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Ninety degrees, anticlockwise. Within that quarter of a turn the handle of an AF/21 basin mixer with the progressive cartridge takes the water from cold through mixed to hot, and rotation is the only movement. The mechanism suits the form. Fantini describes the taps of the series as discs, and on these bath fittings from Italy a disc asks only to be turned.
The same series also holds the opposite view. With the traditional cartridge the lever is lifted and lowered for flow and moved right or left for temperature: two movements on one handle. Fantini does not rank the two, and a specifier should not either, because the answer depends on who stands at the basin. In the washroom on the executive floor the daily user learns a new handle once and keeps it; a visitor gets a single try.
Design Naoto Fukasawa; production by Fantini at Pella, on Lake Orta, under the Aboutwater Boffi-Fantini name. Sorted by mechanism, the progressive cartridge runs single-hole, two-hole and wall-mounted basin mixers; the traditional one runs a second group of basin mixers, the floor-standing model among them, and the kitchen mixer with its swivel spout; the bidet and the concealed shower mixers are made with either. The two-handle sets for basin and bathtub work on ceramic headworks. La Mercanti asks who will use the basin, staff or guests, before suggesting progressive or traditional.
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Three parts sold together: the FIT hand shower, a water outlet for the wall with a holder on it, and a PVC hose 150 cm long. In the catalogue images FIT is a slim, pen-like handset hanging beside the disc controls, its hose falling in a loop. The set is what gives a concealed shower its second outlet, next to the overhead rain shower, and the same handset is supplied with the bathtub sets too. If the shower wall is planned with one outlet only, say so before the set goes on the list.
It is the fitting that drains the bathtub and handles its overflow, and Fantini lists it in two forms: a plain waste column and one that also delivers water through the overflow. With the second, the tub fills from the overflow opening itself. The column is listed among the complements of the series, next to the basin wastes, the bottle trap, the filter valves and the steel flush plates. Settle it together with the tub supplier, since the column has to suit the tub.
Because of the mixers. In Fantini’s account the series reduces taps and mixers to discs and cylinders, and the cylinders, the company says, have the concise elegance of an alphabetic image. Seen from the side, a mixer is one stroke with one bend in it, closer to a written sign than to a machine. Fantini names no particular letter and neither do we. The useful part for a designer is the consequence: a shape this bare stays legible from across the room, on a drawing and in a photograph.
As two separate pieces: the spout stands in one hole and its control in the other. AF/21 offers this layout with the progressive cartridge, in a standard version whose spout projects 15.5 cm and in a tall one with an extended spout of 19 cm. Because the control stands apart, it can be placed on the side the user prefers, and the spout remains a clean cylinder with nothing attached to it. Like the other deck-mounted mixers it is fed by flexible hoses, and its waste is chosen separately.
Every basin and bidet mixer in the series carries a flow limiter set at 5 l/min at 3 bar. The kitchen mixers are set higher, at 8 l/min at the same pressure, and the rain shower at 12 l/min. These are Fantini’s figures and the only ones we quote. On a project they are handy at the plumbing design stage: multiplied by the number of basins on a floor, they give the consultant the peak draw of the washrooms while the layout is still on paper.
An AF/21 enquiry gets a precise answer when it already names the room, the mounting, the handle movement, the finish and the waste. Five decisions, in the order Fantini’s own range is organised.
List where AF/21 is going: washbasin, bidet, shower, bathtub, kitchen sink. The series has a fitting for each, plus complements such as wastes, a bottle trap and flush plates. An enquiry that covers every point at once keeps one design and one finish across the whole project.
A basin mixer can stand on the counter, come out of the wall or rise from the floor; a bath set can go in the wall, on the rim or on a floor column. Deck models connect by flexible hoses. Wall and floor models arrive as an external part and a concealed part, so the wall has to be planned for them.
Three mechanisms exist. Progressive: one rotation of 90°, from cold to hot. Traditional: lift for flow, swing right or left for temperature. Two handles: ceramic headworks, a quarter turn each. The kitchen mixers are traditional only; bidet and shower mixers are made both ways.
There are five finishes: chrome and three matt PVD colours on brass, and brushed stainless steel. The handle is always included. On many basin, shower and bath models it can be marble instead of metal, in Carrara White or Marquinia Black; state which, model by model.
Basin, bidet and kitchen mixers are supplied without a waste, which goes on a row of its own. Fantini lists two, one that closes with a push and one that stays free-flowing, both universal for basins with or without overflow, plus a bottle trap and filter valves sold as a pair.
