THE TUSCAN BATHS

When it comes to the world of bathroom design, antoniolupi comes immediately to mind. Today, the Tuscan-based designer and manufacturer of bathroom furniture is regarded as an industry leader, having spread its influence around the world in the space of two generations.

However, for all its powerhouse status today, antoniolupi was a decidedly more modest affair in its early days. It all began in the 1950s in the small Italian town of Fucecchio. Here, a young craftsman decided, against conventional wisdom, to start a glass workshop in an area historically associated with leather tanning and shoemaking. Given the unorthodox nature of Antonio Lupi’s work, the banks, already hard-pressed for finances in the post-war years, were extremely unwilling to lend money to the fledgling business.

Not one to be deterred, Antonio persevered and was eventually able to acquire enough capital to take part in important tradeshows in Bari, Milan and Paris. As the brand, which was known as Cristal Lupi Luxor at the time, and its reputation grew, so did its product line. Soon, its portfolio expanded to include the manufacturing of bathroom accessories in the 1970s.

It wasn’t until Antonio’s children, Nello, Patrizia, Sergio and Andrea, joined the family business in the 1980s that the brand made a decisive shift towards bathroom designs. Under the leadership of the Lupi siblings, antoniolupi would evolve in the following decades to become the pioneering leader in interior bathroom design.

“antoniolupi still produces glassware and mirrors as it did back in the 1950s but, when my siblings and I joined the company, we ushered in many big changes,” says Andrea.

“The main challenge for us was to enter the bathroom industry without emulating our competitors. To do this, we had to create our own unique concept and philosophy.”

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a bathroom is defined as ‘a room containing a bath or shower and typically also a washbasin and a toilet’. Fairly blasé, all things considered. So it’s no surprise that most people would usually regard a bathroom as a space simply for cleansing and accommodating various bodily functions.

However, antoniolupi seems to have taken this meaning to the next level, and visitors to one of the brand’s showrooms could very easily liken the experience to that of visiting a sci-fi movie set. It’s actually fun, being in a bathroom designed by antoniolupi. From the sleek, polished surfaces of the Exelen collection, to the illuminated Silenzio sinks that almost seem to meld with the walls, and concealed toothbrush holders that flip open with a tap of the finger, it is clear that antoniolupi’s bathroom spaces go above and beyond the call of duty by conventional definition.

“The bathroom space has evolved in so many ways since the 1950s. Today, the bathroom is really the only place where you are truly by yourself,” says Andrea. “It becomes your very own sanctuary, away from the hustle and bustle of the outside world. Our goal here at antoniolupi is to cultivate an ambience that allows one to unwind and relax through the elegant designs and quality of our products.”

In this quest to create a space that serves as a literal oasis of tranquillity, Andrea finds that the greatest obstacle in his line of work is actually himself. While Andrea is primarily involved in the design and research and development elements at antoniolupi, he also plays a major role in managing the business as a whole.

“From a designer’s point of view, I just create what I like. Personally, I’m very fond of minimalistic and modern architecture; it has a very refreshing and chic air about it,” says Andrea, as he reaches for a cup of water. “As to what inspires me, I may be drinking from a plastic cup like this and I might suddenly glean a new idea from it. Today, it’s very difficult to create something that’s truly ‘new’, so it’s important for me not to be blind to my surroundings, especially in this fast-paced age we’re living in now.”

However, as anyone involved in an industry of this nature will tell you, there is always an inevitable butting of heads between managers, who are driven by profits, revenue and market share, and designers, who single-mindedly strive to express themselves through their creations.  This is also the case at antoniolupi, perhaps even more so because Andrea embodies both these contradictory roles. He is, essentially, a man with two souls in one body.

“When I’m the manager, I must look at market forces,” stresses Andrea. “The company must make profits so we can reinvest into product development. The majority of the market, perhaps as much as 90 to 95 per cent of it, prefers classical interiors, which are very heavy with baroque and colonial-era themes. Though it pains me to admit this, whenever I am forced to cater to the demands of the market, the design of the final product unfortunately becomes ‘polluted’.”

The conflict between Andrea’s two personas is manifested in the brand’s Collezione Ilbagno, a collection that marries both modern and classic elements under one roof. “Creating this collection was a big challenge for us,” Andrea recalls wearily. “It is a modern interpretation of the 1950s; we maintain our signature clean, minimalistic elements but combine them with classic shapes. This is something I need to do for the company, even though I may not necessarily want to do it from a designer’s perspective.”

Not one to sit on its laurels, antoniolupi is continuously looking to expand its sphere of influence, just as it did when the scions of the brand’s founding father first joined the company. Steps have already been made to advance into the next hot piece of real estate: the kitchen space. Unfortunately, an extreme freak hail storm ravaged Florence in September 2014, damaging antoniolupi’s factory. “We were all ready to launch this project, but the storm destroyed a lot of our work and we had to rebuild everything,” laments Andrea. “Fortunately, we’ve managed to do so, but this has forced us to postpone some of our projects in the pipeline.”

Andrea remains tight-lipped on the brand’s other future projects and would only say that they are “top secret for now.” Regardless, there is no doubt that whatever antoniolupi has in store, the manner in which it will be executed will be of the peerless quality so closely associated with the brand’s DNA. “In everything we do, we’re not only selling just a product,” says Andrea. “It’s our goal to take our creations to the next level of elegance and design.”

antoniolupi is exclusively available in Malaysia in Bath+. For more information, visit bathplus.com.my