IMMERSE YOURSELF AT ROCA’S LONDON DESIGN FESTIVAL EVENING

Bathroom company Roca are inviting BCFA members to relax and unwind at an evening reception at their flagship space, Roca London Gallery, during the London Design Festival.

The evening of Monday 19 September is the official Chelsea district night during the Festival with lots of talks, workshops and product launches happening around the Chelsea Design Quarter and at Focus/16 in the Design Centre.

Get away from your busy schedule with well-being treats and craft cocktails to celebrate the opening of their latest exhibition, Soak, Steam, Dream: Reinventing Bathing Culture.

Communal bathing, spas and saunas are part of a rich cultural heritage throughout the world – from Roman baths to the Turkish hamam, from Japanese onsen to Nordic saunas. But as more people choose to bathe in the privacy of their own home, this social tradition has declined.

Soak, Steam, Dream explores a renewed interest in the connection between the physical, meditative and social aspects of communal bathing through contemporary projects by leading architects and designers. From Peter Zumthor’s Vals thermal baths to H3T Architekti’s mobile pop-up saunas, Shigeru Ban’s Japanese public bath to Something & Son’s bathhouse in London – the exhibition examines this new bathhouse culture, and how it is helping us to revalue and reconnect to water.

The exhibition is curated by Jane Withers and designed by London-based studio Kellenberger-White, using a materials-focused approach to transform the fluid spaces of the Zaha Hadid-designed gallery into an animistic bathing grotto, drawing on natural materials such as clay, wood and charcoal.

Curator Jane Withers says, ‘There has been an extraordinarily rich architecture and culture associated with communal bathing since ancient times. With the arrival of the private bathroom and a more clinical approach to sanitation and wellbeing, we have lost a leisurely sense of the bathhouse as a place not just for wellbeing and relaxation but also a place for social exchange and community life. Gone too is the sensorial dimension of an architecture of stillness and reflection, designed to be seen floating, or through a veil of steam. Soak, Steam, Dream aims to reveal a new emerging bathing culture.’

There will also be the opportunity to explore the range of Roca and Laufen bathroom products on display in the showroom, including the new Inspira collection.

Roca London Gallery is located opposite Imperial Wharf station, just a five-minute walk from the Design Centre at Chelsea Harbour and the Chelsea Design Quarter showrooms along the King’s Road.

The reception takes place on Monday 19 September from 5pm to 7.30pm at Roca London Gallery, Station Court, Townmead Road, London SW6 2PY

To attend RSVP here