A Bathtub Inspired by Traditional Asian Boat Building Techniques

Can you imagine a bathtub made of anything other than porcelain or some other stone-like material? Tal Engel throws those old ideas out the window and looks at traditional boat building techniques for inspiration. Otaku is a bathtub made of a pressed woven veneer sheet that’s held by a steel frame.

The bathtub looks at the similarities of bathing and sailing – the relaxed states of mind both produce and the fact that both are functional entities that deal with water. The concept is based on the ‘inside-out’ theory, where one washing in a tub is the opposite of a boat floating in water, therefore the inside of the tub becomes the outside of the boat. The result attempts to highlight the special relationship between our bodies and water.

Caroline Williamson is Editorial Director of Design Milk. She has a BFA in photography from SCAD and can usually be found searching for vintage wares, doing New York Times crossword puzzles in pen, or reworking playlists on Spotify.

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