New York-based Japanese designer Nao Tamura has squeezed a red public toilet block onto a triangular plot in Tokyo's downtown Shibuya district.
The triangular structure was built as part of the Tokyo Toilet project run by the non-profit Nippon Foundation, which will see bathroom facilities built by leading Japanese architects including Pritzer Prize winners Toyo Ito, Shigeru Ban, Tadao Ando, Fumihiko Maki.
The project's launch was due to coincide with the now delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics as part of an effort to improve the city ahead of the games. Tamura's toilet block was informed by Origata – the traditional Japanese method of gift wrapping – to reference the notion of hospitality.
"The renovation of these public spaces was conceived in the spirit of hospitality and as a symbolic gift to Shibuya's international visitors," Tamura told Dezeen.
"The ancient technique is not only an expression of beauty and etiquette but one of the highest forms of honor and respect when bestowed upon its receiver," she continued.
"In order to replicate the Origata technique and the precise folds of paper that embody it, I chose steel plates to create the exterior's structure and facade."
The triangular toilet block is divided into three with a wheelchair-accessible bathroom, female toilet and male toilet aligned in a row with the male toilet at the tip of the triangle.
Each of the toilets has a stall with a closing door alongside an area for washing hands with a sink and a mirror.
from archdaily