<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Forget modesty, open bathrooms are hot
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->New York - Last fall, Ms Anika Chapin accompanied her father on a business trip to Toronto. The room that they shared at the stylish Hotel Le Germain had two separate beds, but also a large glass window dividing the bathroom and bedroom that left the shower in full view. Blinds could be raised or lowered from a button in the bedroom, but not from inside the stall.
'I guess it could be sort of sexy in the right circumstances, but it's definitely awkward when you're sharing the room with your dad,' said Ms Chapin, a 26-year-old assistant Broadway director.
From the chic boutiques of London and Los Angeles to hot new hotels in India and China, exposed bathrooms are a growing trend - whether in the form of transparent glass walls and shower stalls or bathtubs set in the middle of the bedroom like free-standing sculptures.
Designers and hoteliers have a variety of justifications for the concept, from the logistical (saving space) to the esoteric (a sense of added luxury).
Indeed, some travellers appreciate the voyeuristic kick. Freelance writer Bryce Longton, who stayed with her boyfriend at the Tides in Miami late last year, thought the glass shower in their suite was sexy.
'The steam from the shower obscured a lot, but showed a little. You could watch each other from the other room,' she said.
Mr Michael Attenborough, head of interior design for the Radisson Edwardian hotels, installed free-standing bathtubs in the chain's recently opened Bloomsbury location, and put glass-walled bathrooms in its Leicester Square hotel.
Even larger, more mainstream hotel brands, which are typically seen as designconservative, are installing open bathrooms to contemporise their look.
With room sizes shrinking, glass walls make them feel bigger and maximise natural light from the bedroom windows, according to Ms Patricia Miller, head of the hospitality group for the architecture firm Leo A Daly, who is designing exposed bathrooms for a hotel to open in India next year.
By opening the space, the bathrooms also help guests orient themselves in an unfamiliar environment, added architect Graham Downes, who has designed rooms that include glass-walled bathrooms in a number of hotels around the country.
He describes himself as a 'firm believer in open bathrooms', especially after an experience at the Ritz-Carlton in Dallas: 'The closet door, the front door and the bathroom door all looked the same,' he said. 'I was naked and I got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and went out my front door.' New York Times
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->New York - Last fall, Ms Anika Chapin accompanied her father on a business trip to Toronto. The room that they shared at the stylish Hotel Le Germain had two separate beds, but also a large glass window dividing the bathroom and bedroom that left the shower in full view. Blinds could be raised or lowered from a button in the bedroom, but not from inside the stall.
'I guess it could be sort of sexy in the right circumstances, but it's definitely awkward when you're sharing the room with your dad,' said Ms Chapin, a 26-year-old assistant Broadway director.
From the chic boutiques of London and Los Angeles to hot new hotels in India and China, exposed bathrooms are a growing trend - whether in the form of transparent glass walls and shower stalls or bathtubs set in the middle of the bedroom like free-standing sculptures.
Designers and hoteliers have a variety of justifications for the concept, from the logistical (saving space) to the esoteric (a sense of added luxury).
Indeed, some travellers appreciate the voyeuristic kick. Freelance writer Bryce Longton, who stayed with her boyfriend at the Tides in Miami late last year, thought the glass shower in their suite was sexy.
'The steam from the shower obscured a lot, but showed a little. You could watch each other from the other room,' she said.
Mr Michael Attenborough, head of interior design for the Radisson Edwardian hotels, installed free-standing bathtubs in the chain's recently opened Bloomsbury location, and put glass-walled bathrooms in its Leicester Square hotel.
Even larger, more mainstream hotel brands, which are typically seen as designconservative, are installing open bathrooms to contemporise their look.
With room sizes shrinking, glass walls make them feel bigger and maximise natural light from the bedroom windows, according to Ms Patricia Miller, head of the hospitality group for the architecture firm Leo A Daly, who is designing exposed bathrooms for a hotel to open in India next year.
By opening the space, the bathrooms also help guests orient themselves in an unfamiliar environment, added architect Graham Downes, who has designed rooms that include glass-walled bathrooms in a number of hotels around the country.
He describes himself as a 'firm believer in open bathrooms', especially after an experience at the Ritz-Carlton in Dallas: 'The closet door, the front door and the bathroom door all looked the same,' he said. 'I was naked and I got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and went out my front door.' New York Times
