Romy Kange

According to future trend predictions, water will become one of the most valuable commodities by 2035. Flushing toilets that typically use seven gallons of water per flush, are therefore likely to become obsolete within the next couple of decades. Meanwhile, at least 1,780 public toilets have closed across the UK in the last decade. A freedom of information request revealed the extent of the need for new public toilet typologies that are environmentally responsible and use low to no freshwater. To make them free to access, they also need to be economically sustainable and generate revenue from an independent source.

In response to this data, this project aims to repurpose London’s former public toilets to make them energy and waste autonomous. Launching in 2021, the public toilet situated on 99 Commercial Street becomes the prototype for all the city’s lost public toilets. It uses human waste to fertilise selected, indigenous British tea plants (such as mint, lemongrass, bergamot and sage) that grow on the structure of the tea and toilet tower and in the adjacent churchyard for ease of harvesting. Visitors to the toilet tea tower are invited to use the penthouse toilet facilities, intended to elevate and celebrate the toilet as a significant, sustainable and social urban typology.