This weekend we were visiting my nephew before he started back to his senior year in college, and took him and his girlfriend out for lunch. He chose P. F. Changs in Albany, which was great for us as we lack quality Chinese food in the Corning area, but a rather odd choice for someone who had spent the entire summer working on a research project with his professor in China. But as we were finishing up and everyone hit the rest rooms before we went our separate ways. Despite their only being four men, we created a line in the rest room – in a restaurant with a seating capacity of well over 100 people! The problem? The spacious rest room was dreadfully inefficient in terms of layout and space utilization. When I look at the above design I am thrilled at the possibilities of improved efficiency.
Recently Yeongwoo Kim won a 2010 iF Concept Design Award from International Forum Design for something he called the Eco Urinal concept.
Here is a more detailed image:
From his site:
To save water, Eco Urinal is designed to use the water that was used for washing hands to flush the urine. By this process, we don’t have to use water twice after using the urinal.
Moreover, it reduces the establishment expenses by optimizing the materials. Upper space of this urinal is made with glass, and it helps to secure a clear view for users. It also promotes people to keep their sanitation because people need to wash their hands to flush the urine after use.
The cool things about this:
- Space efficiency by co-locating sink and urinal.
- Water efficiency from using wash water to flush urinal
- Added ease & incentive to wash hands should improve hygiene
Are there concerns? Of course – some folks are worried about the flat surface design with regards to ‘splash-back’. Also, the co-location of functionality seems to trigger an unpleasant for some … but I’m not clear on the reasoning.
What do you think? Do you see this as a viable option in public rest rooms? What are your thoughts in terms of advantages / disadvantages?
Source: Yeongwoo Kim via DVice