"Say goodbye to clinical white washrooms: a whole new kind of bathroom has arrived. But don't worry, it's not an avocado revival. Global fears about the future of the planet, it seems, have sparked a change in the way we wash. Designer and trendspotter Mark Garside explains: "Trite as it sounds, what is happening in the wider world affects how we adorn our homes, from the wallpaper to the bathroom taps.

Now, fear over a global crisis has guided us towards design inspired by the natural world." As a result, the most upmarket bathrooms now imitate primitive jungle showers.

Cutting-edge design focuses on waterfall showers and rain taps, while body jets and massage showers have gone out of fashion," says Hayley Tarrington, senior designer at exclusive bathroom company CP Hart. "With a bigger head and a softer spray, they spout water like a flood, mixing in lots of air so the water bubbles like Champagne." (Winchester Cathedral right, courtesy of John Owen Smith))

The Rain Sky from Dornbracht replaces a bulky showerhead with a sleek ceiling panel that imitates a shower of rain. Flick a switch and it can spray you with aromatherapy mist, and, using LED technology, deluge you in water in a spectrum of colours.

A few years ago, bathroom innovation meant having a flat-screen TV in the room. But now, Tarrington believes, the biggest factor changing the way we wash is composite materials. "They change the format of everything because they can be moulded into organic curves, dips and waves."

High street shops are still focusing on ceramic sinks, baths and lavatories, but designer shops are full of exotic mouldable materials such as Crystalplant and LG HI-MACS.

Tarrington has noticed a surge in baths that look like sculptures, such as the Ebb, designed by Us Together, made from natural white acrylic stone composite and incorporating a shower, bath and washbasin in one unit.

"Right now, it's very expensive – over £50,000 – but one day we'll all have baths like this," Hayley predicts.

Ron Arad, a contemporary furniture designer, created a prototype bath of the future, the Rotator, which made waves at last year's Milan Furniture Fair. Made for the Italian bathroom company Teuco, it is a circular wall-mounted shower that rotates 180 degrees to become a bath. When you swivel the curvy shower canopy it becomes the bath shell. There's no plug hole, explains Arad, but as the unit rotates the water spills out onto a tiled floor". More....

“I think it’s time I updated my guest ensuite. Jade Jagger has a gold bath, gold taps and a gold-plated pole in the middle of her bathroom. I’m not sure what it’s for, but I want one, too. Can you be a darling and sort?” More....

A Gold Tap - a design example only by www.autotaps.com does not refer to the above story.