CIRCULAR FLOWS

It is one of the most pressing environmental issues of our time: the contamination of our water bodies with nitrogen. With the Urine-Trap, the Viennese design studio EOOS has developed the revolutionary prototype of a toilet for urine separation which offers a systemic design solution in the battle against the mostly disregarded global nitrogen problem.

In March 2019, the Urine-Trap, developed in cooperation with LAUFEN, was presented at the XXII. Triennale di Milano 2019 Broken Nature: Design Takes on Human Survival, embedded into a multimedia installation (with Process Studio) illustrating the ecological interplay of coastal waters, wastewater systems, and agriculture. The installation by EOOS, now exhibited at the MAK FORUM, shows how a toilet with urine separation can contribute to repairing the precious nitrogen cycle and, consequently, to protecting the ecological boundaries of our planet.

The foundation of the project was developed over years in research conducted by Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology of the ETH Domain, for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. EOOS was responsible for the design of the Urine-Trap. As an award-winning design studio working at an international level, for example, with brands such as Adidas, Armani, bulthaup, Walter Knoll, LAUFEN, Herman Miller, or Zumtobel, EOOS has also been dedicated to projects in the fields of social and sustainable design for several years—most recently at the biennale for architecture in Venice in 2016 or at the VIENNA BIENNALE 2017. The contribution to the XXII. Triennale di Milano 2019 was commissioned by the MAK and financed by the Austrian Federal Chancellery.

MAK DESIGN NITE

CIRCULAR FLOWS: The Toilet Revolution!
Tue, 1 October 2019, 7 p.m.–10 p.m.
More >>