gipset bath

Project

269131

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Submitted

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NEW EUROPEAN BAUHAUS AWARDS : existing completed examples

Project title

gipset bath

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Description

"gipset bath" is an innovative approach to finishing and renovating bathrooms - a patented technology that makes it possible to manufacture bathroom elements off-site and then simply and cleanly install them in just 48 hours. This results in a complete, fully equipped rooms covered with classic tiling. The gipset bathrooms can be quickly and easily dismantled, refreshed, and reused without any loss of their properties. 

Where was your project implemented in the EU?

When was your project implemented?

Has your project benefited from EU programmes or funds?

Which programme(s) or fund(s)? Provide the name of the programme(s)/fund(s), the strand/action line as relevant and the year.

Please provide a summary of your project

gipset bath is an innovative approach to finishing and renovation of bathrooms - its technology enables production and installation of bathroom in just 48 hours, the technology is suitable for all types of buildings (traditional, modular, frame, ceramic), new construction and renovation, the technology uses typical, commonly used finishing materials such as tiles, ceramics, and fittings, system elements are designed for assembly simplicity, that can be done without specialized skills or tools, which opens new possibilities on the construction services market, the prefabrication process reduces materials and resources required for bathroom production and limits the environmental impact of the assembly process, the reuse of bathrooms after refurbishment without loss of properties allows the same finishing materials to be used again, technology embraces inclusivity: affordable (especially for refreshed bathrooms) and offering full transparency and symmetry in access to information for all participants in the process, high standards of aesthetics, functionality, and workmanship ensured in the innovation process by involvement of architects and final customer, while carrying out the production in fully controlled, automated conditions, gipset provides free training for contractors and architects in the areas of product, design, process, and sustainability.

Please give information about the key objectives of your project in terms of sustainability and how these have been met

gipset’s systematic approach centralises a significant proportion of bathroom production enabling a change in manufacturing techniques/processes that is unattainable in the current distributed manufacturing model, this centralisation results in a significant reduction of the environmental burden of the construction process at the time of design, manufacture, installation, and long-term use - reduction of waste, carbon footprint, noise, dust, waste in residential areas are all long-term effects of using gipset bath technology, the technology leads to an extended bathroom life cycle through the reuse of the same tiles, fittings, and ceramics, that can be reused only after a simple refresh - cleaning in a closed system in the factory is sufficient to reuse the existing bathroom, gipset bath renovation technology does not generate waste consisting of a mixture of different materials exported as building rubble - bathrooms unsuitable for reuse are sorted into fractions in the production halls and handed over for targeted recycling, panel prefabrication reduces waste already at the production stage - nesting, machine dosage of adhesives and waterproofing, reusable raw material packaging, reusable packaging for transport, centralised production uses "green energy" (machine operation, heating and ventilation, production technology), thus significantly reducing the carbon footprint of the process.

Please give information about the key objectives of your project in terms of aesthetics and quality of experience beyond functionality and how these have been met

gipset baths are a higher level of customer experience - the transparency of the process, especially regarding time and price, the participation of the architect in the process of creating the bathroom and the high, repeatable quality of the production are a huge leap compared to the classic process based on a customer-contractor relationship without significant guarantees in terms of quality and aesthetics, the complexity of the service also provides the client with a much simpler complaint process, in particular focused on one entity instead of scattered over many entities and difficult to prove the cause of a defect, gipset bath technology does not introduce limitations in terms of the possibility of using various design finishing materials, in particular solutions typical for bathrooms: tiles, terracotta, and ceramics, thanks to the fact that an integral part of the gipset bath production and assembly process is the execution of a professional architectural design, it is possible to use a wide range of finishing materials to adjust the aesthetics and design to various cultural patterns of particular EU countries, gipset bath technology makes it possible to apply the principles of universal design - thanks to this a professional designer has full freedom of design, in particular with regard to people with disabilities, guaranteeing a high level of aesthetics and usability.

Please give information about the key objectives of your project in terms of inclusion and how these have been met

affordability of gipset bathrooms is our key objective - a rebuilt bathroom will be cheaper / more accessible than a bathroom in its first application, due to the lack of need to repurchase production materials. Transparency of the process and its repeatability will eliminate asymmetry of information between the contractor and the buyer - this gives full control of the budget and the process on the user side, at a higher level than with the original technology, simplicity of bathroom assembly gipset baths provides an opportunity to train low-skilled and excluded social groups and thus supplement the supply of workers on the construction market. This creates an opportunity to create many jobs at the "entry level" ideal for the young generation (planned cooperation with vocational schools), for whom this can be a ticket to the world of engineering, a chance for greater social mobility and above all for the high unemployment of this social group, once project reaches EU scale, it’ll reduce the price pressure in the housing sector related to the lack of skilled labor and accelerate the pace of large-scale housing investments, including the revitalization and upgrading of many facilities for less affluent EU residents.

Please give information on the results/impacts achieved by your project in relation to the category you apply for

gipset bath allows bathrooms to enter the circular economy - our technology allows bathrooms to be dismantled, refreshed and reassembled in the next location until the physical wear and tear of the finishing materials used (ceramic tiles, fittings) - this is realized through a patented assembly system and fully digital 3D objects that form the basis for subsequent design processes, deliveries of gipset bathrooms confirm a cost advantage in the case of the "original" bathroom built in the gipset bath technology of more than 20% over traditional technology. In the case of deliveries of "revitalised" bathrooms, savings in relation to the classic technology will amount to over 50%, realized deliveries of gipset bathrooms indicate a real assembly time of 48 hours by a 3-person assembly team - the time of 7-10 days, typical for the classical technology, was shortened thanks to complete elimination of wet processes at the construction site, i.e. levelling of wall curvature, waterproofing and laying ceramic tiles in stages, the concentration of bathroom production at the gipset bath factory allows a conscious choice of "green" raw materials and materials within the supply chain through strong integration with their manufacturers (holistic view of waste generated and carbon footprint).

Please explain the way citizens benefiting from or affected by the project and civil society have been involved in the project and what has been the impact of this involvement on the project

the design process began in 2018 was based on customer development / design thinking concepts. We carried out numerous consultations with over 20 organizations interacting with thousands of end-users (housing developers, architectural offices, local government units, institutional lease managers, fit-out contractors, show-rooms with bathroom materials) to identify key issues and develop solutions. This identified a wide range of problems relating to the lack of skilled labor, poor quality tiling services and the rising cost of refurbishment and construction work, practitioners pointed to the need for flexible solutions allowing a site to be repurposed (a student residence today, a business hotel tomorrow and a retirement home the day after tomorrow), responding to the challenges of resident’s mobility and needed flexibility in urban planning given a rapidly changing urban fabric, during prototyping, contractors were invited to comment on individual stages of the assembly process. As a result, dozens of major and minor design changes were made, leading to an assembly time of 48H, a special stage of the work was the consultation with organisations involved in the care of people with disabilities - they pointed to the huge demand for "senior" bathrooms at an affordable price and with the possibility to adjust key parameters to the residents' mobility preferences, as a result, each of the current and future gipset customers (both institutional and natural persons) uses 3D scanning of its surface, receives a 3D bathroom design and CNC machines perform production in accordance with the design. Simplicity of assembly reduces the need for training of contractors, so that a company can be found anywhere that will perform the assembly in accordance with the technological requirements within the assumed time.

Please highlight the innovative character of the project

gipset bath technology has been filed for patent protection. In simple terms, the subject of IP protection is the technology of panel prefabrication together with technical details concerning leveling, joining and sealing of individual panels, thanks to the assembly method used, the bathtub can be dismantled at any time by performing the assembly operations in reverse order without damaging individual elements, packed into boxes and transported to any other place for reassembly, applied construction solutions allowed to eliminate all wet processes from the construction process of the bathroom on the construction site, in preparing the ground, waterproofing and gluing the ceramic tiles, simplicity of assembly allows for turnkey of bathroom construction in 48 hours including white assembly by people with basic skills. thanks to automatic production it is possible to achieve high, repeatable quality with a grout width of 1.5 mm, digital design process allows the bathroom to be perfectly adapted to any room shape and dimensions, and in the future to use the 3D object to design further spaces for the already manufactured bathrooms, the digital process allows architectural design to be transferred directly to the production machines without physical and personal contact between the architect and production.

Please explain how the project led to results or learnings which could be transferred to other interested parties

based on our experience, we have developed a number of documents that facilitate the design and construction of our gipset bath bathrooms. For clients and architects we have prepared finishing catalogues with finishing materials proposals. For architects themselves, among other things, design guidelines have been developed and full BIM libraries are being created, we continually provide training for contractors and architects in product, design, process and sustainability so that the idea of gipset bath can be put into practice for the widest possible audience. To this end, there are training rooms in the R&D area of the plant and our technical advisors are available online for interested parties. We share our practical experience on how to design and build a cost-effective and aesthetically pleasing bathroom using gipset bath technology, gipset is involved in a CSR project for the supply of bathrooms for the poorest people. We convince large operators of flats for rent, student residences and hotels to donate their bathrooms to future social projects already at the stage of construction or renovation of their facilities. In this way, the idea of sustainable development and closed bathroom circulation will start to "flourish".

Is an evaluation report or any relevant independent evaluation source available?

By ticking this box, you declare that all the information provided in this form is factually correct, that the proposed project has not been proposed for the Awards more than once under the same category and that it has not been subject to any type of investigation, which could lead to a financial correction because of irregularities or fraud.