Refresher Course

The Unit comes clean with a fresh and colorful bathroom in an Austrian residence.

Jen Renzi -- Interior Design, 10/1/2001 12:00:00 AM

The Vienna-based firm The Unit, led by partners Georg Petrovic and Wolfgang Bürgler, concocted a spirited bathroom in a Gablitz, Austria residence with the visual punch of a sports drink ad and the invigorating mien of an upscale spa. The theme? "Citronic," say the designers, a term they define as "a feeling of lemony freshness."

Tucked under the sloping eaves of a raw, timbered attic, the space is distinguished by a curved, internally-lit thermoclear wall that functions as a two-way light box. Brightening the windowless bathroom—whose only source of natural illumination is a skylight—as well as the adjacent bedroom, the treatment creates "an astonishing feeling of depth" in the 130-sq.-ft. space, an effect further intensified "by the choice of fresh colors and reflective surfaces." The folding, sculptural forms of the shower and sink, rendered in a shocking, citrusy green, "press like clasps against the angular boundaries of the space, like the same element in two different states of motion." An oversized, bubbling graphic applied to the thermoclear surface suggests a sense of submersion. "One is tempted to believe that there is, in fact, water behind the illuminated wall," the designers assert.

Talk about making a splash.