Tokyo's new bathrooms designed by Japan's star architects

On the occasion of the Tokyo Olympics, 16 of the best architects and designers in the country joined The Tokyo Toilet project, created together with the Nippon Foundation and dedicated to the restoration of 17 of the public baths that dot the very popular Shibuya area. Many big names have been involved in the project: Tadao Ando and Shigeru Ban are among them, but in the list of creators also appear the industrial designer and professor of the University of Tokyo Miles Pennington and above all Nigo, the founder of A BATHING APE.

The concepts are the most varied: the bathroom of Jingūmae, the one designed by Nigo, for example, has the appearance of one of the traditional houses that are still located in the Harajuku district, the same where the designer opened with Jun Takhashi his famous Nowhere store; more traditional instead Tadao Ando who was inspired by the outdoor pavilions known as azumaya for his circular bath at Jingu-Dori Park; more provocative was Shigeru Ban who created a transparent toilet, which thus helps to see if it is occupied or not and allows you to verify its cleanliness, whose glass walls become opaque once it has been occupied. Masamichi Katayama has perhaps created one of the most interesting bathrooms of all, inspired by the ancient huts called kawaya, and creating a crossed structure of fifteen concrete walls that form a space inside which the toilets are located.

All 17 bathrooms, of which at the moment only 9 are actually operational, include a variety of services designed to maximize their inclusiveness: the services vary from bathroom to bathroom, depending on the areas and constructions, but generally include rooms dedicated to babies, others instead dedicated to wheelchair access.

All bathrooms and their locations are listed and updated in real time on the official website of The Tokyo Toilet project.