Project Personal Spa aka "rich guy's bathroom"

Development Architectural and Design Visualization
1

The reason I started this project is, that I could not see the usual boring white walls or bare concrete anymore, that so many ArchVis nowadays have.
Also I am convinced that only few people would feel at home or comfy in many of that sterile designs.

Thats why I asked myself how even a very clean/sterile room -like a bathroom- could be comfy?
Then I gave myself the freedom that there is enough budget so there are no design limitations in terms of space and so.

I came up with this: the Personal Spa, or you can also call it the “rich guy’s bathroom” :slight_smile:

Some details you can see here, more pics in the deviant-art link.

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Enjoy!

2

不错，就是感觉光照除了问题,不是很真实
nice,it seems there has problems with light,not real enough

3

what do you mean exactly with not real enough light? would you like to have a stronger contrast between light and dark…then it would loose the details in the shadows. What are you talking about please?

4

Okay, a few things come to mind here.

Your initial thought was “what would it be like if there was enough budget so there are no design limitations in terms of space.” What do you mean by that? It almost looks like the resident had infinite money, so they bought the most expensive furniture they could find and crammed everything in a room on top of a floating island.

Architectural design is so much more than expensive finishes and structures. It looks like you found 100 high poly models, threw them in a room, then tried to make them fit. The space doesn’t seem very functional. Why is the shower area not entirely enclosed? Wouldn’t the wood floor surrounding that suffer water damage almost immediately? Why are there hanging lights on the walls behind a glass wall? Is the roof not entirely covering the space? What is the context for this space? Who and how many people reside here?

Design is about thoughtful and intentional organization. Most of the objects in this scene don’t seem like they fit.

5

Oh, its very functional, and you can see the different areas with their purpose here in more details:

Maybe I should have brought in more pictures right away.

First you usually want to get clean, thats what the** wet area i**s for. There you can take showers, foot-baths, cold/warm water treatments and don’t have to worry about spilling water, as the floor there is designed to safely take the spill water away. The shower area is by intention not entirely closed, as this would give a enclosed feeling, like in a shower-cell and we dont want such analogies or claustrophobic surrounding. Of course the transparent protection walls there prevent the water from spraying over, but they dont lock up the user/s of the wet area.

Secondly, and right next to the wet are, is the hygiene area. Soft and water absorbing carpets lead you from the wet area (see 2nd pic in the original posting) above to the hygiene handwash-basins for “him and her”. The red shelf and red accessory on the left indicate the one for “her” and the blue shelf and blue accessories to the right for “him.” This and also several other arrangements of furniture “for 2” also answers you’re question about who and how many people reside here.

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Then there is the bathtub with pillows for headrest, or the **jacuzzi **with the small bar-area next to it: so you not only have a dry and safe surface area to reach from within the jacuzzi (for food, drinks…) but also people in the water can keep in contact with dry people outside there.
And yes, the ceiling/roof is open above the jacuzzi, as you can obviously see the clouds/sky. So you can imagine having a cupola over it for bad weather or have it moved aside on sunny days to enjoy the sunlight direct within the spa/jacuzzi. Might sound decandent, but money is not the limitating factor as explained in the introduction.

After so much water you want to get dry, and thats why there are areas for that on the outside (for good weather) as well as on the inside (bad weather).
See the sun terrace and the winter-garden / sunroom areas.

Then you can relax on several areas for that purpose, might it be more in the sunlight or more cafe-like in the shade (and yes, i know the windows are over-exposed bright, but thats how the human eye sees them, if it focuses on the dark areas. Humans dont see in HDR, and Remdbrandt knew this also):
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There is even a fireplace for cold or late visits which offers the fitting ambience for that.
If there are guests, there is plenty of sofa-space for them to relax:

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So all the areas are very functional and thoughtfull placed.

Regarding the varnished wood floor: of course you dont want to walk on bare tiles or other sterile surface even in a bathroom if it can be avoided. And it can be avoided: Apart from the protected shower area, there are soft soaking carpets connecting all the areas. So you can even choose to walk barefeet all-over even tho there are slippers ready next to the wet areas (bathtub, showers…). If you choose to step barefeet out of a wat area, then the carpets dry youre feet before you reach the comfy wood floor. Even if there comes some water on the wood-floor its varnished and protected, so it does not take damage.

The overall colour palette is blue/white with some variations for different areas: e.g. you can see coloured glass bricks on the walls or jacuzzi. Then I also made the materials of some furniture fit the blue sceme (see the blue metal/chrome on loungers, towel-holders, bar-furniture…) even down to details like the chess-figures. Speaking of details, all objects fit to their location, even down to small objects like the sponge in the shower.

So the objects are also choosen carefully, made to fit and placed organised.

The overall feeling is comfy as well as clean and people would enjoy being there.
I wonder why you don’t see that?

Funny thing is, i got a request of a VR-company in response to this thread and other of my works.

6

Sounds to me like you were expecting a series of comments saying ‘wow, that’s amazing’, rather than any criticism.

Everyone likes complements, but complements don’t help you improve. Criticism does!

I like the concept (and I agree with you that a lot of contemporary arch vis is white minimalism and bare concrete), but I think this could be improved a fair bit in terms of both design and execution.

Design: to my eye, it looks quite chaotic, and lacks an elegant overall aesthetic. There’s a mixture of rustic ‘shabby chic’ (wooden floors, aged marble, un-trained interior plants), contemporary minimalism (glass walls, square leather sofas, un-decorated chrome), and then there is faux-antique (the Romanesque columns and tiling). I’ve seen a lot of expensive houses that look like this - it looks like money, but it doesn’t look tasteful, so it can come across as a bit ‘trashy’. Drug lord rather than aristocrat.

Execution: I would say it’s a bit over lit and over-processed - too much ambient light, and too much glow. The materials look like they could do with some more detail / roughness variation, and the furniture particularly doesn’t have enough contact shadow on the floor - so it looks like it’s floating.

I hope that helps - it doesn’t take away from the huge amount of work that has gone into this, nor any kind of commercial interest you might have had.

7

I agree with Scribbler… and usually, less is more! It’s a bit too much of ‘‘everything’’!

and usually when you want to showcase design or architecture you avoid putting boring objects in the scene, like the flip flops on the ground or trashcans :wink:

8

To scribbler: yes I actually had a drug-boss in mind when building this. But you’re comparison to “chabby chic” is very wrong, there is nothing like that here: the marble or plants are not hinting that style, the floorwood is new, varnished, polished glossy.
The flood of light is intentional, as mentioned, and of course things like the godray or the over-exposed windows are too much compared to traditional ArchVis.
But again, i did not want to create a traditional ArchVis, as i can’t see anymore of that boring stuff and i am not bound by it’s rules.

This point leads me to : of course do I put in objects like the bath-shoes as they server the purpose to offer to leave the wet areas (next to bathtub, next to exit of wet-area) in them or barefoot along the carpets. Also I want to show how people would really live in there and what they could use to feel comfy, so e.g. pillow for headrest in the bathtub, recreation assets in those areas like magzines, books, chess-game, fruits to eat, drinks…

Oh, and regarding the un-trained interior plants: their degree of un-trainedness fits the atmosphere pretty good i think.

Now here i have one more shot, that probably sums up the difference to conventional ArchVis:

-godrays exaggerate light “too much”,
-the dark areas are under-exposed (but like a human eyes would see them when being confronted with bright lights at the same time)
-a blonde lurking on the sofa, hahah, “no no no in Archvis.”
-objects in the scene that show humans live here (shampoo, fruits) and not a sterile CAD environment by intention
-and a special “bling-highlight” the reflection of the ceramic on the bathtub

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One thing I have to admit tho: the shadows of the glass-brick decoration on the wall misses it’s shadow. There should be a refraction shadow thru the glass-material that unreal did not handle automatically.

Overall I am sure even you have to admit that people would prefer to live in this bathroom rather than in most of those sterile concrete bunkers displayed in so many ArchVis nowadays.

9

"Overall I am sure even you have to admit that people would prefer to live in this bathroom rather than in most of those sterile concrete bunkers displayed in so many ArchVis nowadays. "

I think if you take the time to look at sites like Houzz, Labtop and others you will see it isn’t all concrete bunkers. There is an elitist attitude in a lot of Architecture that you see but there are also very human designs as well. Architecture is a very broad field.

10

Yes, Architecture and design is a broad field, but why don’t wee see it here? If you go thru the forum here and sort all ArchVis with white walls or concrete out, then there remains nearly nothing from that “broad field”. That is my point!

To proof it, go for youself thru all the London, Paris… whatever Lofts here: white walls all over!
Then concrete: here a example from the high-praised Azuma house:

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My very polite verbalised opinion to this is that its not a place for a chair/to sit in any house a normal human being wants to live in, but rather the place for a toilet in a prison cell made to cause claustophobia.
My real statement to this would include words that would get me banned from the forum, like Horror, Zombie, Naz…
But I’m open to other views: please enlighten me, what exactly can you praise in this design?
If there is nothing, then please choose other examples to recreate in Unreal… or go directly to german world war 2 bunkers as some games need these.

So at least have the balls to admit that I’m right or offer substantiated critique.

Right now I really miss the explicit facts that you base youre critique on.
And sorry, but ciritique without well-grounded facts is completely disregarded by me. One example of such wrong critique is the claim that the Spa is a mix of shabby chic style…here you have examples of that from a google-search…
do you see anything even similar to this in my pics? I don’t.

11

There are movements in Architecture and if you have studied Architecture then you would know what some of them are - post modernism, modernism, brutalism, classical etc. etc. Because people choose to render certain styles is probably based more on ease and personal taste more than anything. Right now Architecture is in a futurist industrial phase I would call it where things like steel beams and structure are expressed in the design as well as amorphic shapes, see http://www.zaha-hadid.com/ Frank Ghery and the like.

"But I’m open to other views: please enlighten me, what exactly can you praise in this design? "

The Architect is Japanese and the project very much reflects the Japanese aesthetic which is very Zen, that is the redeeming quality of his work.

Just like in music and fine art it helps to know the history first and then break the rules, that is what great artists do.

12

I would say there is also an important difference between a piece of architectural or interior design, and a set design.

Set design needs to tell, or at least support, a story. Characters with particular motivations and backgrounds built it, designed it, used it, forgot to clean it, threw up all over it after a heavy night… Etc.

If you meant this to be the slightly tasteless, over-the-top creation of a drug dealer, and you’ve added ‘lived in’ details like empty bottles, flip-flops, etc - then you are taking into account of a lot of the design considerations a set designer would be accounting for in their work. You are telling us something about characters in a story simply by showing us the environment in which they exist. In this case the mis-matched design aesthetic, the tacky yet expensive finishes, the cluttered layout, are all very much in keeping with the intended purpose, and arguably very successful, since that is how it is read by the people commenting in this thread.

If, on the other hand, this is a design for a space that someone might actually build, and demonstrates your ability to create aesthetically pleasing interiors, then I wouldn’t say it is as successful. ‘Aesthetically pleasing’ is of course very subjective, but it doesn’t mean that the current ‘in vogue’ style is the only option. A regency-era steam room can be aesthetically pleasing to the eye, as can (with difficulty) a brutalist, neo-industrial spa.

A well executed and ‘elegant’ design has balance, internal consistency, clear vision, and (hopefully) a unique or at least not totally derivative look. I personally don’t think this design has those things, but we can of course agree to disagree on that. :slight_smile:

13

I agree with the previous critiques. It reminds me of the design abomination that was Mike Tyson’s old home.

14

Haha, I did not know Mike Tyson’s bath, but this just proves my point that people rather live in something like this than a concrete bunker prison toilet you call good design or art.

15

There are decorators, Interior designers, and Architects they all have a place.

16

Less is more.

17

He he my metallic-blue used in the furniture set to get rid of that booring old chrome.
“No more white walls, No more chrome!”

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18

I think it’s great fun to see some out of the box thinking of the OP here. Yes, obviously this is not a scene we’ve typically come to expect from ArchViz where it seems ‘stylized for the absolute minimum’ has become gold just because it’s so pleasing to the eye and lights out the architecture to the max. That’s perfectly fine of course. It works best so almost everyone tries to conform to these rules. This scene however crosses over in the domain of something I’d actually describe more as a ‘livingspace’. (or MTV ‘crib’ for that matter indeed :cool:) Yes between quotes because it’s so blatantly over the top but that’s exactly what I think makes it great. It’s just a refreshing experiment so kudo’s for that!

Sure, the lighting could use work. We can all see that. Bit more shadows, AO and all. There’s a lot of light available so would be nice if we’d get to see some interesting effects caused by that.

That Mike Tyson thing is hilarious :wink:

19

It’s just dynamic light, I did not even build the lightning with preview settings. Others can spend their time fiddling round with the lightmass setting and wait for built time whereas I prefer to work creatively in that time.
Also I don’t want to show off good lightning here, but my good metal material and furniture instead. And that goal has been archieved.

Tyson’s bath is pretty dark and very slippery with the marble floor tiles. That why i chose carpets and wooden floors to get rid of the traditional wet-cell feeling indoors. Outside on the terrace its a different thing of course.

20

People are just trying to help. If you reply to every comment with a neutralizing point of view you’re either going to find yourself taken for a clown or you just run out of replies altogether.
I take it that’s not what you’re after?