In conversation with Gian Luca Gessi

BY Ashley Tucker

September 25th, 2015

In Australia to celebrate the launch of Abey’s new Rotheloman-designed showroom, Gian Luca Gessi, CEO of the world-famous bathroom brand Gessi, chatted with us about the significance of quality design when it comes to the bathroom and the way we live our lives. “The dream element has paramount importance to us,” he says.

Rather than simply follow the “scientifically precise” insights of consumer data, Gessi opts for a different approach: “We [deal] not only with the quality of the objects we produce, but also with the quality of life of the people using them,” Gian Luca says.

Working with artists, psychologists and anthropologists, Gessi develops products that explore new living concepts and revolutionise the bathroom. “Our company stresses on the study of the emotive power of objects, the ability of a space to transmit a welcoming feeling, and increase individual wellness,” Gian Luca says. “In particular, the bathroom is a place with a strong symbolic value, the room of intimacy and body-care, which is typically deputed to water, an element that provides an instinctual comfort…”

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Among Gessi’s most popular ranges is Gessi Goccia, an organic, fluid collection that inspires new interior design concepts. “Goccia is a line that is successful here in this market, I believe due to the natural lines and feeling of bringing the outside into the home,” comments Gian Luca. He also highlights the Rettangolo Collection and Ovale as popular among Australian architects and designers.

The launch of Abey’s new Melbourne showroom marks the launch of Gessi’s newest ranges, Cono and Eleganza, in Australia. “Both are ‘total look’ coordinated collections of taps, ceramic ware, and bathroom accessories,” comments Gian Luca.

These were first presented at ISH in Frankfurt, March 2015, on Gessi’s breath-taking fair stand which conjures the joy with which they approach all their designs. Sensory and emotional experience are orchestrated through clever use of pure and natural elements such as wood, stone, water, arboreal plots, vegetation, glass and metal.

Gessi’s designer ranges exist within these temporary environments as living, breathing elements – pieces of the Gessi vision that you can own – and enjoy – for yourself. It’s an approach, says Gian Luca, which is best summed up as “a restless stylistic research of forms, concepts, atmospheres”.

“Indeed it can be said that the Gessi Style Studio often does not merely use one specific material but ‘re-designs’ it to unlock all its emotional power.”