zU

Public Toilets 

Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2021

Architecture & Interior Architecture :

zU-studio architecture

Javier Zubiria

A public toilet as a temple elevating the human condition to a more conscious and spiritual level

(Humanizing the intimate moment of a person in a toilet)

zU-studio´s designed structure will humanize the intimate moment of a person in a public toilet

Public Toilets. Summer 2020.

Summer 2020, the world has been inmmersed in a global pandemic, that is clearly affecting our social, economical and environmental lifestyle.

This situation clearly increased our awareness of our personal higiene habits, like washing our hands very often, touching less as possible objects while being in public domain,…

At the same moment when all this crisis is happening , the citizens are obliged to practice social distancing and many people found in nature a refuge.

Nature has been clearly healing our bodies during this undertain times.

However, the message shared by Governments and worldwide public institutions about being more aware of individual higiene, didn´t fit with the public infrastructure they were offering to the citizens, as for example, public toilets in the parks.

Most of them are in very poor conditions and not inviting at all, therefore people end up using other options in order to avoid entering in those terrible containers.

It is a tremendously inspiring moment for designers, artists, thinkers and creatives in general.

As architects we feel the responsibility to propose new ideas for our cities and to take the initiative to design and create nicer spaces to elevate the human condition to a more conscious level.

What if we could create a public toilet that invites people behave better, be cleaner and feel better?

And if that moment could even become spiritual?

zU-studio´s proposal aims to create a peaceful and harmonic moment, through a simple, elegant and contemporary structure. On one hand, a very thin roof standing on a serie of very thin pillars will protect people from adverse climate conditions. The exterior covered area will be a place to contémplate, reflect, wait and enjoy the sorroundings. On the other hand, a serie of semi-circular and circular shaped wooden modules, will act as a kind of curtain to guarantee privacy and safety.

This “wooden curtain” will be open to the inside and to the outside, creating space for flowers, seating areas, recycle bins,…

(Public insititutions need to invite to citizens to recycle more and there should be more well designed bins in ur cities)

The proposal includes interior and exterior washbasins, to invite people wash their hands more often.

A combination of Wood and a green wall, covered by a thin steel canopy.

This Project is flexible and adaptable to different scales and circumstances.

As the diagrams explain, there could be different amount of units depending on the context and space available.

Initially designed for parks in the city, it could also potentially work in more urban environments as public plazas or more provisional infrastructures, for instance for music festival, flexible exhibitions,…