How to capture the intangible in permanent form: Mix equal parts of permanent beauty, liquid form, and sparkling light, and stir with imagination.
From 1958: What particular qualities come to your mind when you think of cleanness? Not a sterilized, germ-fearing cleanliness, but a fresh and vibrant cleanness!
Whether you may think of a bright dewy morning, a mountain stream, or a shimmering sea, you will agree that this room somehow managed to capture and exemplify the refreshment and exhilaration that one associates with this idea.
This bathroom provided an atmosphere that was singularly appropriate to either a tingling shower or a casual “freshening-up” of makeup.
It was either a man’s room or a woman’s room, for both of them would find its sleek directness and rich simplicity satisfying — and probably for the same reasons.
This mid century modern bathroom from the 50s had a “one-piece” look, as though it were one continuous “fixture” containing within itself all of the various facilities needed in a bath. No part of it seems extraneous.
All of its parts worked in ensemble to produce this quality of oneness: the curving flow of the shimmering walls and counters which suggest the liquid beauty of water; the circular forms of the lights, lavatory, ceiling heater — even the gentle roundness of the one-hand controls for the shower and the lavatory faucets.
Together they formed a unity of pattern that one associates with an ephemeral look with an enduring quality that’s the result of the merger of imagination with practicality.
Materials and fixtures, all easily maintained, were combined to give a lasting beauty to the room’s morning-dew freshness.
The sweep of the curved counter extended as a practical working shelf into the shower. This continuous line, 14 feet long, increased the apparent size of the 6′ x 11′ room.
A sense of unity was achieved in the room through careful selection of each component for its capacity for fitting quietly, and with quality, into the total ensemble.
All curves in the walls and counters, as well as in accessories, are pure circles or arcs rather than free-form curves. This gave the room a subtle geometric order. By such means, each part had the look of having been custom-designed and executed.
