating, with the frame holding the grating in place.
Established in 2003 this design company has gone from inventing the linear floor drain to creating a leading international brand, spreading Danish design ethics and Nordic minimalism to the rest of the globe. From five star hotels in the Maldives, to the Award-winning Herman K in Copenhagen Unidrain products and accessories play a key role in the look and feel of the most stylish bathrooms on the planet.
Global bathroom manufacturer Roca has been selected for the new bathrooms at the newly refurbished, four-star luxury Dunkeld House Hotel in the beautiful Scottish countryside.
Nestled in the beautiful Perthshire landscape, Dunkeld House Hotel boasts an unrivalled experience of Scottish country living. Situated in 280 acres of gardens and natural woodland and overlooking the River Tay, renowned for its famous salmon fishing, the hotel is a place to escape the hustle and bustle of city life and enjoy nature and Scottish scenery in all its tranquillity.
The stunning hotel offers the very best of Scottish hospitality and features spa facilities, award-winning food and drink, and outstanding hotel bedrooms and suites. Following a recent refurbishment, the hotel has recently reopened to reveal beautifully designed new guest bathrooms, featuring innovative and stylish products from Roca and Laufen.
Family Room Bathroom
The Brief
The hotel’s design team overseeing the project were looking for high-quality bathroom products that would complement the luxury interiors of the hotel, whilst delivering contemporary style and clever functionality to suit their discerning guests.
Roca Group’s extensive knowledge and wide range of bathroom products from both Roca and Laufen brands, enabled the team to provide authentic and customized solutions that go above and beyond expectation.
The Specification
42 bathrooms were refurbished including 40 standard guest en-suite bathrooms and two luxurious suites.
The bathrooms feature the vanity unit and elegant washbasin from the award-winning The New Classic range designed for Laufen in collaboration with designer Marcel Wanders. Engaged to re-interpret classical styles using the material SaphirKeramik, every item included in The New Classic collection brings together the designer’s flair and creativity with Laufen’s mastery of raw materials. SaphirKeramik is renowned for its extremely fine walls with a thickness of around three millimetres, creating extremely thin and fine edges whilst still being very robust. The washbasin bowl sits on the elegant walnut vanity stand featuring a convenient towel rail, which is inspired by a neo-classical design aesthetic.
The New Classic vanity offers a superb focal point for the bathroom and is completed with Laufen’s stylish Val basin mixer, part of the iconic Val collection. The tactile design is created by the conical shape, as well as in the delicate-looking operating lever with its voluminous underside. This gives the single-lever mixers a slim, light look which characterises the sophisticated Val range.
Roca’s stylish rectangular steel Carla bath is another key feature, with an anti-slip base and maxiflow bath filler. The Carla collection stands out because of its warmth, freshness and versatility. These characteristics make it ideal for any kind of space, combining design, technology and style.
The two suites feature the elegant freestanding bath from Roca’s luxury bath collection, with soft curved lines and deep sides for a luxurious bathing experience. The bathing area includes the L90 floor fitted column bath/shower mixer for added versatility.
Roca’s Victoria T (T-500) concealed shower valve with generous Rainsense shower head, hose and Stella handset and shower rail kit are used in the generous shower area.
The WC’s are from Roca’s ever-popular The Gap range including The Gap back-to-wall, floor-standing WC with a luxury soft close toilet seat. Designed by gold medal-winning ceramic designer Antonio Bullo, this collection delivers both a compact, contemporary and functional style, making it the perfect choice for the hotel bathroom.
Stylish accessories from Roca complete the overall look, including the Hotel toilet roll holder in chrome and Tempo robe hook.
Deborah Wadd, Specification Manager for Roca comments:
“The Roca and Laufen products look simply stunning in this beautiful hotel. We are delighted to have been chosen for this project and feel that the Roca Group’s heritage of iconic design and timeless innovation make it an ideal fit for this superb Scottish hotel.”
Gary McDonald, General Manager of the Dunkeld House Hotel comments: “We are thrilled to be welcoming guests back to the hotel and know they will be suitably impressed with our stunning refurbishment, including the fabulous new bathrooms, which reflect the luxury experience that we are renowned for.”
Oxfordshire based VitrA Bathrooms has published a new library of award-winning print brochures for both their Bathroom Collection and their Designer Collection.
For each collection, the company has produced one brochure with the end-user, the bathroom-purchaser in mind, and another brochure that acts as a complete technical guide for retailers and specifiers.
Each brochure offers an easy, instinctive journey through the best bathroom product design with the consumer brochure being peppered with style and design recommendations, sizes, prices, and suggestions for complementing ideas and products. The brochures share stunning lifestyle imagery of VitrA’s in-house designs as well as collaborations with international designers. Available in print and online, the design of VitrA’s brochures has been recognised with an award for Best Catalogue Creative & Print Production Partnership – awarded by the Direct Commerce Association to VitrA Bathrooms and its creative agency commissioned for the project Mark-Making*
Margaret Talbot, marketing manager for VitrA in the UK and Europe, explains, “These brochures are a step-change in bathroom marketing tools, each is a detailed and inspirational bathroom guide for consumers, designers and importantly our retailers. This suite, complemented by online formats along with a range of videos, aims to provide maximum support for anyone interested in bathrooms for themselves or their customer.”
Online bathroom retailer Victoria Plum has pledged to fund the planting of thousands of trees around the world over the next 12 months.
The company has partnered with JUST ONE Tree, a non-profit initiative working to remove CO2 from the atmosphere and reverse biodiversity loss through global reforestation. The Barnet-based organisation provides a platform for businesses to take collective action on rising global temperatures.
Every pound donated funds the planting of one tree and also supports JUST ONE Tree’s oceans project which sees it plant mangroves and implement kelp regeneration programmes worldwide. Donations also enable the initiative to take environmental education into the classroom and fund reforestation organisations in countries such as Madagascar, Haiti, Indonesia, Mozambique and Nepal.
JUST ONE Tree also helps to provide agricultural training to local communities on how to plant and care for trees and ensuring sustainable incomes.
Victoria Plum’s commitment will see the company donate funds from the business on behalf of its employees in place of birthday, wedding or Christmas gifts to help it plant thousands of trees within 12 months. The retailer has already donated a tree for each one of its 400 employees, who are also encouraged to fundraise for the cause throughout the year.
Victoria Plum chief executive, Paul McClenaghan, said: “Environmental concerns continue to dominate the narrative across the globe. It is a topic close to the hearts of many of our colleagues at Victoria Plum, so I am very pleased to launch this partnership.
“JUST ONE Tree is doing phenomenal work facilitating action within schools and business and making a real difference to people’s lives and the environment.
“In business, there’s always room to do the right thing. We are proud to support such an important initiative and play our part in the fight against climate change by enabling the planting of thousands of trees, helping restore the oceans and assisting the provision of continued education on the environment.”
The JUST ONE Tree initiative is one of several new sustainability measures introduced by Victoria Plum. Others include a reduction in packaging, replacing plastic with recyclable materials where possible and the creation of an eco-bathroom range with features designed to help save water.
Eco deliveries have also been introduced by Victoria Plum with cleaner, more efficient vehicles and better route planning to help reduce driver time on the road. Furthermore, if a customer opts for an eco-delivery for their bathroom Victoria Plum will donate a tree on their behalf.
JUST ONE Tree founder, Amanda Bronkhorst, commented: “JUST ONE Tree is founded on the principle of collective action. Now more than ever it is imperative we give back to our environment and dramatically restrict our carbon emissions to prevent the worst impacts of climate change.
“To have a business such as Victoria Plum supporting us is fantastic. JUST ONE Tree is a collective of individuals schools and businesses all coming together to have the greatest impact, so we are thrilled to have an organisation such as Victoria Plum join with us. We look forward to a long and successful partnership together.”
Doncaster-headquartered Victoria Plum was founded 20 years ago, has a turnover of £103m and employs close to 400 people.
The Environment Secretary George Eustice has today given a written statement to Parliament on the policy intentions regarding water efficiency.
The announcements include:
Regulations to introduce a mandatory water efficiency label to inform consumers and encourage the purchase of more water efficient products
Write to local authorities to encourage them to adopt the optional minimum building standard of 110 litres per person per day in all new builds where there is a clear local need, such as in water stressed areas
Develop a roadmap towards greater water efficiency in new developments and retrofits, including the exploration of revised building regulations and how the development of new technologies can contribute to meeting these standards. They will ensure that the underlying legislation can, where appropriate, accommodate any potential future expansion of rainwater harvesting, water re-use and storage options.
BMA Chief Executive, Tom Reynolds, said: “BMA and its members are committed to working with Government to develop and implement any new mandatory UK requirement.
“The Unified Water Label is tried and tested, and already backed by industry, providing an efficient and effective way for Government to ensure consumers are fully informed, and it will avoid the confusion of double labelling.
“More than two-thirds of domestic water use is used in the bathroom, and manufacturers are ready to lead the way in helping everyone reduce their water use.”
Virtual Worlds is helping put the fun into the birthday celebrations at Ideal Bathrooms, making an interactive online game for the brand to mark the special occasion.
As the Ideal Bathrooms own brand Essential’s catalogue goes live on the Virtual Worlds system, the game is another perfect pairing, putting the skills of the Virtual Worlds developers to the test while giving Ideal Bathrooms customers a fun way to mark 40 years.
In the virtual Ideal Bathrooms roomset, complete with products from its Essentials range, gamers can battle their way to the top of the leader board. Good mouse control and a steady head are needed, along with a long lunchbreak as the game is highly addictive!
“It’s been a pleasure to work with Ideal Bathrooms in its 40th anniversary year, launching their catalogue on to the Virtual Worlds system and welcoming more retailers on board as the brand offered 40% off our licence fee,” commented Nathan Maclean, Managing Director of Virtual Worlds.
“The game is a little bit of fun that we certainly had a lot of fun making and will hopefully result in even more traffic to the Ideal Bathrooms website. After all, who says that turning 40 need be boring?!”
Virtual Worlds is the UK market leader in innovation-led CAD technology for the KBB market. Since launching in 1998, it has broken boundaries in virtual technology innovation – being the first company to develop 3D design software for KBB retailers and, most recently, launching its new 4D Showroom Technology. Virtual Worlds is a division of Logicom Computer Services (UK) Ltd
CRL Stone has introduced a new brochure dedicated to its CRL Quartz surfaces, encompassing the full range including three brand new colours.
As sleek and sophisticated as the surfaces themselves, the new brochure runs to 92 pages, with stunning real-life photography aiming to inspire consumers and full product specification details to give retailers all the information they need at a glance.
With each collection within the CRL Quartz range clearly categorised, this is an easy-to-use guide, that encourages consumers to browse at their leisure.
Particular highlights of the updated brochure are the three new colours now available, Vesuvius, Staccato and Urban Grey. Tapping into the latest trends for nature-inspired materials and dulcet, muted tones in the kitchen and bathroom, these three new shades complement the existing CRL Quartz brilliantly, with all the benefits that the surface offers combining with beautiful good looks.
Alongside full product descriptions and photography of each surface, the brochure also includes a comprehensive list of features and benefits of the material, plus care instructions, enabling consumers to instantly see why choosing CRL Quartz for their kitchen or bathroom project is a good investment.
For copies of the new brochure visit www.crlquartz.co.uk, or call CRL Stone on 01706 863 600.
To coincide with the successful launch of the latest bathroom series by Philippe Starck, Duravit UK has announced the launch of its Showroom Design Competition, in partnership with Virtual Worlds.
Open to all Duravit Showrooms within the UK & Ireland, entries can be submitted from now until 10th September 2021. During this time, Duravit UK invites showroom designers to submit a design for a showroom display space which must include the complete White Tulip series, for the chance to win products specified upto the value of £15,000 (ex VAT).
A panel will judge the entrants based on creativity, use of the White Tulip series and overall use of the showroom space. The winner will be announced in October 2021. The final showroom display must be realized by 31st December 2021 to qualify for the prize.
Martin Carroll, Managing Director of Duravit UK comments: “We are delighted to be partnering with Virtual Worlds for this exciting competition which will hopefully uncover the extensive design talent within our showroom partners and the industry”. We are very excited about the launch of another Philippe Starck series and will be very interested to see how our showroom partners can create their interpretation of the environment this series deserves.
Full terms and conditions can be viewed at www.duravit.co.uk/showroom-competition-terms
EDGE a sustainability-focused design and construction showroom, will launch its London resource centre in Marylebone. The first of its kind, EDGE (Eco Design Green Environment) will showcase sustainability-minded brands, and will serve as an environmental hub where sustainability-conscious materials suppliers and specifiers such as construction companies, architects and interior designers can connect.
The approximately 2400 square-foot EDGE centre will display cutting-edge solutions at the forefront of the sustainable design movement – a rapidly growing end-consumer trend as well as a crucial tool for a city like London to help it to achieve its climate-change-related goals and strengthen its perception as a leader in sustainability. Spanning three floors, EDGE offers a continually evolving, design-centred showcase of educational and aesthetic materials, collaborative workspaces, with on-hand advice for professionals and the public alike.
George Papatheodorou, CEO of EDGE London, commented
“We spend 80 per cent of our time indoors and at a time when the debate surrounding humankind’s impact on the earth, its climate and the people who inhabit it continues to intensify, it is more important than ever that we have a responsible attitude to material specification. To do so requires makers and manufacturers to take a considered approach to sustainability and at EDGE we make it our mission to find them. We do not believe that materials designed to reduce their negative social and environmental impact should ever hinder innovation – if anything, they should enhance it.”
The hub will host both large, established brands as well as small independents, offering variety in everything from walls and floors to sustainable furniture. EDGE partners with and promotes materials manufacturers who prioritise sourcing raw materials based on provenance and quantity required; who aim to improve energy efficiency and reduce operations-related emissions; reuse resources, recycle waste and promote a more circular economy; create regenerative materials; and utilise closed-loop production methods.
It will feature brands in surfaces and space-enhancing solutions such as Kerakoll, Mobilane, Gencork, Sound Zero, Scale, Newtab22, Smile Plastic, Old Fashioned Milk Paint, and AFM Safecoat, as well as furniture and interiors brands such as Mater, Camira, Aurore Piette and Grown Bio. Amongst the interior and exterior building materials brands to be showcased are Bolon, Puretree, Amorim, Mogu, Woodpecker Flooring, Bio ean, Thermafleece, Bencore, Durat, Richlite, Aquaco Water Recycling, with many more being vetted and expected to come aboard in the coming months.
To mark their 25th anniversary, Spanish bathroom manufacturer Acquabella has created a new design concept around the number 25.
The Quiz design has a beautiful linear effect based around a subtle geometric focus, with 25 individual lines converging to make the dynamic diagonal lined pattern. This ingenious design creates movement and texture, bringing the bathroom to life. A true “Line of Beauty”.
Fernando Maceda, Product Manager of the Quiz range from Acquabella says, “using the linear design we aimed to do something different to represent the history of Acquabella: 25 years of innovative creations that blend into a unique finish that is formed by different textures set beneath geometric patterns. Avant-garde translated into an Haute Couture piece”.
