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CBC
2 days ago
- General
- CBC
Hamilton architects' design, showing public washrooms can be essential and 'beautiful,' wins contest
Two Hamilton architects are hoping to change the way cities think about public toilets — and they've just won a Toronto design competition for doing it. Alea Reid and Petra Matar of Design Partners in Architecture and Interiors (DPAI Architecture) won first place in To the Loo!, a competition challenging designers to reimagine public washrooms as safe, inclusive and sustainable infrastructure. Their concept, Mycomorph, is on display at 401 Richmond Street in Toronto throughout the summer. Inspired by the way mushrooms grow — "clustered, resilient, and adaptable" — Mycomorph uses modular pods that can be installed as single units on a street corner or grouped together in a park. The design has curved walls for open sightlines, green roofs that collect rainwater for flushing the toilets, biodiverse concrete panels with seasonal moss and an interior concrete finish that can be hosed down for easier cleaning. It also features a built-in sound and art system, which can play music, community stories, or commissioned works, providing both a platform for local artists and a measure of auditory privacy for users. "If you put nice things in public spaces, people will treat them better," said Matar. "This is about safety, dignity, and creating a space people actually want to be around." Reid says Hamilton — like many Canadian cities — has significant gaps in public washroom access. "Our biggest parks, like Bayfront and Gage, don't have enough facilities for the number of people using them," she said. "And without that access, even our most public spaces aren't truly public." Designers out to end the 'stigma around public washrooms' Hamilton Ward 2 councillor Cameron Kroetsch says he agrees. "We really haven't invested enough in our downtown as a city. We haven't kept up with the amenities that people expect," he told CBC Hamilton. Kroetsch said he hears from his constituents the number of bathrooms and public fountains has decreased over the past 25 years. "What's happened is that our downtown has grown and become much more dense, and we have many more people living here [now]. But we haven't kept up," he said. Kroetsch said he supports not only better access to public bathrooms but also other needs like garbage cans and drinking fountains. He said these are "important to give people a sense of place" and pride. He said he's been working with staff towards placing a new public bathroom somewhere in his ward using funding already in the budget. Staff will also have to explore how to make the facility feel safe and comfortable for all, said Kroetsch. "Then, hopefully, [we'll] be able to bring something to the budget process to get ... a pilot location to try doing this downtown again. It's been long overdue," he said. "Ultimately, the goal is to get some washrooms back in Gore Park at some point, not the same underground ones that got buried... but to bring washrooms back there because, of course, it's a central part of our city." As for Reid and Matar, they hope that winning To the Loo! will spark interest from municipalities and manufacturers to bring Mycomorph from concept to reality. "This isn't about building one or two pods," Matar said. "It's about scale — creating something cost-effective enough to roll out across a city, or even across the country." For now, they say winning this competition is a chance to spark conversation and challenge assumptions.
CTV News
06-08-2025
- General
- CTV News
Winning loo design showcases the need for inclusive, sustainable toilets in Toronto
A digital rendering of the winning loo, designed by Design Partners in Architecture and Interiors (DPAI/Handout) Two Hamilton-based architects are the winners of a public toilet design competition that aims to highlight the importance of inclusive, accessible, and sustainable restrooms. Alea Reid and Petra Matar took the top spot in the TO the Loo Toronto toilet design challenge, which is meant to raise awareness about the need for a 'robust pubic washroom network' in the city. The Toronto Public Space Committee, which runs the global ideas contest, has been closely monitoring and researching the city's public washroom facilities since 2021, when many were shuttered or left in disrepair due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Cara Chellew, the committee's co-ordinator, said lockdown really brought to light how important public washrooms are for many demographics, especially more vulnerable populations. 'There's a lot of folks that are acutely affected by a lack of consistent, predictable washroom network,' she told CTV News Toronto. 'People with disabilities, people with chronic illness, Crohn's and colitis, older people, people with young kids, delivery drivers, and gig workers that became a huge workforce over the pandemic.' When many private establishments, like coffee shops and department stores, shut down during the pandemic, it meant there were even fewer places where people could use the restroom. But Chellew pointed out that even when there are washrooms available at private establishments, some demographics might not be welcomed to use them. 'If you're unhoused or even racialized folks, you can be refused washroom access,' she said. This further amplified the reality that many in Toronto have long relied on the city to supply this type of infrastructure. The competition asked contributors to submit designs that considered spatial justice, accessibility, sustainability, and cultural inclusion into a multi-user washroom hub and single-user washroom, which could be adaptable to different locations throughout the city. Floor plan Rendering of floor plan for winning loo. (Handout) Matar and Reid, who both have experience designing public washrooms, said they were drawn to the competition because they wanted to push the envelope and think outside the box. 'We know that creating something that is useful and beautiful can become financially challenging for municipalities,' Matar said. 'So our idea was to create something that is scalar and modular, by creating those little pods.' The duo considered how to create cost-effective toilets, opting to make them entirely out of concrete, including an interior finish with an epoxy coating that could easily be hosed down. They also made the space welcoming and safe, incorporating natural elements like green roofs and biodiverse panels and including curved surfaces to help open up sight lines, eliminating areas for people to hide in, and making it more beneficial for those who are neurodiverse. The facilities also include sound art in the corridor area to provide auditorial privacy for people using the washroom as well as a platform for people to share art, whether that's music or stories. 'We can kind of push it to go beyond it just being this functional use and actually be something that people enjoy being around,' Reid said. While the intention of the competition was to raise awareness around the importance of these types of facilities, and not to build the winning design, Toronto city council adopted a motion in March that will take a closer look at the city's washroom facilities and future potential designs.
