We are all connected. Sometimes in ways that might not even occur to us. As Buckminster Fuller said, the average house is “a decorated nozzle on the end of a sewer”. Not only are we connected by the universal condition of needing to use the toilet, but the toilet plumbing itself connects us.

In public toilets this connection is made all too clear, they present an uneasy combination of the deeply private with the radically public. Making these places dignified and safe is essential to making these awkward connections bearable, this is the core challenge of everyone involved in creating public toilets: commissioner, planner, contractor or architect.

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