When an architect looks at a plan, the bathroom is not the first thing they consider. Usually it is marked in at the last minute; shaped after the plumbing lines are pulled. Yet for the user, the bathroom is the most intimate and most frequently visited room in the home.
The bathroom is a threshold space — the place that holds the quiet before the day begins and the gathering after the day closes. For that reason, every detail matters: from the angle of incoming light to the warmth of the floor material, from the height of the tap to the depth of the basin.
Three fundamental proportions
Basin height: The standard is 85 cm, but it varies between 82 and 88 cm depending on the user’s height and washing habits. In a two-user bathroom an average matters; in a single-user bathroom, personalisation is everything.
Tap reach: For vessel basins, 18–22 cm is ideal. Shorter, and the water doesn’t reach where your hands meet it; longer, and the balance of the basin is broken. For standard basin mixers, this reach is 14–16 cm.
Lighting: Vertical sconces on either side of the mirror give truer illumination than an overhead spotlight. The face appears without shadow. A single overhead spotlight is insufficient for morning shaving or applying make-up.
Graffe pieces — especially the Prime and Noble families — were designed to maintain a coherent visual language across an architect’s project. The basin mixer, vessel mixer, concealed shower; all share the same stainless body, the same PVD coating discipline.
Specification support and sample-pack delivery for your projects are available through the Atelier architect programme.
