Bathco presents the “Upper West Salamanca” space designed by Egue y Seta for Casa Decor 2023
Journal
Restoring the social and stylistic importance that bathrooms once held, making them the absolute protagonists of the home. This is the main focus of the «Upper West Salamanca” (The Bathroom Act) project designed by the Egue y Seta studio for Bathco, which can be visited from April 13th to May 28th at space 46 of Casa Decor 2023 (Serrano 92 building, Madrid).
Egue y Seta explains that for this project, they were inspired by New York's Tenement Act of 1900. This was a law that aimed to guarantee minimum conditions of safety, hygiene, and aesthetics for the settlements that were beginning to expand in the city's more marginalized neighborhoods (Lower East Side, Greenwich Village, Harlem, Bronx, and Morningside Heights).
From this, a style or architectural movement was born, characterized primarily by the use of ceramic as a construction element, which reached its greatest symbolism through Tenement Tiles. These characteristic ceramic tiles, inspired by Art Nouveau, decorated the common areas of multi-family working-class housing in early 20th-century Manhattan.
This plea for the bathroom is present in each of the meticulously crafted pieces by the hands of Atelier de Bathco artists for the space: artisan-made ceramic tiles that recreate early 20th-century tenement tiles, hand-painted murals, and countless details that do nothing but enhance the room, ultimately leaving all the prominence to two fundamental pieces: the sinks.
On this occasion, Bathco has chosen two stainless steel pieces from the new Detroit collection. This series of sinks is available in circular, square, and rectangular formats, and also comes in three different finishes: brushed steel, gunmetal, and bronze.
The space also recreates a complete bathroom, allowing us to appreciate other products from the Cantabrian firm, such as the toilet Antequera Matte Black, the Milos shower and sink faucets, and the supports metal counter tops.
Molded and painted tiles
The artists at the Atelier have taken on the task of recreating the Tenement Tiles, those characteristic polychromatic and profusely decorated tiles of the era, inspired by the rise of the Art Nouveau movement and during the “boom” of Victorian residential architecture.
Hand-painted murals
The space features two ceramic murals (the image of a woman and a plant area) designed by artists from the Atelier. In their creation process, a combination of craftsmanship and cutting-edge technology has been applied. Artificial intelligence was used in their design, and ceramic paint and transfers were used in the artisanal process.
LETTERING
It's also worth highlighting the lettering work done for the name “MORNING SIDE,” which appears in the space. To achieve a high degree of detail and quality, the artists at the Atelier created a vinyl that functions with a stencil, which they later filled with a white ceramic pigment.
With this name, the Egue y Seta studio wanted to allude to one of the New York neighborhoods where Tenement Tiles were extensively used. It is an allegorical name or a nod to those ceramic signs that were included in homes and common spaces.
Major Space Contributors
Cosentino — Wow Design — Hisbalit — El Corte Maderero — The Masie – El Corte Inglés
More information in the article:
https://atelier.thebathcollection.com/atelier/proyectos/upper-west-salamanca-the-bathroom-act/
Download photographs via the following link
