What did you have in mind?
Trade terms for professionals and design studios
Fantini’s catalog sums up the wall-mount electronic Nostromo in one line: it is “the evolution for domestic use too” of a faucet originally born for communal use. Water opens and closes on a sensor. So a fixture type that grew up in shared buildings now takes its place in a private bath, within the same family of design-led bath fixtures as the handle models.
There are two electronic lavatory faucets: a single-hole model with a 4.5 in reach, shipped with four AA batteries, and a wall-mount one at 7.9 in. The catalog shows the wall model in brushed stainless steel under a round mirror, much as we would place it in an executive guest bath.
Nostromo as a whole is a design by Davide Mercatali, produced by Fantini in Pella, beside Lake Orta. By what the hand does, the series splits simply. Handles, cylindrical or with a lever, serve the lavatory and the bidet; one single-hole model takes a clinical lever; push-buttons run a thermostatic shower valve. The tub and the kitchen complete the series, and Nostromo Small keeps the same lines, slimmer at lavatory and bidet. Eleven finishes, ten of them over brass and one of brushed stainless steel, are offered on most lavatory, bidet, shower and tub models. La Mercanti asks who will use the lavatory, family, guests or staff, before suggesting a sensor or a handle.
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It describes how the shape was reached. According to the catalog, Nostromo owes its formal rigor to a process of subtracting material that the designer pursued over time, until the faucet touched the essence of its function and became a sign of strong visual identity. The result is easy to check in the catalog images: a cylindrical body, a short angled spout, a cylindrical handle. Nostromo Small takes the idea a step further, and Fantini says so in those terms. For whoever writes the spec, there is no decoration to keep consistent from room to room.
An American one, NSF/ANSI 372. Under it, Fantini states that on the surfaces of its faucets touching drinking water, lead does not exceed 0.25%. That is the whole claim, and we repeat it as written: a ceiling on the wetted surfaces, set by a U.S. standard. Nostromo falls under the same statement as the rest of the Fantini range. For a project team, the name of the standard and that percentage are the two items to carry onto the submittal.
Yes, the exposed tub faucet. It sits on the wall with a spout reaching 5.5 in and an automatic diverter. Fantini lists it in two forms, with a shower set or without one, so the handheld spray is decided when the order is written. At the tub the series also offers an in-wall valve with a 5.9 or 7.9 in spout, a deck-mount set and a freestanding column; of these, the exposed faucet is the one whose body stays entirely on the wall face.
Three solutions. The single-hole bidet faucet reaches 4.9 in and has a swivel aerator; in Nostromo Small the reach is 4.7 in. A second single-hole model has a swivel spout, at 4.5 in. The third splits the job: a bidet spout on the fixture and its controls on the wall. Both bidet and lavatory faucets are capped at 1.3 gpm, measured at 43.5 psi. If the remote-control version is chosen, the wall behind the bidet becomes part of the drawing early on.
The whole bath. At the lavatory, Small offers a single-hole model reaching 4.3 in, a mid-height and a tall model, a two-hole set, wall-mount faucets at 5.9 or 7.9 in, and a deck control paired with a spout 11 or 19.7 in high or with a wall spout. The bidet has its own Small faucet. Shower and tub pieces match Nostromo’s, handles aside, and the kitchen is served by Nostromo. Small comes in ten finishes, all of Nostromo’s but Matte White. La Mercanti puts both sizes on the counter when the choice is close.
Most Nostromo pieces come in eleven finishes, and a handful come in fewer. Five steps to check each item against the chart, from the base metal to the flush plates on the wall.
Every Nostromo finish sits on one of two materials. Ten are applied over brass: Chrome, seven PVD colors and two flat mattes, one black, one white. The eleventh, Brushed Stainless Steel, belongs to the other base, AISI 316/316L stainless. Settle coating or steel first; the rest of the list follows from that choice.
Eleven finishes cover most lavatory, bidet, shower and tub models. The Small version offers ten, the same list with Matte White set aside. The two flat colors carry RAL references, Matte Black RAL 9005 and Matte White RAL 9016, which helps when they have to sit beside a painted wall or a cabinet front.
Some pieces come in fewer colors. The clinical lever model is Chrome or Brushed Stainless Steel, as is the 14.2 in rain head. The swivel-spout lavatory faucet and two of the kitchen faucets offer Chrome plus Mokka, Deep Black, Matt Copper, Matt British Gold and Matt Gun Metal. Chrome is the joystick kitchen faucet’s finish.
The spout that drops from the ceiling over the lavatory is offered in nine finishes: every one in the series bar Pure Brass and Raw Metal. If the room is planned in either of those two, settle the ceiling spout’s finish before anything else goes on the schedule.
The flush plates are steel, with no visible fixings: one family fits Geberit cisterns of the Sigma 8 / Sigma 12 type, with buttons either round and raised or square and set flush, another fits TECE Tecebox Octa II. They come in the series finishes other than Chrome, with a polished stainless option added, so the last metal in the room can still match the first.
