EXAMPLES
There are a wide range of projects around the toilet that can encourage designers to consider in more detail the implications of their work. The following examples give a snapshot of different approaches that have been developed as part of the toilet design toolkit:
​
MICROCOSM
AROUND THE TOILET LIVE PROJECT​
THE INACCESSIBLE CITY
MICROCOSM
Toilets are a microcosm of society; They are places which encapsulate in miniature the characteristics and challenges of the complex and multifaceted interactions between people and space.
​
Students were asked to design a toilet by way of a spatial manifesto for their building design, enabling them to explore and express their specific approach to society through their design, considering:
​
-
Function - how do people use the toilet and what will effect the way that they use the toilet?
-
The user experience and how the design will accommodate people
-
An attitude towards access and inclusivity
-
Servicing and function
-
Materials, details, thresholds, cleaning routine etc.
​
The following are samples of the work created by a group of Masters Architecture students at the Sheffield School of Architecture.
Christie
​
Christie was interested in looking at facilities for children, providing them with enhanced access to the city centre. The toilets aim to create a more open and accessible place that children can use unaided by adults, but also alongside adults. The toilet provides a playful environment that brings water and its cleansing properties to life, as well as offering additional facilities for parents, ambulant disabled people and wheelchair users.
Theo
​
Theo was interested in addressing issues of faith and how faith can influence toilet usage. This investigation looked at how toilets could be designed to provide a more appropriate place for people of all faiths to use. This investigation was developed alongside studies into faith groups and how religion may change in the future, as well as how ritual and faith can be part of a process called syncretism, the amalgamation of different religions and cultures.
​
The design takes into account a number of key faith related parameters and tries to distill these into a toilet that in itself may create a better experience for people of all or no faith.
Cressy
​
Cressy's interest in feminism led her to explore the specific challenges for women in their use of toilets. The importance of a toilet facility as a safe haven for women and the promotion of health and wellbeing are paramount in the design.
Cressy has created a facility that offers a sociable space within the city and one that sets a new environmental agenda reducing and recycling human waste.
Anna
​
Anna was interested in creating a toilet that was experiential and provided a retreat from the fast pace of urban life. It was aimed at supporting a more positive mental health outlook.
​
The design focuses on the experience of waiting, entering, reflecting, washing and leaving the toilet. All the while, people are in contact with their surroundings, whether it be a view to the nearby canal, or skyward glance.
Praneet & Zuzanna
​
Praneet and Zuzanna were interested in looking at toilets in an ecological and botanical sense. Their approach relates to their desire to enable people to access outdoor communal gardens to promote health and well-being. Their overtly organic design is the starting point to explore the how toilets can be self-sustaining and off-grid. This has the potential to change people's habits and their understanding of what toilets are for.
Jialin
​
Jialin was interested in international culture, language, rituals and ceremony. Her exploration of toilets around the world culminated in a composite design, that shows how different nationalities have different toilet customs. Therefore a toilet to accommodate everyone would be one that contains an assortment of different articles, each with their own cultural rules and definitions.
THE INACCESSIBLE CITY
​
When scaling-up the issues, challenges and circumstances of toilets to a city scale, accessibility and rights become increasingly complex and layered. It is a huge challenge for designers to understand the barriers that they can unwittingly create for certain groups of people through the designs of places and spaces.
​
Experimenting with an alternative approach, we asked architecture students to take an antithetical position and tasked them with designing a new entrance/gateway facility to the city centre that is inaccessible to a specific group of people. This group could be based on gender, ability, knowledge, faith, ethnicity, skills, financial, age, or another group. Students were asked to consider consider;
​
-
How is the design segregating, differentiating, excluding the particular group?
-
What are the experiences of those who can and can’t access the city?
-
What are the implications of this installation on everyone?
-
What impact would it have on the way the city functions?
​
The students found the task quite challenging, as they felt that they were being asked to go against the design principles and ethos that they had developed over a number of years. Through discussions and tutorials, the students defined their approach, with many considering their designs more as provocative installations, to raise awareness about accessibility, rather than put their name to a design that was seemingly overtly discriminatory. Some students couldn't create a design, but instead handled the project as more of an analytical tool to further explore an issue of accessibility.
​
At the end of this two week project, we reviewed the students' work with Sarah Rennie, discussing the issues around their work and the questions that each raised about how and why we design the built environment the way we do. As part of this work, the students created a core list of issues and words that reflected their work. (see right)
​
One of the unintended results from the project was that each design affected a range of people other than the intended group that were denied access, highlighting that there are always unintended consequences to design decisions, whether these are positive or negative.
AROUND THE TOILET LIVE PROJECT
​
The Live Project in 2015 supported the initial phase of the Around the Toilet research project. A group of Masters Architecture students developed a series of resources including a physical installation to raise awareness about the challenges that people face in accessing and using public toilets and an analysis of the existing building standards used by architects and designers when designing toilet facilities. The project description can be found here
​
There are also several other resources that show the depth of research and analysis.
​
​
