Flushed with success

When designing any commercial space, be it a restaurant, hotel lobby, golf club or shopping mall, most guests will visit the restroom. Countless surveys have shown that if a customer is unimpressed by the toilets then 75% will not return to the restaurant/hotel again. So what constitutes a great public washroom? Is it simply an issue of cleanliness, or is it also about style and elegance?

A thoughtfully designed restroom tells the customer that the company cares; it is another opportunity for brand promotion, and it should be an extension of the main space. Many moody, atmospheric restaurants are ruined by overly bright, plain toilets that say clearly to the customer that so much inspiration and money went into the principal area, both were in short supply when it came to fitting out the accompanying bathrooms.

There are plenty of examples however, of designers that do inject a unique touch into the restrooms. How about Bar 89 in New York where transparent glass doors to the Unisex cubicles alarm even the most nonchalant of New Yorkers until the glass frosts as soon as the locks are turned? Or the toilet hidden behind a secret door embedded into a bookcase in the eerily-themed London Stone pub in the UK capital? For pure decadence, it's hard to beat the 3D Gold Store in Hong Kong where the toilet bowls, basins, wall tiles, doors, even the toilet brushes are solid gold with 6,200 diamonds, rubies, sapphires and pearls embedded into the ceiling.

The Philippe Starck designed male toilets in the Felix restaurant in Hong Kong's Peninsula Hotel are globally renowned for the bold positioning of the urinals directly in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows, towering high above downtown Kowloon.

Over the next four pages are two regional, and two international examples of public washrooms that showcase more thought and creativity than most.

Almaz

The flamboyant Moroccan-inspired interior of Almaz by Momo in Mall of the Emirates is echoed in the restaurant's restrooms where sultry black and gold are the dominant colours. Black mosaic tiles line the walls, mirroring the Arabesque ‘zellige' tiling in the restaurant, while bright gold basins, faucets and showerheads provide a dramatic contrast. Eccentric additions to the restroom design include golden swan faucets that were chosen to add humour. The bathrooms were designed by Beirut-based interior designer, Annabel Karim Kassar along with restaurateur Mourad ‘Momo' Mazouz, best known for his London restaurants, Sketch and Momo.