This is a renewal of a public toilet in Nakanojo town, Gunma.
The site is in the center of the town, on the corner of the parking of Ringshoji temple, a historical temple in Nakanojo.
The toilet is asked to be a symbol of the town that has the art festival ‘Nakanojo Biennale’, and at the same time, is asked to be a fresh and comfortable public toilet that is not ‘dismal’ like ordinal public toilets in Japan.
Considering the maintenance of a public toilet, instead of using wood to add coziness, we remove the dismalness by designing the contrast of the space.
We considered that the corner of the ordinal square toilet is a matter of dismalness, by making a shadow and by parasitizing puddles, dust, or spiders.
So we actualized a fresh and comfortable space for public toilets by getting rid of corners and lighting the interior wall with natural light from the top light.
The S-shaped wall makes an adequate distance between the men’s toilet and the women’s toilet, and at the same time receives a flow of people from both sides of the street and the parking.
Also, the curved wall induces people and cars from the street into the parking.
Despite a 10m2 minimal building, it combines elements like the flow of people and cars around the site, interior comfortableness, and the symbolism in the town.