Bathroom design was handled by architect Paul Hodgkins and he readily admits that off-site fabrication may not make financial sense when there are only two units to be built. To gain full benefit from this form of construction all aspects of the bathroom design need to be planned in great detail beforehand. The Integer bathrooms have been designed to reduce tile cutting, saving time and expense and, of course, to reduce overall waste - another of the project's explicit aims.
The sanitary ware in the two bathrooms is fairly conventional but not so the taps and handles. The basement bathroom has controls by Ecologic. Instead of conventional mechanical taps, they use electronically controlled valves. These can be programmed for optimum performance. For instance, the basin doesn't have taps as such, it has tactile switches - just one touch calls up a preset filling routine which fills the basin with the ideal mix of two thirds hot water to one third cold. The switch turns itself off after a preset time.
The duration of the either of the toilet's dual flushes is also controllable by EcoLogic switching. Using recycled grey water from a storage tank in the loft gives better pressure than a conventional cistern and results in lower water useage. Settings can be changed by controls in the vanity unit.
By contrast, the middle floor shower room has intelligent controls by Grohe Water Technology. The wash basin has a mixer tap operated by an infrared sensor: it turns on when you pass your hand underneath it. Grohe has also supplied aerated taps which deliver a strong flow using less water than normal. There is no conventional shower tray in this bathroom: instead, the floor itself is waterproofed making it easier for people with impaired mobility to use the shower which has mixer taps with special easy-to-use levers.
Source
Building Homes
