The Tokyo Toilet | Hiroo Higashi Park | Tomohito Ushiro

Tomohito Ushiro
Creative Director / Art Director / President of WHITE DESIGN

Monumentum

I wanted to design a public toilet that embodies the original idea behind this project that “we are all the same in the sense that we are all different.” I wanted this facility not only to be safe, secure, and clean but also easy to use for everyone. Since it’s inside a park, surrounded by greenery and many residents and visitors, I designed this toilet to be like a piece of public art that is part of daily life while also constantly asking questions to the viewer. I hope it becomes a monument that continues to question the significance of this project. The toilet lights up in 7.9 billion ways―as many as the world’s population. It continues to illuminate in different patterns, like light filtering through the trees during the day and like the moonlight or wandering fireflies at night, and will you will never see the same pattern twice.

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The Nippon Foundation’s THE TOKYO TOILET project is building public toilets that can be used by anyone.
The project is building new toilets at 17 locations in Shibuya, Tokyo, as a way of moving toward the realization of a society that embraces diversity.