Swiss bathroom manufacturer LAUFEN is showcasing its brand in an innovative exhibition and visitor centre

The past few months have seen the erection of a powerfully symbolic building in Laufental in the canton of Baselland. The new LAUFEN Forum is a brand architecture statement and a hub for inspirational bathrooms. LAUFEN is Switzerland’s largest bathroom furniture manufacturer and well known internationally too. The forum is Laufen’s tribute to its product range, nowadays so much more than its ceramic beginnings. Today their bathrooms are all-embracing solutions. Over the past few years LAUFEN has teamed forces with famous designers and developed bathroom concepts that are revolutionary the world over. The bathrooms are manufactured close to the new forum. Micro-havens of relaxation are created for the home, built to the highest design standard and for customers throughout the globe. Now LAUFEN has created a new architectural backdrop for its products. The LAUFEN Forum is an integrated architecture statement cast in concrete, with the bathroom as the jewel in its crown. The building is a clear commitment to Switzerland as the base for Laufen's offices and production facilities.

According to the application for a building permit, a customer and visitor centre was to be erected on Wahlenstrasse. Joining forces with the company’s art direction department, Basel architects Nissen Wentzlaff took this practical idea and transformed it into an emotional building concept. Viewed from above, the building’s layout recalls a well-known LAUFEN washbasin. Viewed from the ground, it resembles an organic sculpture cast in exposed concrete. It forms a liberating link between the modernist administrative 1960s block of the company headquarters and the modern factory. The building was cast in one piece, exactly like its ceramic model.
Unlike the product, the building does not contain water but the company’s products. LAUFEN has been part of the Spanish Roca Group for ten years now. It is about to forge another alliance on the company premises with Swiss faucet manufacturer Similor that joined the group two years ago. Similor, the largest and most traditional Swiss faucet manufacturers, will gradually relocate its
production facilities to Laufental. Building has already begun on the adjacent faucet factory, completing the joint bathroom enterprise. The designs of Similor’s premium products are already coordinated with and incorporated in LAUFEN bathroom suites.
So the future hub of the Swiss bathroom world will be located in Laufen.

According to company directors Luis Sabanés and Klaus Schneider, the pace for the development of bathroom culture made in Switzerland will be set here. The company is market leader in Switzerland, but has a strong international focus too. The powerful symbolism of the concrete building underscores its desire to lead in its market.

The building is both unique and challenging in terms of architecture and building technology. The virtually windowless concrete structure is based on a design principle akin to that of bridge construction. The extensively projecting free-form structure is poised on a slope. As a well insulated lowenergy building, it manages on a modicum of extra heating via concrete core activation and has no air-conditioning system. Natural light falls on the event area thanks to roof skylights. The building’s good ecological balance
sheet is regarded by LAUFEN as both an obligation and standard to aspire to. After all, in the bathroom people use precious resources like water and energy. And a harmonious balance needs to be struck between both.

The purpose of the LAUFEN Forum is to familiarise people with the brand and products. It is an open platform for architects, building technology planners, wholesalers and tradesmen. End customers are also welcome and can make an appointment to gain an insight into the world of contemporary and avant-garde bathroom design. Visitors will also be able to try out the baths and take a dip.