Yin and yang

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Contrasting the rough and raw with the smooth and pure achieves harmony in these loft bathrooms

View of contemporary bathroom with white walls, grey architecture, bathroom, floor, flooring, interior design, product design, real estate, room, sink, tile, gray — View of contemporary bathroom with white walls, grey flooring and hanging lights.

View of shower with grey walls and white architecture, bathroom, floor, interior design, plumbing fixture, room, tile, wall, gray

View of contemporary white and grey shower. - architecture, bathroom, floor, house, interior design, product design, tap, gray

View of contemporary bathroom with wooden flooring and bathroom, bathroom accessory, bathroom sink, bidet, interior design, plumbing fixture, product design, room, sink, tap, toilet, toilet seat, gray

In designing the three bathrooms on these pages, the architect was told to create something unexpected and exciting a design the client had never seen before.

It's probably every architect's dream to be able to explore a variety of concepts outside the box, and that's exactly how it was for architect Matthew Bremer of Architecture in Formation.

"The apartment is in a New York loft that was once a warehouse many of the original features still remain," he says.

Bremer chose to play up this aesthetic, using a simple palette of materials for each of the three bathrooms. In the guest bathroom, shown at right, large-format quartzite slabs reinforce the sense of the concrete shell of the former warehouse. These are teamed with pure white wall tiles and a white Thassos marble vanity.

"The owner wanted a guest bathroom that would rival the amenities in a five-star hotel," says Bremer. "So every detail has been addressed. For example, the floor of the shower is seamless. The water drains away through a slot concealed by the curb."

The architect was able to increase the size of the room by extending the shower into a formerly hidden cavity beneath the stairs outside the apartment. This created space for a bench seat and separate hand shower.

Dark gray hand-troweled concrete walls and giant paver-style tiles feature in the shower of the master bathroom, enhancing the raw concrete look. In this room, a ribbon of white Corian from Nieuw Amsterdam wraps around the top of the room, like folded origami, enclosing shelving niches and merging with a mirror.

A separate powder room is also cause for head-turning. Here, white Thassos marble forms a sculptural vanity, with the water falling into an inverted pyramid-style wading sink. This room has a floating ceiling, which enhances the aesthetics while concealing mechanical services.