In recent years we’ve seen many things which will be symbolized to point out equality and rights for all communities. A replacement, York-based designer named Nao Tamura came up with an innovative concept of the red toilet, wherein she designed the toilets for handicapped, male, female also for the LGBTQ community. This comfort station is meant to cater to the requirements of all kinds of people regardless of their sexual identity, age, ethnicity, or religion.
The triangular structure was built as a part of the Tokyo Toilet project travel by the non-profit Nippon Foundation, which can see bathroom facilities built by leading Japanese architects including Pritzker Prize winners Toyo Ito, Shigeru Ban, Tadao Ando, Fumihiko Maki. The project’s launch was thanks to coinciding with the now delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics as a part of an attempt to enhance the town before the games. Tamura’s toilet block was informed by Origata – the normal Japanese method of wrapping – to reference the notion of hospitality. The traditional technique isn’t only an expression of beauty and etiquette but one among the very best sorts of honor and respect when bestowed upon it. To duplicate the Origata technique and therefore the precise folds of paper that embody it, Tamura chose steel plates to make the exterior’s structure and façade. The triangular toilet block is split into three with a wheelchair-accessible bathroom, female toilet, and male toilet aligned during a row with the male toilet at the tip of the triangle. The location is industrial and lies beneath an elevated railway station clad in concrete. Each of the toilets features a stall with a closing door alongside a neighborhood for laundry hands with a sink and a mirror.
All three toilets are wrapped with a metal shell that is bright red. A color that the designer chose to form the block easy to identify and would project a “sense of urgency”. Her first consideration was to not create a structure that might not just blend in with the environment but to stand out in case of emergency and would be easily identified. The designer wanted to make an intervention that might be easily seen, recognized, and telegraph a way of urgency. All the items which usually accompany one got to locate and use a comfort station. The color red on behalf represents safety and immediacy and the feeling is that a comfort station is just a utilitarian structure with one purpose only – it’s not an area to linger or gather.
Tamura aimed to make a restroom where all users feel welcome by those who specialize in safety and privacy. She hopes to “embrace the LGBT+ community” together with her design. She believed that addressing the security and privacy of users is most essential to a cushy experience for everybody including the LGBTQ+ community. When she began this project, she made a decision that she didn’t want to form a distinction between males and feminine when it involves transgender. Tamura quoted, “My feeling is that if you identify as a lady, you ought to be happy to use the women room and if you identify as a person, be happy to use the men’s room.”
This project by the Nippon foundation aims for the belief of a society where all types of diversity are accepted, by building public toilets. With the complete cooperation of Shibuya city, 17 toilets that are accessible for anyone no matter gender, age, or disability are going to be created. Through the facility of design and therefore the creativity of 16 creators who support the objectives of this project, the Nippon Foundation is demonstrating what this new society is able to do. The toilets are going to be constructed by Daiwa house industry co., ltd., while TOTO ltd. will advise on toilet equipment and layout.
