Design Update –3 –Cool Moist Biome, Gardens by the Bay, Singapore, Wilkinsoneyre the Water Issue

Design Update –3 –Cool moist biome, Gardens by the Bay, Singapore, WilkinsonEyre The Water Issue 66 per cent of the world’s inhabitants could live in water- I find it extremely encouraging that the debate stressed conditions by 2025 –GOV.UK around water consumption and treatment has become so prominent. In school most of us were only taught the facts and “Water is life, and clean water means percentages of how much water covered the earth or how health” –AUDREY HEPBURN much filled our bodies, missing out on a more philosophical understanding of how important water is in our lives. “Water, in all its forms, is what carries the knowledge of life As a bathroom specialist it’s a topic that, unsurprisingly, throughout the universe.”– tends to be at the forefront of our minds – whether it’s the ANTHONY T. HINCKS physics and chemistry of water or less tangible outcomes like “In rivers, the water that you touch is the last of relaxation and wellbeing. what has passed and the first of that which So this issue of Design Update picks up the debate and looks comes; so with present to the past and to the future with the theme of water. We hear time.”– LEONARDO DA VINCI from leading design journalists, industry professionals and One in four of the some of the VitrA team on how new ways of thinking are even world’s cities are shaping how a tap is turned on or off. already experiencing water stress –RACONTEUR This issue runs in parallel with the preparation of our new A leaky tap can waste London showroom near Farringdon station. Since learning as much as 450 litres of and innovating by discussion is one of the most important water a day – THINK H20 aspects of what we do, we’ve dedicated an area of the building to social space. We look forward to welcoming you here to continue the discussions started on the following pages. Global demand for water has increased sixfold in the last 100 years and continues to grow at a rate of around 1–2 per cent per annum – GLOBAL WATER FORUM – MARGARET TALBOT, VITRA UK CONTENTS p20 Design Inspired p4 by Water – an interview Design curator with VitrA’s Innovation Jane Withers on Director Boğaç Şimşir Water Futures p10 Architecture Meets Water Sustainability– Veronica p16 The Making of the Simpson reports Modern Bathroom – John Jervis p22 Glass Half Full– Ideas for a floating urbanism by CJ Lim p14 From vitamins to the V-Care shower p8 Sense and toilet – A VitrA Sustainability – Q&A: timeline Ferit Erin, VitrA Bathrooms Group General Manager Jane Withers is a leading design consultant, curator, writer, and founder of Jane Withers Studio. Water Futures – Design curator Jane Withers can’t remember a time when water hasn’t been a positive influence on her life. It’s a passion that has been a recurrent theme throughout her career and has led to her latest research-based work ‘I’ve always been fascinated by the elusive, mercurial qualities of water,’ says Jane Withers, ‘I find it extraordinary that water exists in so many different states and moods’. It’s a fascination that Withers traces back to childhood; how ‘this stuff that came out of the sky’ could change the whole sensory experience. She recollects the intense disappointment of discovering at a young age that you weren’t actually allowed to bathe in the famous Roman Baths in the city of Bath: ‘It seemed we’d forgotten how to celebrate water in the way that Roman cultures did.’ Water is a recurrent theme in the work of Withers’ research-based London design consultancy, whose projects include a prototype drinking fountain for London, designed by Michael Anastassiades, and the Wonderwater Cafés, a concept that has toured cities including Beijing, Helsinki, London and most recently the Triennale in Milan to raise awareness of water sustainability issues by elucidating the water footprints of dishes on a café menu. – New Public Hydrant, New York City (2018), Tei Carpenter / Chris Woebken It was whilst teaching at Design Academy Eindhoven in the early – 1. Wonderwater @ Triennale 2000s – when water scarcity was beginning to be taken seriously Caffè for Broken Nature XXII Triennale – that water became a central theme of Withers’ work: ‘I realised di Milano, 1 March – 1 September that, in northern Europe at least, we tend to treat water as an 2019– 2. Men bathing at Toda Rais- unwelcome guest. So many of the ways we use water don’t make ingh Stepwell, India, from a talk given sense – we flush drinking water down the toilet while letting the by Professor Morna Livingston at valuable free resource of rainfall go to waste. And we import A/D/O Water Futures– 3. The Fleet food grown using irrigation in climates that aren’t suitable for drinking fountain industrial agriculture’. While the water crisis was once perceived as one of scarcity 1 restricted to the global south, that is by no means the full story, says Withers: ‘Actually what we’re facing is a much more complex picture that includes flooding, failing infrastructure and ineffective water management. The water crisis needs to be thought about holistically because, as we all know, the world’s water is one resource that moves around’. In the context of dramatically increasing global usage – due not just to growing populations but also to increasing per capita use and the existence of global food supply chains – Withers recently – The planet’s convened a year-long programme on water futures for A/D/O in 3 New York that asked: what can design do to address the global water is not just for everyone water crisis? but for everything – ‘It was about building a little petri dish of multidisciplinary culture where ideas could thrive,’ says Withers of the three 2 seasons of talks, workshops, exhibitions and commissioned ways to green the city with pocket parks that capture, clean projects. Working with academics from a range of disciplines and re-use water – bringing water cycles down to a community she put together a programme that aimed to inspire designers scale. Tei Carpenter and Chris Woebken, meanwhile, explored and to prompt collaborations with scientists, engineers, artists, ways of hacking New York’s fire hydrants – which run off drinking ecologists and activists. water – into new sources of celebratory drinking fountains for people and pets. One strand of the programme explored how rain or water in the atmosphere could be captured rather than allowed to run away What’s next for Withers? In Autumn 2019 she is developing or evaporate. ‘We found that there were vernacular traditions of a sustainable model for public toilets funded by a café for collecting and storing water from the medieval period and much Hyderabad Design Week. The ‘Loo Café x Water Loop’ concept, earlier, such as the ancient tradition of India’s stepwells that developed in collaboration with Anupama Kundoo Architects, were explored by Professor Morna Livingston. They were once the British Council and the Loo Café operators Ixora, showcases very visible parts of communities but have been forgotten.’ alternative ecological sanitation, circularity and nature-based Every culture, says Withers, has its own histories of water and systems by making them a visible, engaging and interactive its different traditions of bathing cultures to learn from. In order part of a building. ‘Water runs through us, through buildings and to shape a more sustainable future, she believes, we need to re- through cities but by and large we ignore it,’ comments Withers, evaluate our fundamental cultural connections to water. ‘We’ve sort of made water invisible and we need to make it visible again’. Other voices during the season included architectural historian Anthony Acciavati on living and working on the Ganges; author Her personal take on water futures is that we need to remember Ashley Dawson on the effect of rapid globalisation on water to celebrate water. As well as looking to technologies in the hunt supply in cities; and Ravi Naidoo of Design Indaba on Cape for solutions she believes that we’ve got to learn to value water Town’s ‘day zero’ water crisis. again by looking to the past. ‘We should enjoy water more. It isn’t always just about using less, it’s also about using water more While the primary focus of the A/D/O programme was drinking thoughtfully. Compare the joy – for instance – of Roman baths to water, water issues tend to be interlinked so that an important two minutes in a sanitised shower cubicle. The planet’s water is flash point of the programme was Reimagining Urban Water, a not just for everyone but for everything – for plant life and animal showcase of three commissioned design projects specific to the life. Yet we treat water as if it’s just for us.’ New York context but globally resonant. A high-concept proposal by SWINE investigated a new typology for the iconic Manhattan water tower that would collect and filter water instead of just A review of the A/D/O research programme, Where Will the Water Come From?: One Year of Water Futures, will be published storing it; while Ooze Architects’ ‘Every Other Grid’ looked at in December 2019. Sense and Sustainability – For something as ubiquitous as water how can perceptions be shifted towards a more ecological approach to its use? We caught up with Ferit Erin – VitrA Bathrooms Group General Manager – to discuss how the tides are turning DESIGN UPDATE: Water is wards clear objectives and goals and that cally a cross-disciplinary global initiative infrastructure, partly about education in beyond Europe.

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