Leave it to Japan to be innovators in every way imaginable. When you hear that a country has taken it upon themselves to create colorful transparent public restrooms, it can only come from the place that has music-playing toilets to mask toilet sounds.
Tokyo is hoping to end the stigma about dark, dreary, and downright disgusting public restrooms.
Designed by Shigeru Ban and developed by the nonprofit organization Nippon Foundation, The Tokyo Toilet project is working to make the public restroom experience more enjoyable than once thought.
While there are 17 expertly designed public restrooms in the project, the most recent and striking colorful transparent toilets belong to two Shibuya parks.
One is in Yoyogi Fukamachi Mini Park, and the other is in Haru-No-Ogawa Community Park.
With his design, Shigeru aimed to address and solve two public restroom concerns: cleanliness and whether anyone is inside.
With the transparent design, restroom-goers will be able to tell right before stepping in whether or not the bathroom is clean, and whether or not someone is indeed inside.
With expert technology, the colorful glass suddenly turns opaque when locked, so no one can dispute if the bathroom is in use or not.
Not only that, but Shigeru is helping to make public restrooms…beautiful. At night, the three attached stalls light up and look like a borderline art installation.
On top of the aesthetic design, the restrooms are also rather inclusive, equipped with ostomy facilities and are all wheelchair-accessible.
How great are these?
Check out the demo to see the public restrooms in action.
Last Updated on August 24, 2020 by Olivia Nazarewich