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Walk-in showers for individually designed hotel bathrooms
12.06.2026 - JACKOBOARD® Aqua shower elements combine design flexibility with reliable construction – In Barbizon, just an hour or so from Paris, the Hotel La Folie Barbizon has reopened following several months of refurbishment. The establishment sees itself as both a hotel and an artists’ residence, and aims to offer its guests more than just the standard experience: interaction, art, creativity and hospitality are interwoven throughout every aspect of the hotel. Numerous artists were involved in the redesign of the rooms, corridors and communal areas.
Bathrooms with a creative touch
The bathrooms have also been extensively modernised and individually designed in collaboration with the artists: tiles featuring graphic elements, colours such as ochre, light blue and terracotta, murals and numerous handcrafted details characterise the rooms. The result is 13 bathrooms, each representing a distinct colour scheme with its own unique atmosphere, ensuring that no two bathrooms are alike.
When implementing the accessible shower areas, technically reliable solutions were required that could be adapted to different room layouts, tile formats and tile thicknesses.
Prefabricated shower systems for quick and easy installation
JACKOBOARD® Aqua shower elements, which can be tiled directly, were installed with linear drainage. Their high degree of prefabrication enables rapid installation: the drainage fall, which is already incorporated at the factory, reliably directs the water to the drainage channel – without the need for manual drainage fall creation on site. All shower systems are fitted with a sealed drain flange and are characterised by their low installation height.
Another factor that helps to reduce installation time is that the core of the shower panels consists of waterproof extruded polystyrene rigid foam (XPS) and is coated on both sides with a special finish. Applying a waterproofing layer is therefore not necessary, which speeds up installation. As the XPS core also has high compressive strength, the shower elements are wheelchair-accessible.
Rotatable stainless steel channel – height-adjustable frame
The drainage channel is made of brushed stainless steel and can be easily rotated and tiled over at the back. The linear drainage system can therefore either serve as a visible stainless steel accent or blend almost invisibly into the tiled surface – for a very subtle integration into the interior design.
With the JACKOBOARD® Aqua Line pro, the height-adjustable frame further expands the design possibilities: it can be flexibly adapted to tile thicknesses ranging from 6 to 21 mm, making it particularly suitable for bathroom designs such as the one at Barbizon, where tiles of varying thicknesses were used. With a drainage capacity of up to 1.05 l/s, the shower tray also offers a high level of functional reliability in day-to-day hotel operations.
Customised bathroom designs, expertly installed
Reliability and ease of installation are crucial, particularly in a demanding hotel project such as the one in Barbizon, France. The JACKOBOARD® Aqua shower panels have a European Technical Assessment (ETA). They are available in a wide range of sizes and were used in the hotel in various dimensions ranging from 900 to 1800 mm; a custom size of 1300 x 1400 mm was also installed. Further sizes are available on request.
The project highlights the requirements for floor-level shower areas that can be tiled directly in individually designed hotel bathrooms: they must drain reliably, be properly waterproofed, be efficient and safe to install, whilst at the same time allowing for a high degree of design flexibility. This balancing act has been successfully achieved at the Hotel La Folie Barbizon.