Hewn from a single slab of the mystery element Cristalplant, the Follo Washbasin is utterly gorgeous: the sink is a mere dimple, allowing water to quickly overflow the bowl and across the surface. An integrated draining system prevents the water from running in crystal clear rivulets down the sides. I love it, but I suspect much of its zen garden purity would be befouled during my morning ritual by hairy gobs of used shaving cream and the frothy jetsam of regurgitated tooth paste.
Follo Washbasin [WMD London via Born Rich]
Beautiful sink fixtures are doomed to a lifetime of scrubbing and swearing about how much money you spent to wash urine off your hands.
Ah, but that’s easy to fix, Jesse: All my faucets emit only urine.
A Zen master named Gisan asked a young student to bring him a pail of water to cool his bath.
The student brought the water and, after cooling the bath, threw onto the ground what little water was left over.
“You Dunce!” shouted Gisan. “Why did you not give the rest of the water to the plants in the garden? What right have you to waste even a drop of water in this temple?”
The student was enlightened.
How does that drain the “dimpled” part? Or does a pool for stagnating water just stay collected there?
Would it hold enough to wash in? Or is it designed to make you keep the tap running? Conspicuous consumption indeed. I guess there’s also a market for toilets that use 8 gallons per flush. I can afford it, f**k you and the environment.
Whoever owns this had better use it for a tryst with their paramour or else, what’s the point?
As they say, this seems more suitable for posh restaurants and VIP rooms (not so sure about hotel rooms), so grooming isn’t a concern. It surely looks pretty, ‘to.
ooo ooo!! Inside scoop!
Unfortunately no pics on what the drainage holes look like.
http://www.productdesignforums.com/index.php?showtopic=6894&st=30
Born Rich has a picture gallery that includes a shot of the drains:
http://www.bornrich.org/gallery/follo_100_2_5784/
The ridges have slots in them that probably have a drain channel below, running to a standard drain pipe fitting. Unfortunately, from experience, slot style drains require a LOT of maintenance; soap gathers below them and gets NASTY if you don’t clean it out frequently. I’m not sure how you access them for cleaning on this, but on our sinks you don’t access them. So you’re left wasting a lot of cleaning solution and a lot of water to keep the spoiled soap under control. Hopefully these are better. The slots are larger, so you should be able to use a bottle brush.
Also of note, though, is our slot drains are paired with automatic faucets that use very little water. A standard faucet might flow enough to keep the slots clean.
I just realized that sounded kind of negative. Let me add:
Also ALSO of note, these sinks look awesome and if we were doing a bathroom right now (in a commercial setting) I would definitely consider these. Hopefully they are successful; it seems like a small, maybe even one-man, operation.
He said they are “free flow only” meaning no pop-up – no retaining water in the sink. They’re intended for commercial installations like hotels, restaurants, and night clubs and you don’t want to give guests the ability to stop up the sink in those settings.
I love those faucets. They look so military aircraft-part-like. I bet they’re silky smooth to turn, too.