The Alchemist

The Alchemist shows how Nina van Bart deploys the results from a research within a search for innovative future scenarios stimulating imagination and broadening insights. The design project reflects on a society which today is mainly hectic. Continuous crises and threats create a haunted feeling; peace and attention seem increasingly rare. However, care and time for yourself are of great importance for your well-being. Nina van Bart therefore turned to the last space where intimacy can still exist: the bathroom. She developed proposals for products and rituals which require dedication, temporarily interrupting the course of things and intensifying our experience.

The Alchemist is a trend forecast, a short, spherical film for the wellness industry with new approaches to body care and beauty products. In the future, the bathroom will become a laboratory where liquids, minerals, emulsifiers and powders will be transformed into body care products on site. A quest for the treasure of well-being. The bathroom becomes the environment for an exploratory study into the making of one’s own products: substances capable of inducing a reaction, both physically and emotionally. Reactions are initiated in order to awaken a sensory experience: cultivated crystals exfoliating the skin, slippery materials massaging the feet, tingling tonics nourishing the nails or a floating mist cleaning the face.
You can watch the video here.

The Alchemist was one of Nina van Bart’s graduation projects at the Design Academy in Eindhoven.

“Nina van Bart visualizes a future scenario for the wellness industry in which the bathroom becomes a place for contemplation and (self-)care.
By creating care products personally and attentively, the hectics of the surrounding world are temporarily paused.”