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  Accessible facility

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  Women

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  Men

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  Priority facilities for elderly people

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  Priority for expecting mothers

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  Baby care room

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  Priority for those with small children

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  Children’s toilet

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  Facilities for ostomy

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  Care bed

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  Baby chair

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  Changing board

Masamichi Katayama / Wonderwall

Interior designer

“Modern Kawaya”

This is a design proposal for a public toilet inside Ebisu Park. The proposal is part of Shibuya City’s THE TOKYO TOILET project.

We kept in mind a facility that distances itself from architectural concepts and elements: an object that stands casually in the park as if it were playground equipment, benches, or trees.

In Japan, the origin of toilets is kawaya, written initially as 川屋 and later 厠 (also pronounced kawaya). Kawaya was a hut (ya 屋) that stood over the river (kawa 川) dating back to the Neolithic times of early Jomon period (10,000 to 6,000 BCE). These huts were of primitive and simple designs, often made of hardened soil or pieces of wood bound together. Trying to envision the appearance and atmosphere of the primitive kawaya of the past, we built an “ambiguous space” that is simultaneously an object and a toilet by randomly combining 15 concrete walls. The spaces between the walls lead users into three different areas designed for men, women, and everyone. The design creates a unique relationship in which users are invited to interact with the facility as if they are playing with a curious piece of playground equipment.

photo: Kazumi Kurigami

Interior designer. Principal and founder of Wonderwall inc. Professor at Musashino Art University Department of Scenography, Display and Fashion Design. Notable projects include UNIQLO Global Flagship Stores (New York, Paris, Ginza, etc); INTERSECT BY LEXUS (Aoyama, Dubai, New York); JAPAN HOUSE LONDON, a project led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and the Toranomon Hills Business Tower Retail Environment and ARCH, which opened in 2020. Katayama received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the FRAME AWARD 2020 sponsored by the Dutch design magazine FRAME, following Phillip Stark in 2019.