#2 Transparent toilet

Lausanne, Switzerland

Designer: Olivier Rambert; Oloom

Location: 'Quartier du Flon' Lausanne, Switzerland

This transparent toilet in Switzerland is one of the more nerve-wracking of its kind. Not just a two-way glass structure, this particular design has been created with LCD Privacy Glass whereby the walls only turn opaque upon locking the door.

This process works by electricity traveling through the glass when transparent and none going through when opaque.

Compare the opaque glass when locked versus the transparent glass only when unlocked

The designer, Olivier Rambert of Oloom, designed the toilet as a social experiment and it tests the courage of users, winning the RSA competition in 2002 for the project 'Toilet with a View'. Since proposing the project, an opportunity arose to create the first toilet a year later.

Rambert has created a second transparent toilet featuring 10 in a row. This is located in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 'Ouchy harbour' by a lake.

Both public toilets also include a special feature that caters to the safety of users in the case of drug overdose where they may fall unconscious.

'If someone falls unconscious and they don't move for 10 minutes, the door will open and the toilet will become transparent [so they can be helped],' said Rambert.

Image credit: Olivier Wavre

All images courtesy Daniela Tonatiuh unless specified