Tokyo enlists 16 world architects to reimagine the public toilet

Sixteen renowned architects—including Sou Fujimoto, Kengo Kuma, and Marc Newsom—gathered in Tokyo's Shibuya district with an unusual brief: make people want to use the bathroom.

The Tokyo Toilet project sounds like a joke until you see the results. Across 17 locations in Shibuya, these designers have created public restrooms that feel less like functional necessities and more like small galleries. One has a transparent glass exterior that floods with light. Another features sculptural sinks and curves that soften the institutional feel most of us associate with public facilities.

The idea came from Koji Yanai, who recognized something often overlooked in urban design: a public toilet is where everyone is equal, regardless of wealth or status. In Japan, where hospitality and attention to detail shape everything from train stations to convenience stores, the bathroom became an obvious place to apply that same philosophy. As architect Tadao Ando put it, "Beauty and cleanliness go hand in hand." It's a simple observation that most cities have ignored for decades.

The project gained unexpected cultural weight when filmmaker Wim Wenders directed "Perfect Days" in 2023—an Oscar-nominated film centered on a janitor maintaining these very toilets. The film treats the work with genuine dignity, following one man's quiet mastery of his craft. It's the kind of story that only works if the toilets themselves are worth caring about.

Why this matters beyond Shibuya

Public restrooms are infrastructure's blind spot. Cities spend billions on parks and plazas while bathrooms remain an afterthought—cramped, dingy, avoided. Yet they're used by everyone: tourists, elderly people, parents with children, people experiencing homelessness. A well-designed toilet is genuinely accessible design in its most democratic form.

The Tokyo approach is spreading. In the United States, Bear Head Lake State Park in Minnesota and a Maverick gas station in Salt Lake City have both won recognition for rethinking restroom design, proving this isn't uniquely Japanese. What Tokyo did was elevate it from "clean and functional" to "clean, functional, and worth experiencing."

Canadian photographer Ulana Switucha captured these spaces so compellingly that her images won a Sony World Photography Award—turning bathroom design into something worth looking at, not just using. That shift in perception matters. When cities see public toilets as opportunities for design rather than grudging obligations, the entire experience of being in public space improves.

As more architects and cities notice what's happening in Shibuya, the question isn't whether beautiful public bathrooms are possible. It's why we waited this long to try.