CONCEPT SHOWER
Designed by Simon Pestridge 2008©
Designed by Simon Pestridge 2008©
I came up with this design for a concept shower unit at the beginning of January 2008. The design hit me when I was taking a shower in a small cubical shaped closed shower unit. Thinking how hard it is to balance, and clean my feet properly on a potentially dangerous slippery surface with very little moving space, and only flimsy transparent plastic panels to lean on for support, I instantly thought of an attached external seating area. Here a person can sit comfortably and wash their feet with an attached external shower head. The whole unit is mounted on a base, so that the person can dry after showering without making the bathroom floor area wet, by the means of a sunken drainage area built into the attached external seating area. Steam and humidity would be taken away by built in extractor fans while you shower, leaving the environment clean and fresh when you step out onto the drying area, and sit down to wash you feet. The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. It would also be a more comfortable area for women to shave legs, wax, cut nails or manicure and then rinse with the external shower head. I decided to design the shower directly within the 3ds max environment, but I already had an exact picture in my mind of what the concept would look like, and I stuck to it. The only additional features that I decided to add were the towel racks above the seating area, and the glass divide around the seating area to stop water spraying onto the bathroom floor when using the external foot shower head. I could have continued adding more and more features, like replacing the mirror with a steam shower feature, or adding a small LCD, or radio system to the external seating area, but decided to stick to the main idea. I would leave the extra features for the manufacturer to decide. After finishing the design in 3ds max, I then thought about designing a whole bathroom set to match the style of the shower unit. But first I wanted to do some research to see if anyone else had thought of this idea, and after a lot of searching, was pleased to find that no individual or company had come up with the idea that I could find. I found some designs that had a hard, uncomfortable looking plastic flip down seat situated inside the shower cabinet, which I felt did not solve the cramped environment problem, and made me think, what is the point of having to sit uncomfortably on a hard plastic seat in a cramped humid closed environment after you take a shower to wash feet etc, just to need another shower again? With this thought in mind, I really started to like my design concept. I designed a sink and bath unit to match the style of the shower, but as this was a personal project, I ran out of time to finish the complete set, and to prepare some photo realistic renders inside a bathroom environment for demonstration. All the work for the concept shower and matching bath and sink, from concept to 3d modelling, texturing & materials, preview renders & animation, was completed by myself in various stages in January 2008.
