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 | | PROTOTYPE IS AN IDEAL STANDARD FOR THIRD WORLD SANITATION | | | Ideal Standard | | 09/07/2008 | | | HULL, UK – Ideal Standard International, a leading provider of innovative and design-driven bathroom solutions, today announced it’s sponsorship of the new Pachamama Toilet prototype, which is of an equal standard for use in some of Africa’s poorest regions.
Designed by Paticas Architecture, Ideal Standard is helping to raise awareness by sponsoring the revolutionary earth structure waterless toilet, which was unveiled to the general public at the bustling London Festival of Architecture ‘Explore Sites and Sounds’ event on Exhibition Road, SW7, on Saturday 21 June.
The striking yellow geometric and stress-balanced canvas structure comprises a series of bulging fabric envelopes and triangular wooden steps to provide an elevated screen for users to conduct their daily business with dignity – and to avoid contaminating the water.
Accordingly to research undertaken by UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund), a staggering 2.6 billion people in the world, about 40 per cent of the world’s population, currently lack adequate sanitation.
In response, Clive Minett, marketing director for Ideal Standard, says: “It’s rare to see a design of such architectural merit, which also has the ability to help millions of people. There’s still much work to be done in the third world, which is why we’re delighted to support this initiative, especially as 2008 is the International Year of Sanitation.”
The new prototype, which will be trialled in the shantytowns of Lima in Peru, is herald as much more than an architectural statement. It’s where art meets man head-on to provide a technological low, practical solution for some of the world’s most impoverished communities.
About the “Pachamama”
The Pachamama Toilet is a purposely low-tech solution to providing an on-site, waterless, composting sanitation system. Making the most of local skills and available materials, it is shown to be possible to create a desiccating earth closet enveloped by fabric.
Instead of working top-down from the premise of the western flushing toilet cistern, the methodology of the “Pachamama” is to create a design that works bottom-up. The aim is to improve the existing conditions of random excretion, which usually takes place at night, to create privacy and containment with the overall means of reducing endero-pathogenic diseases such as cholera. | |
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