You can tell a lot about a place by the quality of its public toilets. I don’t know about you, but if I’m at a restaurant and the toilets are filthy, I automatically assume that the kitchen is at least as filthy.
And so what does it say about Japan that it decided to hire the country’s leading architects to design 17 new public toilets in Tokyo?
I first wrote about “The Tokyo Toilet” back in the summer of 2021. But now that the majority of them have been constructed, I figured it was time to revisit the project.
The two toilets designed by Shigeru Ban are particularly noteworthy in that they are clear glass boxes that become automatically opaque when in use. This was done so you can see if there’s anyone lurking inside.
I also love this one by Kazoo Sato.
But of course, all of them are remarkable and all of them are probably better than the general level of public architecture that you’ll find in most other cities.
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