The prevalent boom in furnishing bathrooms is even providing a challenge for saunas in Finland. The tap producer Oras Oy is involved in the development by cooperating with Alessi, an Italian design company.

The design and furnishing of bathrooms has aroused increasing interest in recent years. "Today the bathroom is more than the traditional washing place. People like being in the bathroom and they're spending an increasing amount of time there," says Jari Paasikivi, the CEO at Oras.

In the modern bathroom taps, sanitary porcelain, furnishings, mirrors, lights, shower cubicles as well as bathtubs have been designed. These are all combined in the pan-European Il Bagno Alessi project, which includes Oras, the Italian company Inda and the Swiss Laufen in addition to Alessi.

Inda is responsible for the bathroom accessories and furnishings, Laufen the sanitary porcelain, Oras the taps and Alessi the design. The project is being led by Stefano Giovannoni, a Milanese architect.

In control of the whole tap process

In spite of the trend, design is nothing new to Scandinavia's biggest producer of taps. Paasikivi says that it has always been an important part of Oras's product development. In the mid-1960s the company cooperated with the famous Finnish designer Tapio Wirkkala.

"If we hadn't always had design, the cooperation with Alessi wouldn't have been created," Paasikivi points out.

Oras bases its operations on multi-technology, thanks to which the company can combine brass, technical plastic and electronics in its production. "We ourselves are in control of the entire tap process i.e. we produce all the strategically important components ourselves. You won't find this very much in the rest of the world," Paasikivi says.

The Oras Group has subsidiaries in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, France, Germany, Belgium, Poland and the Czech Republic. More than half of the company's turnover of 118 million euros is generated by exports.

The cooperation with Alessi, which started in 2002, has increased international interest in Oras and also opened up new opportunities and distribution channels. "The cooperation with Alessi will continue and something new is on the way," Paasikivi says.

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The cooperation between Oras and Alessi has generated a new kind of bathroom based on overall design.


A good tap combines design with customer friendliness.