Sebastian Herkner’s ‘Zencha’ bathware for Duravit is inspired by Japanese teacups

Combining cutting-edge materials and craftsmanship, channelled through a vocabulary derived from Japanese design, German bathware giant Duravit has collaborated with Sebastian Herkner for a new bathware collection titled ‘Zencha.’ Featuring rounded freestanding bathtubs, over-the-counter basins, and bathroom furniture that evoke the delicate aesthetic sensibilities of hand-made ceramics, the release is the culmination of a four-year-long venture between the brand and the designer. To honour this association with the storied brand, Herkner's designs for the collection honed in on the ritualistic aspect of a user’s relationship with their bathroom, a place that is inherently personal in nature, where many begin and end their day in the tranquillity of solitude. Drawing from the lines and smooth forms of Japanese teacups—already revered for their ritualistic importance in traditional tea ceremonies—the designer played with their size, proportion, and materiality to conceptualise the basins and bathtubs in Zencha.

Prolific in his output but always consistent in the sophistication and quality of his creative expression, Herkner's functional yet elegant style, pay heed to craft traditions from the world over to create products that embody the best of traditional and contemporary sensibilities. His notion of 'slow' design, as revealed in his UNSCRIPTED interview last year, prioritises longevity, durability, and timelessness, in tandem with immaculate detailing, to celebrate those who bring his designs to life, and highlight the innately collaborative nature of his process. Over a decorated career that has seen his profile skyrocket above many of his peers, the designer, whose studio is based out of Offenbach am Main in his native Germany, has received numerous honours. Herkner is often inspired by the regional craft traditions he encounters during his travels—a narrative that is continued by this collaboration.

Stemming from his many visits to Asia, where ceremonial body cleansing is a part of many regional traditions throughout the continent, the designer related this gesture to the vessels used in Japan's tea ceremonies. Through an abstracted transposition of the ritualistic imagery associated with Japanese teacups, the product designs for Zencha intend to conjure up the gesture of a warm embrace, of welcome, of destressing, all tempered by a sense of intimacy and reverence. Wood and textured glass fuse with Duravit’s proprietary material innovations, dubbed DuraCeram® and DuraSolid® to create the collection’s pieces, for an experience that makes the most intimate part of a home even more of a space of retreat and ritual. What resulted from this unique trajectory of ideation is a series of cambered rectangles that taper upwards from a bulbous base along a seamless curve, configured with almost paper-thin rims at their mouths, much like the teacups themselves. However, the disarming lightness of their forms is no cause for concern when it comes to durability or robustness, and are also said to be fairly easy to maintain throughout their product life cycles.

Soft, convex forms characterise the basins, which have been made with two profiles in mind to fit in bathrooms of varying sizes; a 420 x 420 mm square variant, along with a rounded rectangular 550 x 390 mm counterpart. Finishes of white, white satin matt, grey satin matt, and anthracite matt, define the chromatic and textural gamut of the collection's options, to cohere with the pairing of neutral and woody tones observed in the bathtubs and furniture of Zencha. On the topic of the former, the bathtubs also come in two options: a freestanding 1250 x 1250 mm version, and more compact editions measuring 1600 x 850 mm or 1800 x 900 mm, which are again tailored for interior designs of differing scales and styles. As an added bonus, versions of the tubs can optionally be fitted with an air whirl system for a unique bathing experience. Immersing oneself in the larger edition of the product is said to evoke the act of submersion in the waters of a traditional Japanese onsen, a type of bath house centred on hot springs, fostering an experience that is centred on relaxation, deceleration, and unwinding.

By contrast, the linear, geometric design language of the furniture pieces, has been designed keeping modularity in mind, diverging from the softer, rounded forms of the tubs and basins. Capable of being deployed as open shelves and drawers designed to close on their own, the furniture designs elevate the forms of the basins completing the contemporary design aesthetic of the collection. Additionally offering storage and a structural base for the basins, the furniture has been conceived in finishes of natural oak, oak black, white plate glass, and black textured glass, in corresponding colours of white super matt, taupe super matt, and graphite super matt, all displaying an ageless quality rooted in the polished and minimalist language of Herkner's ideas.

Anti-fingerprint coatings and easy-to-clean surfaces enhance the already apparent simplicity and clarity of the furniture. As a cherry on top to round off the catalogue of pieces encompassed within this collection, Herkner has also created a custom mirror to accompany the basin and furniture, whose profile quotes the rounded forms of the basins. Softened corners and straight edges have been fitted with an LED strip, as a lighting design feature that accentuates the overall beauty of the collection’s vocabulary, which can be turned off with the aid of a sensor embedded into the mirror’s bottom edge, providing a cutting-edge element of functionality for convenience.

Astutely melding ritual, craft, and sleek design, the collection is manufactured at Duravit’s production facilities near the Black Forest mountains in the regions of Hornberg and Schenkenzell. Setting lofty standards for waterproofing, detailing, and hand-finished beauty, Zencha is a refined new release borne of a partnership between one of Germany’s most important contemporary designers, and one of the country’s most-coveted and storied brands in the bathware space. With this collaboration, which is yet another high-profile landmark in his already glittering body of work, Herkner becomes the latest in a long line of lauded product designers such as Philippe Starck, Cecilie Manz, Christian Werner, and Bertrand Lejoly, who have all contributed to the German brand's ever-expanding catalogue of high-end bathware.