What is the world’s best city in which to be caught short? You can imagine a lively discussion on this question on a TripAdvisor forum. A strong candidate would be Tokyo, which has recently added to its long list of otherworldly attractions, a collection of 17 high-tech architect designed public lavatories. The toilets feature, and arguably star, in Wim Wender’s Oscar-winning film Perfect Days which tells the story of a reclusive, obsessively diligent cleaner whose job it is to keep the facilities in immaculate condition.

The 17 public toilets in the project all have three spaces, men, women, and ‘everyone’

The public toilets are the result of a project by the non-profit Nippon foundation, which invited 16 distinguished architects to design one, or in one case two, public conveniences each, letting their imaginations run rampant in the process. The foundation then invited Wenders to view the results in the hope that the great German director might produce a short promotional film. Instead, Wenders was so inspired that he embarked on a full-scale drama.

The toilets range in style from Scandi chic minimalist to retro-futurist to just plain weird. Some are a bit pretentious. A ‘back to the forest… public toilet village’ concept from Dundee V&A architect Kengo Kuma consists of five huts employing cedar board louvers to ‘create a line of flow’ and facilitate ‘a total experience… suitable for the age of diversity’. Your guess is as good as mine.

Another, three blocks of overlapping scarlet coloured metal, is apparently inspired by the Japanese art of wrapping (origata) and is aimed particularly at the ‘LGBTQ+ community’. The toilet ‘holds space for them to live their truth’ says the blurb from architect Nao Tamura. Hmmm, I thought it was just a place to (complete with your own choice of words).

Some are too clever for their own good.

QOSHE - Flushed out / Japanese toilets aren’t all they’re cracked up to be - Philip Patrick
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Flushed out / Japanese toilets aren’t all they’re cracked up to be

9 3
13.03.2024

What is the world’s best city in which to be caught short? You can imagine a lively discussion on this question on a TripAdvisor forum. A strong candidate would be Tokyo, which has recently added to its long list of otherworldly attractions, a collection of 17 high-tech architect designed public lavatories. The toilets feature, and arguably star, in Wim Wender’s Oscar-winning film Perfect Days which tells the story of a reclusive, obsessively diligent cleaner whose job........

© The Spectator


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