Being a perpetual renter who thrives in the city life, we don't have much room to be picky about our bathroom amenities. We've even seen (and considered—eek!) a unit where the bathroom opened right up into the kitchen. There was no door, no wall and clearly no sanitation standards. But a lack of space doesn't have to mean a lack of getting what you want anymore. The Vertebrae stacks a toilet, sink, water cistern and two showers into one 8-foot-tall steel column.
It has a price tag of £9,000 and is aimed at space-conscious householders who struggle to fit a traditional shower, sink and toilet into their bathroom space.
The Vertebrae was designed by Paul Hernon with small apartments in mind. He said he noticed bathroom space had been declining in the UK rental market.
He envisions that builders and architects might make use of his design and create apartments in the future that have very abbreviated bathrooms to give tenants more space to live in. By stacking bathroom amenities on top of each other, you're taking up lesser-used vertical space and gaining much-needed horizontal floor space.
The two showers - one for adults and one for children - both rotate 180 degrees while the other units all rotate a full 360 degrees. They all twist around a steel column which contains all the piping, and each part simply pushes out when it is required.
Vertebrae weighs about 330 pounds, so homeowners and building owners might have to reinforce their bathroom floor before fitting it. It also costs $14,050, which is just a teeny bit too much to ask your landlord to install the vertebrae, especially when he wouldn't even let you paint the walls.
[ via Daily mail ]
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I like it but seriously $14,050 and the possible need to reinforce the floor? Why are so many of the items that are ideal for a small apartment so horribly costly?
I would love this item for my bathroom (if it was cheaper) but there is another factor to consider ...
Could your mother figure out how to use it when she visits or will she wake you up at 3am because she needs to go potty?
I think that after a while all-in-one products like this one, will become so commonplace that it will drive the ridiculous price down. I for one, cannot wait until I can afford something that is as space efficient and cool as this.
And you have to factor in the need for a floor (with a drain) for the water to run into whilst one showers. And the more "components" there are, the more problems you can possible have.
And this may be another example of "designers" who "design" stuff like this, while forgetting that the devil is in the details.
I wonder what the bill would be for any plumbing problems?