Tokinokura Lavatories Shimodate / Shuichiro Yoshida Architects

Here’s  a kind of project we don’t frequently see a lot of…a public bathroom facility.   Shuichiro Yoshida, a based architect, designed housed on less than 9m2 of ground space in Chikusei City.   The site is a historic storage building, (one of the few still standing after the WWII), and a volunteer group obtained the ownership of  the building to use as their activity base for “discovering the region-specific historical and cultural heritages.”  Yoshia was asked to add for visitors and staff (as there are none within the building).   Faced with such a small area of land to provide facilities for both men and women, the bathrooms are, in fact, an elegant addition to the main building.  Due to the small footprint, the bathrooms maintain an open feeling because they are open to a high ceiling with exposed timber supports.   The are seen as a way to not only preserve the region-specific landscape but also to create new landscape for the future.   The exterior is clad in elastic plasterer finish while the interior walls are finished in a white material known as “Shikkui” which has humid conditioning and fire prevention.

More images after the break.

As seen on Weheart.

Cite: Cilento , Karen. "Tokinokura Lavatories Shimodate / Shuichiro Yoshida Architects" 01 Mar 2010. ArchDaily. Accessed 21 May 2013. <http://www.archdaily.com/51428>

7 comments

  1. Thumb up Thumb down 0

    love it!
    any drawings?
    although it’s fairly easy to figure out from the pics…
    ;-)
    i wish the exterior and interior cladding went closer to the ground though. it looks very awkward at the door junction.

  2. Thumb up Thumb down 0

    Nice project! It is not a copy of samething, what we could see before. It is real invention. Real creativity! This kind of architecture very clouse to my point of view for architecture.

  3. Thumb up Thumb down 0

    and if desired, you and a ‘very’ close friend can sit with the doors open and gaze long-fully at each other from across the room.

    at first i didn’t see the stall doors and thought of SNL’s parody commercial for The Love Toilet.

  4. Thumb up Thumb down 0

    Very nice coheseve details! beautiful!
    It’s great that someone actually pays attention to projects like that.

  5. Thumb up Thumb down 0

    arch daily is the one to congratulate for publishing such a small architectural project. it is simply beautiful specially at night.

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