AXOR x Antonio Citterio: Nature-Bound Vacation Home

One of the world’s leading architects and designers, Antonio Citterio has developed a well-deserved reputation as the ‘gentleman of design.’ Over a career spanning more than five decades, the Milan-based maestro has distinguished himself by his refined sensibility, his elegant and unobtrusive design concepts, and a body of work—including four bathroom collections for AXOR—that aspires to timelessness. As part of “Make it yours!”, a campaign dedicated to making individual luxury a reality in the bathroom, AXOR asked the renowned architect-designer to develop not one but two distinctive bathroom concepts to showcase the remarkable versatility of his latest collection, AXOR Citterio C. Minimalist in spirit, with soft contours and a sensuous form, the new collection—which includes a range of fixtures for the wash basin, bathtub and shower—invites the touch while intriguing the eye from every angle.

“When I think of a product such as this, a space immediately comes to mind,” Citterio says. “I always imagine the product in a movie set, an ambiance where people interact with the product and the space.”

In fact, for the “Make It yours!” campaign, the architect-designer conceived two very different sets, representing, we can assume, two very different movies. The star of both, however, remains the same: AXOR Citterio C. The AXOR Citterio C collection is born of Citterio’s belief that “the object you touch with your hands should give you an idea of the luxury that water is.” To heighten the water experience, Citterio developed a special, textured surface as an option for the handles of the collection. “This is precisely to remind you of the idea of the preciousness of water,” the architect-designer says. “The texture is not an end in itself, but rather, serves to make people understand the use of a precious good, water.”

For the first of his two AXOR bathroom concepts, Antonio Citterio imagined a Scandinavian beach house—a vacation home designed for a young and active family, unconstrained by budget. Natural light is scarce and precious in this pristine Northern setting and must be enjoyed at every opportunity. For this reason, Citterio has oriented the spacious bathroom to the east and, instead of an external wall, has given the entire length of the bathroom over to a single sheet of glass. “It’s a dream space,” says Citterio. “You imagine the young parents, the kids. There’s music. And you’re in the middle of nature—you don’t have anything but the rocks and a sea in front of you. And you have this light in the morning—it’s from the east, this low sun. It’s the best start of the day. But also at night, with candlelight, you have this special ambience. So it’s really a dream, conceived for wellness and relaxation. You can rest in the hanging lounge chair and just look at the views.” Designed for a northern clime, the bathroom features bright materials such as travertine, light cement and pale birch wood (which lines the ceiling and is used for the floor-to-ceiling mechanical brise-soleil) to underline what Citterio calls “the theme of welcoming natural light.” While birch is common to northern Europe, the travertine—a porous, cream-colored limestone—is more commonly associated with Citterio’s native Italy. “The travertine is really warm,” Citterio says, “and you know, we wanted to put some warm Italian touches here in the cold. Travertine is not really precise, and I like this. You have memory in the stone.” One of the distinctive features of Citterio’s concept is a freestanding travertine structure combining wash basin table and bathtub. “The idea is to have a completely free wall. Normally, you have the water pipes in the wall. But here, we built the washbasin and bathtub into the middle of the room, so the pipes are coming from the floor. And then we have the all-glass wall—it’s completely transparent, with nothing to obstruct the view.” The idea to create a freestanding, combined basin-and-bathtub structure was the starting point for an overarching design concept, Citterio explains: “We started to think, what we can do so that everything in the bathroom is freestanding. If you add tubes from the floor to the ceiling, you can mount the mirror sections on the tubes, and the mirror can turn. So, everything is from ceiling or floor—also the brise-soleil, the lights, the hanging chair—and nothing is on the wall.” The AXOR Citterio C fixtures selected for this dream bathroom include two faucets at the washbasins, a 3-hole rim mounted bath faucet, and, in the shower area, a thermostatic module in combination with a hand shower and overhead shower. For the finish, Citterio chose Brushed Black Chrome, one of the exclusive AXOR FinishPlus surfaces. The Brushed Black Chrome stands out again the creamy travertine, emphasizing the slender, sensuous form of the faucet from every angle.

About AXOR

AXOR conceives and manufactures iconic objects for luxurious bathrooms and kitchens. Developed in collaboration with world-renowned designers—Philippe Starck, Antonio Citterio, Jean-Marie Massaud and Barber Osgerby among them—AXOR products come in a variety of styles. All AXOR faucets, showers and accessories are produced to the highest standards of quality. With an expertise that extends far beyond the products themselves, AXOR inspires and enables architects, interior designers and the design-savvy public. Together with AXOR, they shape water-related spaces that reflect the unique personality of the user. Part of the Hansgrohe Group, AXOR is a forward-thinking brand dedicated to developing distinctive products, manufactured with excellence.