Based in northern Italy, Bisazza is a leading producer of high-end glass mosaic tile with showrooms in cities around the world, including New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Last year the company launched the Bisazza Bagno division to produce collections of high-end bathroom furnishings. Spanish designer Jaime Hayon kicked things off with an Art Deco–inspired grouping, followed by a line by Dutch iconoclast Marcel Wanders, who integrated minimal forms with ornate, Baroque-style motifs.

The new pieces by the prolific Japanese design studio Nendo, introduced last April during Salone del Mobile in Milan, are influenced by Japanese culture. While communal bathing was commonplace until a few decades ago in Japan, points out Nendo's founder, Oki Sato, the ritual has become much more solitary. The new ensemble envisions the bathing environment to be "very private and functional" while still retaining elements that recall "the sense of gathering" in the public baths, says Sato.

Nendo's collection reinterprets standard bathroom furnishings into boxed forms with refined lines, in materials including brass, Cristalplant (a nontoxic composite material), and golden-hued larch wood, the last of which connects many of the pieces in the line, such as a bathtub, storage, and shelving. The pieces push minimalism to new levels: A counter and sink (in Cristalplant) float above an empty frame, while the surface of the mirrors has been partially cut away to echo the shape of water drops. Bisazza expects the collection to be available in the U.S. by the beginning of next year.

The latest products for kitchens and baths help make everyday rituals more efficient and enjoyable.