Public toilets of a new type were put in place a short while ago in a Tokyo park, which are compartments surrounded by transparent facades that show what is inside.
When no one is inside, these compartments are pink for women, purple for men, and yellow for everyone, with the possibility of changing diapers in them and their fronts covered with duct tape with electric current to make them transparent.
But when someone enters it, closing the door cuts the electrical current, so the interface is no longer transparent, and the user maintains his privacy.
These experimental toilets were built at the request of the Japanese non-governmental organization "Nippon Foundation", with the aim of renovating public toilets in the capital.
It was designed by the famous Japanese engineer Shigeru Ban, who wanted this transparent model to provide a solution to two common problems in public toilets.
Making the toilets transparent not only reflects their cleanliness, but also reassures the user "from a security standpoint and shows him that no one is hiding inside," said Kanna Saji, spokeswoman for Nippon Foundation, noting that "the project has been accepted on this basis." .
Residents of Tokyo´s well-known Shibuya region seem to favor this initiative. "The public toilets are often dark and dirty, so I appreciate the cleanliness of the site," said Rey Maeda, 41.
16 engineers, including well-known architects, are expected to design innovative toilets as part of the project, with their facilities located across Shibuya by the summer of 2021.
