Public Toilet in the Middle of a Garden

(Photo: Iwan Baan)

Sou Fujimoto, a Japanese architectural firm, previously designed a transparent house and one shaped like a Jenga tower. Recently, it designed a public access toilet that sits in a glass chamber in the middle of a beautiful garden in Ichihara, Chiba, Japan. And this isn’t one of those toilet stalls with glass that is transparent only until you flick a switch. That’s regular see-through glass. Your business is out in the open in the midst of this 200 square meter garden.

There’s a 2-meter tall wooden log wall surrounding the garden, so users aren’t completely exposed. But the openness of the glass room gives the impression of being both in a public space and a private space at the same time.