Designed for spatial effect with a natural and modern touch, the bathrooms of an increasing number of Chinese houses are following the contemporary trend towards the natural by using timber and stone. Both of these materials, which may be combined or used exclusively, can achieve different ambiences—either strong, rich and solid with dark tones, or light and fresh with light-colored timbers and stone varieties. Some bathrooms obtain a smooth, sensual finish in the familiar travertine stone and black marble, while with timber panels in Chinese elm, the style tends towards a dignified warmth. The wall in a bathroom has a major influence, and is treated in several ways here, from the more expected bright and patterned mosaic tiles to individual and artistic expressions, such as the iridescent jagged swathe of blue tiles making a startling contrast with a gray cement render. For those spacious properties that allow it, walls of glass bring in an uninterrupted flood of daylight, and in the case of the spectacular Shanghai penthouse above, give the owner fabulous views of the outside. When wooden panels and louvers are incorporated into the design, a Zen-like feeling is added to the more sensual comfort of a window-side bathtub.
The bathroom of a Shanghai penthouse. The slatted wooden floor is mirrored in the electrically operated louvered ceiling. Surrounding the bath is a trough with pebbles, underlit with a changing color cycle.
A Hong Kong bathroom by designer Miho Hirabayashi in white and gray marble with glass shower walls. The sliding white door fits flush with the wall to completely conceal the bathroom from the bedroom.
Stone and render over curved plasterboard transform the bathroom of a Beijing city apartment into a surprisingly rustic and natural space. Both floor and bath are in stone, while iridescent mosaic shapes break the smoothness of the rendered wall.
A classic Art deco guest washroom in a substantial 1930s house in Shanghai’s French Concession.
Designed by Yu Yongzhong, a fancifully delicate and tall ‘chair’ is a bathroom stand for toiletries, seemingly doubled by the full-wall mirror.
Light floods the end of this spacious bathroom through a louvered glass roof. Wooden slats line the bathtub area, while marble is used in other parts of the bathroom.
The skewed angles of this bathroom inspired the designers to create interlocking patterns of two contrasting surface finishes: mosaic tiles and polished concrete. This extends to the ceiling.
A studio apartment in Hong Kong, looking through to the bathroom from the bedroom.
A view from a corridor to the toilet in a Hong Kong studio apartment. A heavy sliding door, its recessed pull visible at left, seals this area off from the rest of the apartment.