#HTE

Boat Bath & Beyond

Close your eyes. Imagine that you’re on a boat, floating somewhere off in the South China Sea. The feeling is calming, and probably not too far from the sensation of soaking in a bathtub, letting the water lap around your ankles and toes. It’s that image that inspired Otaku, a bathtub by the Israeli designer Tal Engel that takes traditional boat-building techniques from Asia and reverses their purpose—using them to hold water within instead of keep it outside.

“By crossing the two disciplines [boats and bathing], I have discovered a certain analogy between the idea of sitting in a bath and sailing on a boat, both practically and emotionally,” Engel says. Wanting to emphasize that parallel, Engel began the project last summer by researching traditional boat-building techniques, turning to Asia for its rich history in the craft. In particular, the designer focused his attention on coracles, woven baskets made from bamboo, found in India, Vietnam, Iraq and Tibet. Typically waterproofed in resin and coconut oil, these boats continue to be made by craftspeople in those countries, in sizes that accommodate from one to several people, along with all their fishing gear.

Traditional coracle weaving

Translating the process for a residential bathtub, Engel traded bamboo for white ash and maple veneer, selected for their impact strength, durability and ability to be steam-bent. “White ash is a common boatbuilding material which has a fairly good rot resistance, strength and excellent bending properties,” Engel says. “Maple has a good strength properties, is highly resistant to wear and has good bending ability. The combination of the two provides a light, flexible surface which can bear heavy weight and resist humidity.”

Employing a similar weaving technique to that used for coracles, Engel wove thin strips of white ash and maple veneer together into a large sheet, a meticulous task spanning more than eight hours. (The name Otaku speaks to this process—it’s a Japanese term for people with obsessive interests, such as anime or manga fandom.) Then he had to shape it into the elongated form of the tub. “The goal was reaching an optimized combination between the weaving method, wood type and three-dimensional shape,” Engel says. “Although the production method was based on existing technology, I had to create my own production scene.”

Engel’s production scene included a large mold and a steam bender, infusing modern manufacturing methods with traditional boat-building techniques. After weaving a large sheet, the designer pressed the material into a form using steam to bend it into its final shape. “Since there was no direct or easy access to [basket] weaving manufacturers in Europe, the woven surface had to be done independently,” Engel says. “This was a real time-consumer, which slowed down the development process. However, the intensity of each forming attempt produced a long list of conclusions for further improvements. This means that there was a huge step between each forming experiment, while the ability or disability of the material to take shape have helped to define the design.”

Starting with few small models, the designer gradually scaled up until he had enough confidence to test a 1:1 version. “The first two tests failed during the molding process, whereas the third was quite successful,” he says. From his experiments (recounted in detail over on his blog), Engel learned to appreciate the character of the material by paying careful attention to its behavior and reaction at each step of the process.

Once the steam-bent sheet was dry, Engel coated the vessel with layers of resin, another modern improvement on the coconut oil used in the coracles. In addition to making Otaku watertight (a pretty important step for any bathtub), resin added to the tub’s strength and durability.

The final sealed tub, weighing just under 15 kilograms (or about 33 pounds), is mounted to a powder-coated steel frame, and the fixtures are attached. “The steel wire-frame design attempts to create an iconic shape which is light yet strong,” Engel says. “The linear silhouette poetically refers to the fundamental part of the production process and closes a circle by telling the complete narrative—from the actual production to the final outcome.”

While Otaku currently exists only as a prototype, Engel is in the process of reaching out to possible manufacturers to bring the design to mass production. With the current amount of manual labor required for each tub, Engel recognizes that the design might need to be streamlined to translate for machine production. “There are already machines that can produce sheets [of woven veneer] in less then 30 minutes,” he says. “Normally, a translation of such a woven bathtub to mass production would probably need to include a session of product development preformed by the producer; however, the actual production should not be too complicated or expensive for a big company in the field.” Engel says to stay tuned for more updates later this year.